in al-Karak, and reprehensible deeds took place. After that the army turned back toward their own lands without having achieved their goal, for the biting cold and the shortage of supplies had worn them down. They had maintained a fierce siege to no avail, for the town can only be taken with prolonged reinforcements⦗6⦘ and mangonels. It is difficult for the troops to remain there during the Kanūn months (December–January), and the mangonel they had brought with them was broken, so they withdrew to prepare anew.
On Wednesday, the twenty-fifth of the month, Judge Badr al-Dīn Ibn Faḍl Allah arrived by courier from Egypt to serve as kātib al-sirr (Secretary of the Privy Chancery) in place of his brother, Judge Shihāb al-Dīn. He carried a writ ordering the sequestration of the holdings of his brother Shihāb al-Dīn⦗7⦘ and of the muḥtasib, Judge ʿImād al-Dīn Ibn al-Shīrāzī. Their assets were therefore impounded, the womenfolk were evicted from their houses, planks were nailed across the doors, and the muḥtasib was confined in the ʿAdhrāwiyyah. He requested to be transferred to the Ashrafiyyah ḥadith college, and his request was granted. Judge Shihāb al-Dīn, meanwhile, had set out to meet Emir Sayf al-Dīn Ṭaqzdamur⦗8⦘ al-Ḥamawī, whose commission as deputy of Syria had been issued in Damascus while he was still in Aleppo. The order reached him en route, so he was commanded to return that he and the muḥtasib might be put under investigation, though no one knew what offense either of them had committed.
On Sunday, the eighth of Rajab, late in the day, the Chief Judge Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī returned to Damascus to resume the judiciary, bearing also an appointment to the pulpit. The people went out to greet him warmly.⦗9⦘
After the ʿAṣr prayer on Wednesday, the fifteenth of the month, the deputy of the sultanate, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Ṭuquzdamur al-Ḥamawī, entered Aleppo. The emirs met him on the road to al-Qābūn; the populace invoked abundant prayers for him and loved him, for they detested the previous deputy, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Aydaghmush—may Allah pardon him. He lodged in the Dār al-Saʿādah and attended the official parade on Monday morning. A group of commoners gathered and begged him not to dismiss their preacher, Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Ibn Jalāl al-Dīn, but he paid them no heed. Instead he invested Judge Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī with the pulpit, and the judge donned the robe of investiture. When the masses heard of Ibn Jalāl’s removal they raised an uproar, gathering in circles after the prayers and rejoicing loudly, yet al-Subkī still had not ascended the pulpit. Popular gossip spread far and wide, and they threatened al-Subkī with coarse behavior should he dare preach; this distressed him greatly. They were warned but would not desist.
It was said to them, and to many others, “It is obligatory for you to hear and obey those in authority over you, even if an Abyssinian slave is set over you.” Still they paid no heed. When Friday, the twentieth of the month, arrived, a rumor circulated among the populace that the judge had yielded the pulpit to Ibn Jalāl. The common folk rejoiced at this and flocked to the great mosque,