The caliph for whom public prayers were offered was al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Amr Allāh, and the viceroy of the Egyptian dominions was Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Qublāy.

The Egyptian judges were the same as those named the year before, while the vizier was the judge Ibn Zambūr. Because the sultan just mentioned was still a minor, state business was conducted only with the counsel of certain leading notables, foremost among them three figures: Sayf al-Dīn Shaykhūn, Ṭāz⦗1⦘, and Sarghitmush⦗2⦘.

Deputy of Damascus was Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Arghūn al-Kāmilī, its judges likewise being those cited the previous year. Deputy of Aleppo was Sayf al-Dīn Baybughā Urus⦗3⦘; deputy of Tripoli, Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Baklamush; and deputy of Ḥamāh, Amīr Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Mashad al-Sharbankhānah⦗4⦘.

Some pilgrims reached Damascus on the ninth of the month—a rare occurrence—and they reported the death of the muʾadhdhin Shams al-Dīn ibn Saʿīd⦗5⦘ after the stage of al-ʿUlā⦗6⦘, in the Tanneries.

On the night of Monday, the sixteenth of Ṣafar this year, a great fire erupted by Bab Jayrūn on its eastern side. The large, ornamented cap-maker’s shop and the surrounding stalls were consumed, and the blaze spread fearsomely until it touched the Yellow Gate of bronze. The mosque administration hurried over, scraped off what bronze plating they could, and removed it that same day to the Treasury of Revenues in the Ḥalabīya enclosure at the Mashhad of ʿAlī. They then set upon the gate itself, hacking its timbers with sharp axes and mighty arms. The wood proved to be pine of exceptional strength and durability. The townspeople grieved over its loss, for it had been among the city’s loveliest sights and most recognizable landmarks—and it had stood for more than four thousand years. The account ends here; Allah knows best.

An account of Bab Jayrūn, the famed gate of Damascus⦗7⦘, whose ruin, disappearance, and demolition took place in this year. It is the eastern gate of the Great Mosque of Damascus, and no gate broader than it has ever been seen