by both the elite and the masses. He would unfailingly spend the last ten nights of Ramadan in the Mihrab al-Ṣaḥāba, accompanied by several Qur’an-reciters who camped there and kept the night alive in worship. This year he spent the eve of the feast alone in that same mihrab, after which he fell ill for five days and died after midday on Tuesday, the tenth of Shawwal, in Darb al-ʿAmīd. The funeral prayer was held for him at the ʿAsr prayer in the Umayyad Mosque, and he was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery beside his father in their family plot. His funeral was large, and people grieved deeply for him—may Allah have mercy on him and shower his resting place with grace. He was close to sixty-five years of age and left behind a seven-year-old daughter named ʿĀʾisha, to whom he had taught some of the Qur’an up to Surah Tabārak and had made her memorize al-Arbaʿīn (al-Nawawī’s Forty Hadith). May her Lord console her and have mercy on her father. Āmīn.

On Thursday, the twelfth of the month, the Syrian maḥmal and the pilgrims set out, led by Emir ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn ʿAllām al-Dīn al-Hilālī, one of the Tablakhāna emirs.

Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Malṭī (1) died on Saturday, the fourteenth. He was known for his long residence in the Kalāsah of the Umayyad Mosque and owned many patched cloaks (ṭarārīḥ) and the usual paraphernalia of the poor dervishes. He dressed in the manner of the Harīriyya, and his appearance was unsettling. Some people regarded him as righteous, but I was among those who disliked him both by temperament and in accordance with the Law.

On Thursday, the twenty-fifth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah (2), couriers arrived from the east bringing pitchers of water from two springs there. A particular property of that water, it is said, is that a yellow-feathered bird called the samarmar, resembling a swallow, accompanies it; whenever locusts descend upon the town where this bird is found, it swiftly devours them so that the locusts soon either depart or are eaten. I have not witnessed this myself.

In mid-Dhu al-Ḥijjah the construction of the qaysariyya that had formerly been a workshop near Dār al-Ḥijārah—south of the men’s Sūq al-Dahsha—was completed. It was opened and leased as a splendid market for women’s textiles, all by order of the King of the Emirs, the supervisor of the venerable mosque—may Allah have mercy on him. Al-Ṣadr ʿIzz al-Dīn the money-changer, who oversees the mosque’s finances, informed me that nearly thirty thousand dirhams from the mosque’s funds were spent on it.

Removal of the tax on locally spun and imported cotton yarn (3):

At the end of this month a royal decree was issued abolishing the tax on both locally spun and imported cotton yarn. The proclamation was announced throughout the city; prayers abounded for those who had enacted it, and the Muslims rejoiced greatly—praise and gratitude belong to Allah.