except that they had placed a number of well-to-do foot-soldiers under precautionary custody so that they might purchase from them certain holdings belonging to the Sultan’s private estate (1), while Burhān ibn Bishārah al-Ḥanafī was likewise under sequestration and punishment on account of the money he was said to have found in a hidden cache—Allah knows best.

On Friday the twenty-fourth of the same month, after the congregational prayer, the six emirs who had set out for al-Karak to invite the Sultan to come to Damascus arrived back in the city. The Sultan had declined to come that month, promising another time instead, so they returned, and al-Fakhri went out to meet them. They gathered to the south of the al-Qubaybāt al-Karimī Mosque and then entered Damascus accompanied by a large body of Turkish emirs and troops, wearing somber faces because the Sultan—may Allah support him—had not come.

On Sunday a courier followed after Qumārī and the other emirs, summoning them to al-Karak. Word spread that the Sultan had seen the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, in a dream commanding him to descend from al-Karak and accept the kingdom, and the people were heartened by the report.

Shaykh ʿUmar (2) ibn Abī Bakr ibn al-Mīhniyy al-Basṭī (3) passed away on Wednesday the twenty-ninth. He was a pious man, devoted to recitation, prayer, charity, and attendance at gatherings of remembrance and hadith. He was resolute in dealing with the mendicants who feigned piety yet were not truly among the righteous. He heard hadith from Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn Ibn al-Bukhārī and others, and I read to him, on Ibn al-Bukhārī’s authority, the abridgement of the Mashyakha. He kept close company with Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) and benefited from him. He was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery.

In the noble month of Ramadan, whose first day that year fell on a Friday, it was proclaimed in the army that the departure to meet the Sultan would be on the seventh of the month. This was then postponed until after the tenth, and a letter from the Sultan subsequently deferred it again until after the ʿĪd.

On the tenth of the month, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ibn Taqī al-Dīn al-Ḥanafī arrived bearing from Sultan al-Nāṣir a decree appointing him supervisor of the Nūrī hospital, shaykh of al-Rabwa, and stipendiary of the royal endowments. Before him the judge Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn al-Bārizī had come with the judgeship of Homs from the Sultan—may Allah assist him. The people rejoiced, for the Sultan had now spoken in matters of state: he had taken up the reins of authority, commanded, appointed, and endorsed—praise be to Allah.

On Wednesday the thirteenth, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Ṭashtamur, called Ḥimṣ al-Akhdar, entered the protected city of Damascus from the lands of Aleppo. Al-Fakhri, together with the emirs and the entire army, went out to receive him. He entered with impressive pomp; the people prayed for him and were glad of his arrival after his wanderings and his flight from Altunbughā when the latter pursued him to Aleppo, as mentioned earlier (4).

On Thursday the fourteenth, the armies set out from Damascus bound for Gaza to await the Sultan whenever he should depart.