Only one early contemporary, Ibn al-Qalanisi, recorded that on the eve of Sunday, 4 Latter Jumada (14 July), repeated earthquake shocks struck Damascus. Reports soon arrived from the north that the tremors had been felt in Aleppo and Homs with such violence that the inhabitants were terrified and distressed, and that several places — including Hama, Kafartab, and Apamea — had been destroyed. Centuries later, as-Suyūṭī wrote that "in A.H. 552 (February 13, 1157 / February 1, 1158), a "very violent" earthquake occurred in al-Shām. He remarked that only God knew the true number of victims and that the disaster affected a great part of the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Shaizar, Homs, Kafartab, Hisn al-Akrad, Latakia, al-Ma‘arra, Antioch, and Tripoli".