All three chief judges were present, along with a large contingent of scholars from the four legal schools and others besides, in the presence of the Syrian deputy, Sayf al-Dīn Mankalī. Two diametrically opposed reports had already been drafted—one for him and the other against him.

Deliberations continued into the following month, during which Ibn Kathīr was in attendance, and the affair concluded in an amicable settlement in keeping with the Almighty’s words: “Allah has pardoned what is past” (al-Mā’idah 5:95).

Meeting with the Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid
Ibn Kathīr writes in al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah (16/367) under the events of 753 AH:
“On Saturday, the tenth of Shaʿbān, we met the Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Llāh, Abū ’l-Fath, son of Abū Bakr al-Mustaʿkfi bi-Llāh, Abū ’l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān, son of al-Ḥākim bi-Amrillāh, Abū ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad. We greeted him while he was residing in the Dīmāghiyyah school inside Bāb al-Faraj. I then read to him a portion of the Musnad in which Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal transmits from Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī. The chain reached me through Shaykh ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Ḥamawī, who had heard it from Ibn al-Bukhārī, and through Zaynab bint Makī from Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, from Ibn al-Madhhab, from Abū Bakr ibn Mālik, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, from his father—he mentioned them both. The Caliph proved to be a handsome young man, eloquent, humble, quick of understanding, and graceful in expression. May Allah have mercy on his forebears.”

His objection to the sultanic order to harass the Christians of Syria
A decree had been issued allowing the deputy to seize a quarter of the Christians’ wealth to repair the damage done to Alexandria and to build ships for war against the Franks. Consequently, the Christians were humiliated, dragged violently from their homes, fearful for their lives, and ignorant of what was intended; they fled in every direction.

Ibn Kathīr goes on, recording this incident in al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah (16/460) for the year 767 AH:
“I was summoned on Saturday, the sixteenth of Ṣafar, to the Green Field to meet the deputy of the sultanate, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Mankalī Bughā. Our meeting took place after ʿAṣr, once the polo game had finished. I found him most congenial, sound in judgment and understanding, articulate, and generous in conversation. I told him that it was impermissible to impose this measure on the Christians. He said, ‘Some jurists in Egypt issued a fatwa to the grand emir permitting it.’ I replied, ‘Such a ruling has no basis in the Sacred Law, nor may anyone issue it. As long as they remain under our covenant, paying the jizyah to us in humility and subservience in accordance with Allah’s rulings, not a single extra dirham may be taken from them beyond the jizyah they already pay.’”

He continued to marshal proofs and proposed the better course of launching an expedition against Cyprus. He eventually convinced the deputy, who wrote to Cairo; the reply that came back endorsed Ibn Kathīr’s proposal.

His attendance at the execution of the heretic ʿUthmān al-Dakkālī:
Ibn Kathīr states in al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah (16/294)