The Friday preacher (khaṭīb), the steward of the Treasury (wakīl bayt al-māl), and the market inspector (muḥtasib) ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Anṣārī—who had resumed the post in the previous year—were all still in office, as was the chief chamberlain (ḥājib al-ḥujjāb) Qumāri (1), followed by al-Sulaymānī and another official who had likewise come from Egypt. The chief secretary (kātib al-sirr) was Qāḍī Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ḥalabī, while supervision of the Great Mosque lay with Qāḍī Taqī al-Dīn ibn Marājil. The Chief Judge, Tāj al-Dīn al-Shāfiʿī, informed me that at the opening of this year a Ḥanafī judge had been reinstated in the protected city of Ṣafad alongside the Shāfiʿī judge; thus each of Ḥamāh, Tripoli, and Ṣafad now has two judges, one Shāfiʿī and one Ḥanafī.
On the second of Muḥarram the deputy of the sultanate returned after an absence of roughly fifteen days. He had filled the district of Frīr with terror, seizing a number of their leading men and throwing them into prison. It was rumoured that he had set out against the Muwāsīn clans in the territory of ʿAjlūn. When I paid my respects to him I asked about this, and he told me that he had gone no farther than the environs of Frīr, that the clans had made peace among themselves, and that the expeditionary force was still stationed there.
He added, “Some Bedouin raided the protected womenfolk of the Turks. The Turks routed them, killing a great many. Then an Arab ambush appeared, so the Turks withdrew to Wādī Ṣarḥ, where they were hemmed in. The Bedouin finally broke and fled; none of the Turks were killed—only one emir was wounded—whereas more than fifty of the Arabs were slain.”
On Sunday, the twenty-second of Muḥarram, the pilgrims arrived, and the Sultan’s mahmal entered on the night of Monday after the ʿishāʾ prayer. No formal reception was held, contrary to custom, because of the intense cold the caravan had suffered on the return journey from Barīz to here; it was said that about one hundred of them died as a result—“Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.” They did, however, report abundant cheapness of goods and general security, as well as the death of Thaqbah (2), the brother of ʿAjlān, lord of Mecca. The people of those lands rejoiced at his passing, for he had oppressed his brother ʿAjlān, who rules them justly. And Allah knows best.
A most extraordinary dream: On the night of Monday, the twenty-second of Muḥarram in the year 763 AH, I saw in my sleep Shaykh Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Nawawī (3)—may Allah have mercy on him. I said to him, “O my master, why did you not include in your commentary on al-Muhadhdhab (4) anything from the works of …”