al-Zaki assumed the judgeship, carrying with him his letter of appointment and a gilded robe of investiture. He put it on and took his seat in the retinue of Ibil Sinan beneath the Dome of the Eagle at the Great Gate, while the khātūn—the wife of Ibil Sinan—sat between them with her face unveiled. The warrant was read out there in that very state (1); and when Hulagu’s name was mentioned, gold and silver were scattered over the people’s heads (2). To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return. May Allah disgrace that judge, the emir, the wife, and the sultan (3).

Abu Shama (4) reports that during this short period Ibn al-Zaki seized (5) a large number of madrasas. Though removed before a full year had passed, he nevertheless managed to appropriate in that time the ‘Adrawiyya, the Sultaniyya, the Falakiyya, the Rukniyya, the Qaymariyya, and the ‘Aziziyya, in addition to the two he already held, the Taqawiyya and the ‘Aziziyya. He procured for his son ‘Isa the professorship of the Aminiyaa and the office of Shaykh al-Shuyūkh; he secured the Umm al-Ṣāliḥ for one of his companions, al-‘Imād al-Miṣrī; he took the Shāmiyya Barrāniyya (6) for another associate; and he appointed his maternal half-brother Shihāb al-Dīn Ismā‘il ibn As‘ad ibn Ḥabīsh as his deputy in the judiciary, granting him the Rawāḥiyya and the Shāmiyya Barrāniyya. Abu Shama (7) remarks that the founder’s stipulation was that these endowments not be combined with any other.

When Damascus and the surrounding regions returned to Muslim rule, Ibn al-Zaki strove to keep the judgeship, spending large sums so as to retain it and the madrasas already in his hands. Yet he did not succeed; instead he was deposed and replaced by the judge Najm al-Dīn (8) Abū Bakr ibn Ṣadr al-Dīn ibn Sanī al-Dawla. His diploma of appointment to the judiciary was read aloud after the Friday prayer on the twenty-first of Dhu al-Qa‘da by the Kāmilī lattice of the shrine of ‘Uthmān in the Great Mosque of Damascus.

When the victorious King Qutuz smashed the Tatar armies (9) at ‘Ayn Jālūt, he pursued them and entered Damascus in magnificent pomp. The people rejoiced over him greatly (10) and offered copious prayers for him. He confirmed al-Malik al-Ashraf in his rule over Homs, and likewise al-Mansur over Hama; he wrested Aleppo from Hulagu’s hand (11), restored rights to their rightful place, and strengthened the foundations. He had already dispatched ahead of him the emir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Bunduqdārī to drive the Tatars out of Aleppo.