In the month of Rajab the reports grew ever stronger that the Tatars intended to enter Greater Syria, and the people were thrown into great alarm. The preacher pronounced qunūt (supplicatory prayers) during the congregational prayers, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī was recited aloud, and people began al-jafal (a mass flight) ⦗1⦘ toward Egypt, to al-Karak, and to the mountain fortresses. When the Egyptian troops failed to arrive at their appointed time, the fear only increased.

In that same month of Rajab, Najm al-Dīn ibn Abī al-Ṭayyib assumed oversight of the Treasury in place of Amīn al-Dīn Sulaymān.

On Saturday, 3 Shaʿbān, Qāḍī Nāṣir al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Salām ⦗2⦘ took up the post of Shaykh al-Shuyūkh as successor to Ibn Jamāʿah; Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zarʿī ⦗3⦘ had been acting in that capacity until then.

On Saturday, 10 Shaʿbān, drums of glad tidings were beaten in the Citadel and at the gates of the emirs announcing that the Sultan had set out from Egypt with the armies to confront the abased Tatars ⦗4⦘.

That very day saw the engagement at ʿUrḍ ⦗5⦘. A group of Muslim commanders—among them Asandamir ⦗6⦘, Bahādur Āṣ ⦗7⦘, Kajkun, and Gharlū al-ʿĀdlī ⦗8⦘, each a sword from the swords of Islam ⦗9⦘—met the enemy with 1,500 cavalry, while the Tatars numbered 7,000 fighters ⦗10⦘. Battle was joined; the Muslims showed admirable steadfastness, and Allah granted them victory while humbling the Tatars. Many of the enemy were killed, others captured, and the rest fled in disorder. The Muslims seized considerable spoils and returned safely, losing only a few whom Allah honoured with martyrdom. An official bulletin reported the victory, and on Thursday, mid-Shaʿbān—Maundy Thursday for the Christians—the captives were brought in.

The Early Phase of the Battle of Shaqhab ⦗11⦘

On the eighteenth a contingent of the Egyptian army arrived, among them the amir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars.