and al-Ilbīrī (1), as well as the caravan’s qāḍī, Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn al-Majd ʿAbd Allāh, lecturer at the Iqbāliyya (2); he would later rise to the position of Chief Judge, as will be noted.

Among those who made the pilgrimage this year were Riḍā al-Dīn ibn al-Manṭiqī, al-Shams al-Ardabīlī, shaykh of the Jārūkhiyya, Ṣafī al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥarīrī, Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khaṭīb Yabrūd (3), Shaykh Muḥammad al-Nayrbānī, and others. When they had completed their rites they returned to Mecca for the Farewell Circumambulation. While they were listening to the sermon they suddenly heard the din of the horses of the Banū Ḥasan and their slaves, who had descended upon the people in the Sacred Mosque. The Turkish troops sprang to meet them and fighting broke out. An amir from the Egyptian drum-corps was killed—a man called Sayf al-Dīn Aydamur, amir jāmdār—together with his son Khalīl and his mamluk (4), and an amir of ten known as Ibn al-Tājī (5). A number of men and women were slain, much property was plundered, and great turmoil erupted in the mosque. The people fled to their lodgings in Abiyār al-Zāhir, scarcely reaching them, and the Friday prayer was not completed except with great difficulty. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we return.

All the emirs agreed to turn back to Mecca to exact vengeance, but when they wheeled around the slaves pursued them as far as the pilgrims’ encampment and nearly plundered the people openly. Thus, in these latter days, the very People of the House repel the believers from the Sacred Mosque, while the Turkish troops champion Islam and its people, warding off harm from them with their lives and wealth—just as the Exalted says: “Its only protectors are the God-fearing” (6) (al-Anfāl 34).

Among the notable figures who died this year were:

Alāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Athīr: the confidential secretary in Egypt, ʿAlī (7) ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Athīr, originally from Aleppo and later resident in Egypt. He enjoyed esteem, influence, great wealth, and high standing with the sultan until he was struck by paralysis late in life; he then withdrew from office, which Ibn Faḍl Allāh assumed while he was still alive.

The learned vizier Abū al-Qāsim: Muḥammad (8) ibn Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn Muḥammad (9) ibn Sahl al-Azdī al-Gharnāṭī al-Andalusī, from a distinguished and eminent family in the Maghrib, arrived in Damascus in Jumādā al-Ūlā of the year four—