al-Jashankir ⦗1⦘, together with the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn Lājīn, known as al-Istādār ⦗2⦘ al-Manṣūrī, and the amir Sayf al-Dīn Karāy al-Manṣūrī ⦗3⦘. After them another detachment arrived that included Badr al-Dīn, the amir of the armoury, and Aibak al-Khāzindār. Hearts were strengthened and many of the people felt reassured; yet the inhabitants of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and the surrounding districts were still in a state of sharp panic. The Aleppan and Hamawi troops fell back to Homs, but when they feared the Tatars would overtake them they pressed on and encamped in the Marj on Sunday, the fifth ⦗4⦘ of Shaʿbān.

The Tatars meanwhile reached Homs and Baalbek and wrought havoc there. The populace was seized by intense anxiety and dread, and the city was thrown into turmoil because the Sultan had not yet appeared with the rest of the army. People were saying, “The Syrian forces, even with these Egyptians, have no strength to face the Tatars on account of their numbers; the only course is to retreat from them stage by stage.” Frightening rumours spread.

Accordingly, on that same Sunday the emirs gathered in the parade ground, pledged one another to meet the enemy, and encouraged themselves. A proclamation went out through the city that no one was to depart; the people calmed down, and the judges took their seats in the Great Mosque, binding a number of jurists and commoners by oath to fight.

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah then set out to the forces that had come from Hama and met them at al-Qutayfah ⦗5⦘. He informed them of the pact the emirs and the populace had sworn to confront the enemy; they agreed and swore the oath along with them. Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn would declare to the emirs and the people, “In this encounter you will be victorious.” When the emirs said to him, “Say, ‘If Allah wills,’” he replied, “In shāʾ Allāh as a statement of certainty, not of mere contingency.” In support of this he cited several passages from the Book of Allah, among them: “Then surely—after he has been wronged—Allah will indeed aid him” (al-Ḥajj 60).

A discussion then arose as to the legal basis for fighting these Tatars: under which heading did it fall, since they profess Islam and could not be classed as rebels against the imam, never having been under his authority and then broken away? Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn said, “They are of the same ilk as the Khārijites who rose against ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah, claiming that they themselves were more entitled to rule. Likewise, these men maintain that they are more entitled than the rest of the Muslims to establish the truth, and they censure the Muslims for sins and injustices while they themselves are steeped in far greater wrongs many times over.” The scholars and the general public grasped the point.

He would also tell the people, “If you ever see me on that side with a Qur’an upon my head, kill me.” Thus the people took courage in fighting the Tatars; their hearts and intentions were fortified—praise be to Allah.

When the twenty-fourth of Shaʿbān arrived, the Syrian forces marched out and pitched their tents on the bridges from the direction of