The historian Shams al-Dīn—Muḥammad (1) ibn Ibrāhīm al-Jazarī (2)—compiled an extensive chronicle (3) in which he recorded many [commendable] (4) entries. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī, al-Dhahabī, and al-Barzālī derived benefit (5) from it; they would cite him and rely on his transmissions (6). He was an elderly shaykh, past eighty, whose hearing had grown weak and whose handwriting had become shaky. He was the father of Shaykh Naṣīr al-Dīn (7) Muḥammad, and his brother was Majd al-Dīn.
[Then the year 740 AH began]
The year opened with the Muslim sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir still in power, and with the same governors and judges as in the previous year—save for the Shāfiʿī post in Syria: al-Qazwīnī had died and the distinguished scholar al-Subkī took his place.
Among the immense and terrifying events that transpired was that a group of leading Christians met in their church, collected a large sum of money, and handed it to two monks who had arrived from the lands of the Rūm, both skilled in the preparation of naphtha. One was called Milānī and the other ʿĀzar. They fashioned incendiary pellets of naphtha and refined them so that their effect would not appear until four hours or more had passed. Late in the day, disguised in Muslim attire, they slipped these pellets into the crevices of several merchants’ stalls in the men’s market near al-Dahsha, so deftly that no one noticed.
In the middle of the night the townspeople realized—only when the flames were already devouring those stalls—that the fire had spread to the balustrades of the eastern minaret overlooking the market, and the balustrades were burned. The deputy of the sultanate, Tankiz, together with the emirs—commanders of thousands—arrived and climbed the minaret while it was ablaze, taking precautions to protect the congregational mosque so that it suffered no damage—praise and gratitude belong to Allah. As for the minaret, its stones burst apart, and the wooden scaffolding that supported the stairs was consumed; it was therefore demolished and rebuilt with new stone. This is the eastern minaret concerning which the hadith (8) states that Jesus son of Mary will descend upon it—as will be discussed in the section on his descent, peace be upon him, when the town is besieged by the Dajjāl.