that (1) al-Malik al-Saʿīd would relinquish the throne and, in compensation, receive al-Karak and al-Shawbak; that his brother Najm al-Dīn Khaḍr accompany him; that the realm pass to his younger brother (2) Badr al-Dīn Salamish; and that Emir Sayf al-Dīn Qalāwūn be appointed his atābak (guardian-regent).

The Abdication of al-Malik al-Saʿīd and the Investiture of his Brother al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Salamish

Once these terms had been agreed upon, Sultan al-Malik al-Saʿīd descended from the Citadel to the Dār al-ʿAdl on the seventeenth of the month (3) of Rabiʿ al-Akhir. The judges and leading men of state—those empowered to bind and loose—assembled there. Saʿīd then deposed himself from the sultanate and had them bear witness to his abdication. They pledged allegiance to his brother Badr al-Dīn Salamish, bestowing upon him the honorific al-Malik al-ʿĀdil; he was seven years old at the time. Emir Sayf al-Dīn Qalāwūn al-Alfī al-Ṣāliḥī was appointed his atābak; the preachers invoked both their names in the Friday sermons, and coins were struck in their honor. To his brother (4) was assigned al-Karak, and to his brother Khaḍr al-Shawbak. Letters (5) confirming these arrangements were drafted, the judges and muftis affixed their signatures to them (6), and mounted couriers were dispatched to Syria to exact from its people the same oath the Egyptians had sworn.

The emir Aydimur (7), the Ẓāhirī deputy of Syria, was arrested and confined in the Citadel under the guard of its deputy—who at that time was ʿAlam al-Dīn Sanjar al-Dawādārī—and the deputy’s (8) wealth and stores were placed under sequestration. Emir Shams al-Dīn Sunqur al-Ashqar then arrived to assume the viceregency of Syria in great pomp and with firm authority; he took up residence in the Dār al-Sāda, where the people honored him and treated him as one would a king.

The sultan dismissed the three Egyptian judges—the Shāfiʿī, the Ḥanafī, and the Mālikī—and appointed Ṣadr al-Dīn ʿUmar, son of the judge Tāj al-Dīn (9) ibn Bint al-Aʿazz, in place of the Shāfiʿī. He was Taqī al-Dīn ibn Razīn (10). It appears that they removed him because he had hesitated (11) over the deposition of al-Malik al-Saʿīd, and Allah knows best.