Towards the end of this month Emir Nasir al-Din Muḥammad (1), son of the dawādar Tankizī, passed away. He had once enjoyed great favor with his master and held an exalted position, attaining the very summit of worldly success in his office. Then Allah turned his master’s heart against him: he was beaten, his property was seized, he was dismissed and imprisoned, and his standing among the people collapsed. Matters reached the point that he would ride up to his former retainers on his own horse, buying from them and haggling with them, while carrying his personal needs in the saddle. He became a cautionary tale after having possessed every dignity, influence, wealth, and worldly eminence open to a dawādar. It is Allah’s immutable law that whatever of this world He elevates, He will inevitably abase.
On the morning of Sunday the seventeenth, the teacher al-Hilālī and his two sons were released; they had been confined in the Victorious Citadel. Their houses and holdings were restored to them, but the monies found in his residence—320,000 dirhams—were taken, and his deeds were sealed so that a formal council could be convened, allowing him to recover only his principal in keeping with the verse, “But if you repent, then you may have your principal; do not wrong, and you shall not be wronged” ⦗al-Baqara 2:279⦘. A proclamation rang through the city that this had been done to him because he paid no zakāt and dealt in ribā (usury); the Sultan’s chamberlain, the city governor, and the rest of the turbaned officials and heralds cried it aloud in every market and quarter.
On the twenty-eighth of the month a noble royal decree arrived authorizing the government clerks to return to their homes and families. The people rejoiced at their deliverance from the severe punishments and confiscations they had been under, though they were not reinstated in their posts.
Later in the month Shaykh Shihāb al-Din al-Maqdisī, the preacher, delivered a discourse; he had come from Egypt and spoke facing the Miḥrāb of the Companions. Crowds gathered, and the Shāfiʿī and Mālikī Chief Judges were in attendance. He interpreted verses of the Quran and hinted at Sufi insights in fluent, lucid, and delightful language that pierced the hearts, benefiting and excelling. He bade the people farewell upon his return home; when he supplicated, he urged the congregation to stand, and they rose while the prayer was offered. I met him in that session and found him of pleasing appearance, speech, and manners. May Allah set him and us aright—Āmīn.
At the beginning of Jumāda al-Ākhira Emir Sayf al-Din Baydamur, the deputy of Aleppo, set out with an army to raid the land of Sīs; may Allah grant him victory and support (2).
That same morning the people of the Citadel awoke to find that a band of Bedouin emirs had climbed down from the heights of their council chamber, lowering themselves by turbans and ropes into the moat. They waded across and emerged near the Bridge of al-Zalābiyya (3). Two escaped, while the third was captured