At the end of Shaʿbān the amir ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Jāwli, deputy governor of Gaza, was arrested and conveyed to Alexandria on suspicion that he intended to slip into Yemen (1). His personal effects and wealth were placed under sequestration. The man was renowned for his charity, benevolence, and endowments, and he had built in Gaza a fine and beautiful congregational mosque.

In that same month the Tatar ruler Abū Saʿīd poured out the wine and closed the taverns, displaying justice and kindness toward his subjects. This came about after they were struck by a severe cold and an overwhelming flood, whereupon they sought refuge in Allah, Mighty and Majestic, implored Him, were spared, repented, returned to Him, and thereafter engaged in good works.

During the first ten days of Shawwāl water began to flow through the Karīmī canal, which Karīm al-Dīn had purchased for forty-five thousand [dinars] and directed by a channel to his mosque at al-Qubaybāt. The people’s lives were revived by it and the inhabitants of that quarter found comfort in it; trees and orchards were planted along its banks. A large basin was built to the west of the mosque from which people and animals could drink; it was indeed spacious, and an ablutions facility was added. Through all this much benefit accrued and further ease—may Allah reward him.

The ḥajj caravan set out on the eleventh of Shawwāl under the command of al-Malik Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ibn al-Awḥad. Among its company were Zayn al-Dīn Katbughā, the chamberlain (2); Kamāl al-Dīn al-Zamlakānī; the judge Shams al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿIzz (3); the judge of Ḥamāh, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Bārizī (4); Quṭb al-Dīn, son of the Shaykh of Salamiyyah; Badr al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿAṭṭār; ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ibn Ghānim; and Nūr al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī, who served as the caravan’s qāḍī. From Egypt there came the Ḥanafī judge Ibn al-Ḥarīrī, the Ḥanbalī judge Majd al-Dīn Ḥarmī, and al-Sharaf ʿĪsā al-Mālikī, who also acted as a qāḍī of the caravan.

In the same month the construction of the bathhouse erected by Aljībughā (5), west of the Dār al-Maṭʿam, was completed and the public began to use it.

In the closing days of Dhū al-Ḥijjah the khawāja Majd al-Dīn Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn Yāqūt al-Salamī (6) arrived in Damascus from the Tatar sovereign, bearing gifts and presents for the ruler of Egypt from that monarch. Word spread that his true purpose was to reconcile the Muslims and the Tatars. The soldiers and state dignitaries went out to receive him; he lodged in the Dār al-Saʿādah for a single day and then continued on to Egypt.

That year the gathering on ʿArafāt was unprecedented, with pilgrims arriving from every quarter of the earth. From Iraq alone there came many ceremonial mahmal litters, one of which—on account of the gold and pearls adorning it—was valued at one million Egyptian dinars. Such a marvel is truly astonishing.