During this same month it became common talk that a cow used to come from the direction of Bab al-Jabiyah and make her way to a litter of puppies whose mother had died. The puppies were living amid the ruins near the Church of Mary (1). The cow would approach them, lie down on her side, and let the puppies nurse from her, repeating this time after time. The reliable and pious lecturer in hadith, Nur al-Din Ahmad ibn al-Maqsūs, informed me that he personally witnessed the scene.

In the middle ten days of Jumada al-Akhirah a herald, acting on the orders of the deputy of the sultanate—may Allah protect him—proclaimed throughout the city that women were to walk about modestly, wearing their izars so that they hung lower than the rest of their garments, displaying neither adornment nor even a hand. The women obeyed, and praise and thanks belong to Allah.

The Emir of the Bedouin, Hiyār (2) ibn Muhanna, then arrived in formidable splendor. The deputy of the sultanate rode out partway along the road to receive him, for he was bound for the noble gates.

Toward the end of Rajab Emir Sayf al-Din Tamur (3) al-Muhimmandar came from the governorship of Gaza to take up the post of Chief Chamberlain in Damascus, leading the vanguard of the right wing.

The deputy of the sultanate abolished many taxes: the levy on hawks, the khazl-murdadan tax on Aleppo butter, the ṭabābī (4), and others. He put an end to the surcharge taken from the muḥtasibs beyond half a dirham, as well as the three-and-a-half dirhams charged for the funeral shroud and accessories of every deceased person. The funeral sets kept in the Qaysariyyah were declared a charitable endowment, freely available to anyone needing to wash a corpse—an excellent measure. Likewise he lifted the monopoly he had held on the sale of dates, selling thereafter like everyone else without privilege (5). Because of this, prices eased greatly that year; it was said that a quintal sold for ten units or thereabouts.

In Shaʿban (6) Emir Hiyār ibn Muhanna returned from Egypt, lodged in the Qasr al-Ablak, and was greeted with mutual honors by the deputy of the sultanate. After only a few days he departed once more. On the morning of Friday the seventh, the emirs who had been confined in the prison of Alexandria arrived. Among them were Emir Shihab al-Din ibn Sabah, Sayf al-Din Taydimur the ḥājib, Tunayraq (7)—a commander of a thousand—and ʿUmar Shah.