—known as al-Maqsati (1)—with the banners to the prayer-ground in the usual manner. He left Shaykh Majd al-Din al-Tunusi (2) to officiate in the city. When they reached the musalla they found its preacher already leading the prayer, so the standards were planted in the courtyard; Taqi al-Din al-Maqsati performed the prayer between them and then delivered the sermon. Ibn Hassan (3) did likewise inside the musalla, so that two prayers and two sermons were held there on that day—an occurrence, so far as we know, without precedent.

The Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir entered the Citadel of the Mountain on the last day of that year’s ‘Id al-Fitr. He ordered Salar (4) to set out for Shawbak (5) and appointed the emir Sayf al-Din Bakhtamur al-Jawkandar (6)—formerly deputy of Safad—as his lieutenant in Egypt, and in Syria the emir Qarasunqur al-Mansuri (7). That was on 20 Shawwal. Two days later (8) he invested al-Sahib Fakhr al-Din ibn al-Khalili with the vizierate.

Al-Qadi Fakhr al-Din (9), the royal chancery scribe, then assumed oversight of the armies in Egypt, succeeding Baha’ al-Din ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn al-Muzaffar al-Hilli (10), who had died on the night of Friday, 10 Shawwal. The latter had been among Egypt’s foremost notables (11) and had transmitted a number of hadiths.

Emir Jamal al-Din Aqush al-Afram was transferred to the vice-regency of Sarkhad, and Emir Zayn al-Din Katbugha, chief of the jamdariya guard, arrived in Damascus [on 20 Shawwal] (12) to assume the office of shadd al-dawawin (Controller of the Bureaux) and ustadhdar of the royal household in place of Sayf al-Din Aqbagha (13). The regime was shaken and underwent a momentous reversal.

Shaykh ‘Ilm al-Din al-Barzali said: When the sultan entered Egypt on the day of ‘Id al-Fitr he had no concern save to summon Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah from Alexandria with honor and distinction, showing him no niggardliness; so on the second (14) day of Shawwal he dispatched