His viceroy in Egypt was Emir Sayf al-Din Aqsunqur al-Sallari (1), and the judges were the same men whose names were recorded last year.

His viceroy in Damascus was Emir Sayf al-Din Tuquzdamur al-Hamawi; the judges there, too, were those previously mentioned, as were the ṣāḥib (civil administrator), the Friday preacher, the superintendent of the mosque and the treasury, the inspector of awqāf, and the governor of the city.

The year opened while the Egyptian and Syrian armies were encircling the fortress of al-Karak, laying a determined siege to it. A mangonel had been set up and many other siege engines were in place, and orders had been issued for an additional force from both Egypt and Syria to march out and join them.

On Thursday, the tenth of Ṣafar, the original detachment withdrew from al-Karak and entered Damascus, while the new force left in front of al-Karak numbered two thousand from Egypt and two thousand from Syria. The mangonel had been dismantled and laid down with the troops outside the fortress; operations came to a halt and the siege slackened (2) after al-Ahmadi returned to Egypt.

On Saturday, the second of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the noble sayyid and sharif ʿImad al-Din al-Khashshab (3) died in the kiosk on Darb al-Shayraji (4) beside the ʿIzzīyah Madrasa. His funeral prayer was held mid-morning in the Umayyad Mosque, and he was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery. He was a courageous man, devoted to worship and deeply attached to the sunnah and its people. He was among those who kept the company (5) of Shaykh Taqī al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—and benefited from him; indeed, he was one of the shaykh’s supporters in enjoining right and forbidding wrong. It was he whom Ibn Taymiyyah sent to Saydnaya (6) with a few priests; there he smeared his hand with filth, struck the piece of meat they venerate, and disdained it utterly, such was the strength of his faith and his bravery. May Allah have mercy on him and on us.

On Thursday, the seventh [of the month], the ṣāḥib, the supervisor of the dīwāns, the superintendent of the treasury, the inspector of awqāf, and the administrators of the mosque gathered, bringing with them laborers equipped with axes (7) and pickaxes. They began digging next to the column by the gate of the ʿAlī shrine, beneath the boulder that lay there, acting on the word of an ignorant fellow who claimed that treasure was buried at that spot. They consulted the deputy of the sultanate, who ordered the excavation. Crowds of townspeople assembled, but he ordered them cleared out and all the mosque doors shut so that the digging could proceed. They dug once, twice, and a third time, but found nothing except plain earth. The excavation became the talk of the city, and people flocked to it.