Renewal of a Second Friday Sermon (1) within the walls of Damascus since the conquest of Syria:

This took place on the third Friday, which was later established as the twenty-fourth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah of this year, in the mosque whose reconstruction was undertaken by the deputy of Syria, Sayf al-Din Mankuli Bughā, in Darb al-Bayyāʿah (2), south of the Darb al-Ḥajar Mosque, inside Bab Kaysān—the gate whose reopening at this very time has been mentioned above. Among the populace it is known as the Shahrazuri Mosque (3), while Ibn ʿAsakir’s History records it as Masjid al-Shahrazuri. The mosque had fallen into disrepair; ages had passed over it and it was largely abandoned, with only a few ever entering. The deputy widened it on the southern side, reroofed it, laid a paved northern courtyard, added arcades in the style of the great mosques, and installed doors at the entrances in the usual fashion. Inside these he built a spacious hall with eastern and western wings, supported by columns and arches. Long ago it had been a church, taken from its owners sometime before 500 AH and converted into a mosque, and so it remained until now.

When the work was finished as described, water was brought to it through conduits and a pre-owned minbar was set in place. On that day the viceroy mounted, entered the city through Bab Kaysān, turned through the Jewish quarter, and reached the aforementioned mosque, where a multitude had gathered—judges, dignitaries, elite and common folk alike. He had appointed Shaykh Ṣadr al-Din Ibn Manṣūr al-Hanafi, lecturer at the Najībiyya (4) and imam of the Hanafis in the Umayyad Mosque, to deliver the sermon. Yet when the first adhān was called he could not leave the preacher’s chamber—some said due to a sudden illness, others to a painful constriction or the like—so the chief judge, Jamāl al-Din (5) al-Hanafi al-Kafri, preached to the people that day in service to the viceroy.

The month of Dhu al-Ḥijjah began, and Allah lifted the plague from Damascus—praise and thanks are His. People now died at the normal rate; no one was stricken by that disease, only by the customary ailments. End.

[Then came the year 766 AH]

The year opened with Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Nāṣir al-Din Shaʿbān still reigning, and the administration of Egypt and Syria unchanged.

The sultanic mahmal returned on the morning of Monday, the twenty-fourth of that month. It was reported that on the homeward journey they suffered grievously from soaring prices, the death of camels, and the flight of the camel drivers. Among those who came back with the caravan were some who had set out from the Egyptian lands