and to take possession of it (1), promising him the viceregency of the city. Yet once he had expelled the Tatars, driven them out, and the Muslims had entered and taken control, he appointed someone else over Aleppo—ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, the son of the lord of Mosul (2). This became the source of the rift between the two men and quickly led to the slaying of al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Quṭuz; to Allah belongs the command before and after.
When al-Muẓaffar had concluded his affairs in Syria, he resolved to return to Egypt. He installed (3) over Damascus the emir ʿAlam al-Dīn Sanjar al-Ḥalabī al-Kabīr and the emir Mujīr al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Āqshutmur, dismissed the judge Ibn al-Zakī from the Damascene judiciary, and entrusted the post to Ibn Sanī al-Dawla. Then he withdrew (5) to the Egyptian domains with the Muslim armies in his service, while the eyes of the notables watched him askance on account of the awe he inspired.
Account of the sultanate of al-Malik al-Ẓāhir (6) Baybars al-Bunduqdārī—“the raging lion.” When the sultan al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Quṭuz was on his way back to Egypt and reached the area between al-Ghurābī (7) (8) and al-Ṣāliḥiyya, the emirs rushed upon him and killed him there. He was a righteous man, constant in praying with the congregation, abstaining from intoxicants and from the pleasures in which kings ordinarily indulge (9). His reign, counted from the dismissal of his teacher’s son al-Manṣūr ʿAlī ibn al-Muʿizz al-Turkumānī to this moment—toward the end of Dhū al-Qaʿda—lasted roughly one year. May Allah have mercy on him and reward him with the best recompense on behalf of Islam and its people.
The emir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Bunduqdārī had already conspired with a group of emirs to kill him. When they reached that stopping-place, Quṭuz pitched his pavilion and set off in pursuit of a hare, the emirs riding with him. Rukn al-Dīn Baybars interceded with him (10) about a certain matter, and Quṭuz granted his request. Baybars then took the sultan’s hand to kiss it; he clasped it tight, and the emirs fell upon Quṭuz with their swords [striking him] (11), hurled him from his horse, and shot him with arrows until they killed him (12)—may Allah have mercy on him—after which they wheeled about and returned to