عربي إلى أنجليزي الفن/الأدب التاريخ

Hello,

First of all, I don't speak Arabic. I just came to read a comment on social media about a 15th century text involving the Mamluk Sultanate's practice of "Diwan al-Mazalim". In a Turkish book, there's a reference to a petition in the Diwan, in which the petition was declined and the petitioners were "beaten". But it doesn't make sense to me. If the petitioners were to be beaten, why would they be allowed to submit a petition at all? I found the source text in Arabic, which is "Kitāb al-sulūk li-maʻrifat duwal al-mulūk" by Al-Maqrizi. Here's the related excerpt.

وفيه قدم عدة من النصارى بالغربية؛ ووقفوا بدار العدل من القلعة للسلطان» وسألوا
إعادة كنيسة التحريرية التى هدمها العامة وعملوها مسجدًا. فلم يجابوا لذلك» وطردوا بعد
ضربهم» وكتب إلى متولى الناحية أن يعمل لهذا المسجد منارًا يؤذن فيه للصلوات الخمس؛
وتجدد عمارة المسجدء فامتثل ذلك.

(Volume 4, page 198).

I have it asked to a friend's friend, who speaks Arabic, but I am not satisfied with the answer. He says that it means "expelled after being beaten" and that the meaning is plain simple and does not contain any element open to interpretation. But I know that the word "dharaba" is a controversial one in specific cases.

Could it be "they were declined and sent away"? Considering the fact that the text is around 600 years old, I doubt the meaning would be crystal clear by today's spoken Arabic. Thank you.