, from Cairo, to take charge of the Bayt al-Māl (public treasury), the supervision of the awqāf (endowments), and the khāṣṣ (the Sultan’s private estates). He brought with him the official warrants and robes of investiture, so people flocked to his door; he involved himself in affairs and harmed the populace (1). His appointment had been obtained through the mediation of the amir ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Shujāʿī, the leading spokesman in Egypt, who was approached on his behalf by Shaykh Shams al-Dīn al-Aykī (2) and by Ibn al-Waḥīd (3) the secretary—both of whom enjoyed standing with him.
He had already summoned a number of notable Damascenes earlier in the year to Egypt, where they were pressed for large sums of money; each tried to fend off the demand by putting another forward—(and this is something that lightens the punishment for those who wronged them; otherwise, had they shown patience, the oppressor would have been overtaken by retribution, and what they disliked would have been removed swiftly).
When Ibn al-Maqdisī reached Damascus he assumed jurisdiction over the Turbah of Umm al-Ṣāliḥ, and people came and went to him in fear of his malice. He newly erected a bāshūra at Bāb al-Farādis and benches for witnesses at Bāb al-Sāʿāt; he rebuilt the northern Bāb al-Jābiya, raising it—for it had been low—and repaired the bridge beneath it. Likewise he repaired the bridge of Bāb al-Farādis under the little market (al-Suwayqa), adding new timberwork on both sides. This was among the best of what Ibn al-Maqdisī achieved, yet he was, in addition, exceedingly (4) injurious to people—an oppressive tyrant—opening for them doors (min al-ẓulm) (of injustice) for which there was no need.
On the tenth of Jumādā al-Ūlā there also arrived from Egypt the Chief Judge Ḥusām al-Dīn al-Ḥanafī, the minister Taqī al-Dīn Tūbah al-Tikrītī (5), and the Chief Judge Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Zawāwī (6) al-Mālikī, to fill the Mālikī judgeship that had been vacant in Damascus for three and a half years. He restored the emblems of the office (7), taught and propagated the school, and enjoyed dignity and leadership.
In the night preceding Friday, the fourth of Shaʿbān, the sultan al-Malik (8) al-Ṣāliḥ ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn (9), son of al-Malik al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn, died at al-Sanṭariyya, and his father (abūhu) mourned him with intense grief. He had previously designated him as heir and had the khuṭba proclaimed for him together with his own name (10) on the pulpits for many years. He buried him in his mausoleum and assigned the succession (min) after him to his son al-Ashraf Khalīl, and a message was written to that effect