On the tenth of Ṣafar, Jamāl al-Dīn Aqūsh al-Raḥabī assumed responsibility for auditing the dīwāns, replacing Fakhr al-Dīn Iyās. Aqūsh had been governor of Damascus since 707 AH, and in his place Emir ʿAlam al-Dīn Ṭaraqshī, resident of al-ʿUqaybah, was appointed. That same day a public proclamation called the people to fast in preparation for going out to perform the *istisqāʾ* (prayer for rain). The recitation of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī was begun, and the people readied themselves, supplicating after the formal prayers and sermons, beseeching Allah for rain. When Saturday, the middle of Ṣafar—corresponding to the 7th of Nīsān—arrived, the entire populace went out to the Mosque of al-Qadam. The deputy of the sultan and the emirs walked on foot, weeping and humbling themselves. A vast assembly gathered there, and Qāḍī Ṣadr al-Dīn Sulaymān al-Jaʿfarī (1) delivered the sermon while the people responded "āmīn" to his supplication. At daybreak on the following day, rain descended upon them by Allah’s permission [and by His mercy and kindness, not by their power nor their strength] (2). The people rejoiced greatly, and the rainfall spread over the whole land; all praise and favor belong to Allah [alone, without partner] (3). Toward the end of the month they began repairing the mosque’s marble, restoring it, polishing (4) its doors, and improving its interior. On the fourteenth of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, Ibn al-Shīrāzī (5) taught at the inner Nāṣiriyyah by royal decree, taking the chair (6) from Ibn Ṣaṣrā and holding it until his death. On Thursday, the sixteenth of Jumādā al-Awwal, Ibn Shaykh al-Salāmiyyah, Fakhr al-Dīn—the brother of the Inspector of the Army—assumed the office of *ḥisbah* (market supervision) in Damascus (7) in place of Ibn al-Ḥaddād, while Ibn al-Ḥaddād took over the supervision of the Great Mosque in exchange for Ibn Shaykh al-Salāmiyyah; robes of investiture were bestowed on both of them. At dawn on Tuesday, the 5th of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, Chief Judge Sharaf al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad, son of Chief Judge Muʿīn al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn al-Shaykh Zakī al-Dīn Ẓāfir al-Hamadhānī, a Mālikī, arrived in Damascus from Egypt to assume the Mālikī chief-judgeship in al-Shām, succeeding Ibn Salāmah, who had died [there was a six-month interval between them] (8). His commission, however, was dated at the end of Rabīʿ al-Awwal; he donned the robe of investiture, and his decree of appointment was read aloud in the Great Mosque (9).