Toward the close of the day the people went back to their homes after word arrived that the ships sighted at sea were merchantmen rather than men-of-war; their hearts were set at ease, though their readiness had been striking. Praise be to Allah.

On the night of Sunday, the 5th of Ṣafar, Emir Sayf al-Din Qashtamur (1)—who until very recently had been deputy of Aleppo—was brought under guard after the final night prayer to the Dār al-Saʿāda in Damascus. He was then dispatched, stripped of his office, to Tripoli as a private individual, conveyed in a sarjīn and accompanied by Emir ʿAlāʾ al-Din ibn Ṣubḥ.

News also reached us of the death of Shaykh Jamāl al-Din (2) ibn Nubāta, the standard-bearer of the poets of his age, in Egypt at the Maristan of Sultan al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn. This occurred on Tuesday, the 7th of Ṣafar of this year—may Allah Most High have mercy upon him.

On the night of the 8th, the inmates of the Sadd prison escaped; most of them got out. The authorities set out in pursuit the following morning, seized many of the fugitives, beat them severely, and returned them to an even worse confinement.

On Wednesday, the 15th of Ṣafar, a proclamation was issued throughout the towns forbidding all dealings with the Frankish Venetians, Genoese, and Catalans. Late that day I met Emir Zayn al-Din Zibāla, the acting deputy, resident in the Dār al-Dhahab. He informed me that al-Buraydī had told him that the ruler of Cyprus, having read in the stars that the island would be taken, had fitted out two ships with the Muslim captives in his possession and sent them to Yalbugha; he further proclaimed in his realm that whoever concealed a Muslim, young or old, would be put to death, and he meant to keep no prisoner but to release them all.

Later on that same Wednesday the 15th, the Chief Judge Jamāl al-Din al-Masallatī, the Mālikī—formerly Mālikī judge until his dismissal in late Ramaḍān of the previous year—arrived from Egypt. After his removal he performed the ḥajj, then returned to Egypt hoping for redress, but found no acceptance; one of the chamberlains brought a charge against him and he suffered distressing treatment. He then left for Syria, first taking up residence in the Kamiliyya mausoleum north of the mosque, and afterwards moving to his daughter’s house while ill. Summonses, claims, and settlements concerning him are exceedingly numerous (3). May Allah grant him a good outcome.

On Sunday, after the ʿaṣr prayer, Emir Sayf al-Din Ṭaybugha al-Ṭawīl arrived in Damascus from the Holy City of Jerusalem. He lodged in the Qasr al-Ablaq and, two or three days later, departed for the deputyship of Ḥamāh—may Allah protect it—under a commission from Egypt.