792 AH, after 13/07
The sultan then received a report from Aleppo that when amir Kumushbughā al-Ḥamawī, governor of Aleppo, had fled to that city after the return of al-Ẓāhir to Egypt, Minṭāsh had sent against hims from Damascus an army under command of amir Tumān Tamur al-ʾAshrafī; that on the arrival of the latter at Aleppo the inhabitants of Bānaqūsā had joined him in attacking Kumushbughā and besieging him in the citadel of Aleppo. The siege had continued four and a half months, the gate and bridge had been burned, and the citadel mined in three places. Kumushbughā, however, had countermined from on the top, down to one of these mines, and after shooting with catapults upon those within the mine had caught them up with iron grapnels. he had continued fighting from his countermine for more than seventy days by candlelight, never getting a glimpse of sun or moon, unable to tell day from night, and undergoing many hardships and trials. This continued until news of the flight of Minṭāsh from Aleppo reached Tumān Tamur; the latter’s positions then had become weakened, and the inhabitants of Bānaqūsā had risen against him and robbed him. The grand chamberlain of Aleppo had then carried this information to Kumushbughā, who had repaired the bridge in a single day, and descending to the city had fought the people of Bānaqūsā. The latter had established as their commander a man named ʾAḥmad Ibn al-Ḥarāmī, who was defeated by Kumushbughā on the third day and captured together with his brother and about 800 Turks, amirs, and inhabitants of Bānaqūsā. Kumushbughā had then put them all to death by halving them at the waist, and after plunedering Bānaqūsā of all its contents had destroyed and leveled it to the ground.
This letter contained also the report that Kumushbughā had exerted all efforts to fortify and restore the citadel of Aleppo, and had laid up supplies there sufficient for ten years. He had also collected from the inhabitants of Aleppo the sum of a million dirhams and restored the city walls, which had been in a state of ruin ever since their destruction by Hūlākū; they had now been provided with two gates by Kumushbughā and had likewise been greatly beautified. He had finished this work in about two months and a half, most of the people of the city having assisted in the rebuilding. During these events, the report stated, amirs Shihāb al-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn al-Mihmandār and Ṭughjī, governor of Dawrakī, had given Kumushbughā complete cooperation. I remark here that in the contest between Kumushbughā and the Aleppans about twenty thousand of the two parties were killed.