Hülegü swept through the land, so they pledged allegiance to Quṭuz as sultan and deposed al-Manṣūr at the end of 657 AH. When Quṭuz was killed and al-Ẓāhir took power, he exiled al-Muʿizz’s sons to al-Ashkarī, an island in the sea, and their days came to an end.

It happened that in 672 AH people saw a young man weeping at al-Muʿizz’s grave. He was brought before the sultan and stated that he was Qilij Qān, son of al-Muʿizz; that he had arrived from Constantinople six years earlier; and that he earned his living as an agent for the troops. The sultan imprisoned him, and he remained there for seven years, until al-Malik al-Manṣūr ordered his release. Long afterward—​in 739 AH—​I met him in the presence of the Chief Judge Taqī al-Dīn (1). I found him an able, soldierly shaykh, eloquent in speech and a memoriser of the Qur’an. He told me that he had a son who was himself over sixty years old.

He said, “I was born in 648 AH. My brother al-Manṣūr adopted Christianity in the land of al-Ashkarī and remained there until nearly 700 AH. He has Christian descendants—​we seek refuge in Allah from such a trial! He once sent me a letter signed, ‘Your brother Mikhā’īl ibn Aybak,’ but I never read it.

“For a time I wore the garb of a faqīr and attended al-Malik al-Ashraf. He asked me about Lājīn—​the one who later seized the sultanate—​and I replied, ‘He is my mamlūk.’ Al-Ashraf had him brought; Lājīn acknowledged to me that he was indeed my slave, so I sold him to al-Ashraf for 5,000 dirhams on the grounds that he was a runaway thief who had murdered his master.

“Through the bond of walāʾ I inherited a number of emirs from among my father’s mamlūks. My name is Qilij Qān; my honorific is Sayf al-Dīn.”