—all of it out of apprehension, for they had seen the six trebuchets standing atop the narrow summits of the citadel’s towers. The deputy of the sultanate then summoned the four chief judges together with all the emirs, and, with the Chancellor acting as scribe, they composed a letter declaring that they were loyal to the Sultan, hostile to Yalbugha, unwilling to accept him, and opposed to his meddling in the kingdom. The judges attested to their signatures, and the document was sent with a mamluk of Emir Ṭaybugha al-Ṭawīl (1), Yalbugha’s counterpart in Egypt.

Manjak, meanwhile, dispatched a message to the deputy of the sultanate urging him to come to al-Jishr so that they might confront the Egyptians. The Syrian deputy therefore detailed a contingent of troops to precede him: on the night of Saturday, 29 Shaʿbān, an expeditionary force of two thousand set out under Asandamur, formerly deputy of Syria, as reinforcements for Emir Manjak. People said that the deputy of the sultanate would follow after them with the remainder of the army. A second column of three thousand departed on the night of Tuesday, 8 Ramaḍān, as will be related.

The ḥadith-scholar and memoriser Shaykh ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Mughlāṭāy (2) of Egypt died there on Tuesday, 24 Shaʿbān of this year, and was buried the next day in al-Raydāniyya (3). He wrote prolifically, compiled and collected extensively, and possessed a large library—may Allah have mercy on him.

At the beginning of Ramaḍān a group of merchants was brought to the Dār al-ʿAdl outside Bāb al-Naṣr so that certain stocks of sugar-loaf, steel, and glass from Yalbugha’s (4) storehouses might be sold to them. They refused, fearing he might later reclaim the goods. Consequently some of them—including Shihāb al-Dīn ibn al-Ṣawwāf—were beaten in the presence of the ḥājib and the Supervisor of the Dīwāns, after which they were released the next day, and Allah thereby granted relief.

Another expedition left on the night of Tuesday after the night prayer, led by three commanders: first ʿIrāq (5), then Ibn Ṣubḥ (6), and then Ibn Ṭurghiya. On the morning of Wednesday, 10 Ramaḍān, the deputy of Tripoli, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Tūmān, entered Damascus. The Commander of the Emirs, Sayf al-Dīn Baydamur, rode out to al-Aqīṣir (7) to greet him, and they entered the city together with great pomp. Tūmān took up residence in the Qasr al-Ablaq, while the troops who had come with him encamped near Yalbugha’s Dome. All the while the citadel still bristled with trebuchets, was packed with heavy guards, and the deputy of the sultanate remained on the highest alert.