stood the Aleppo viceroy Altanbugha, and in their ranks was the viceroy of Tripoli, Shihab al-Din Qaratai (1).
From Iskandariya they pushed into Armenian territory, took the frontier fortress, then Tal Hamdan, and forded the Ceyhan River, where a number of men drowned before Allah spared the rest. Reaching Sis, they besieged the city, tightened the blockade, burned the royal palace, cut down the orchard trees, and drove off the cattle, buffalo, and sheep. They did the same to Tarsus, laying waste to villages and settlements and setting the crops ablaze. When they withdrew and recrossed the same river not a single man was lost.
After their return they expelled Muhanna and his sons from their lands, pursuing him as far as ʿAnah (2) and Hadithah (3). News then reached the army that the ruler of Sis had died and his son had taken the throne, so they renewed their raids upon those lands, one after another, seizing booty and captives—except on the fourth incursion, when several of their own were killed.
In this same year (4) a great battle was fought in the Maghrib between the Muslims and the Franks. Allah granted victory to the Muslims over their enemies: fifty thousand of the Franks were slain and five thousand taken prisoner. Among the dead were twenty-five of their kings. The spoils were immense; it is said that they included seventy qintars of gold and silver. The Muslim force that day numbered only 2,500 horsemen, not counting the archers, and only eleven Muslims fell. Such an event is among the most astonishing ever witnessed or heard (5).
On Thursday, the twenty-second of Rajab, a session was convened in Dar al-Saʿada for Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya in the presence of the Sultan’s deputy. The judges and jurists of the various schools assembled (6). The shaykh attended and was reproached for resuming legal opinions on the question of divorce; thereafter he was imprisoned in the Citadel [where he remained for five months and eighteen days, until a decree from the Sultan ordering his release arrived on Monday, the Day of ʿAshuraʾ, in the year 721 AH, as will be mentioned, if Allah Most High wills] (7).
Four days later the supervision (shadd) of the awqaf was added to Amir ʿAlaʾ al-Din ibn Saʿd (8) in addition to his governorship of al-Barr, and Badr al-Din al-Mankursi was relieved of that office (9).