Maḥmūd, better known as Ibn al-Qalānsi, who assumed the post ⦗1⦘, while al-Baṣrāwī, the muḥtasib (market inspector) of the city, was removed.

During this same month the Chief Judge, Ibn Jamāʿah, accepted the shaykhdom of Saʿīd al-Suʿadāʾ in Cairo at the request of the Ṣūfīs, who were satisfied that he attend their gathering only once every Friday. Shaykh Karīm al-Dīn al-Āmulī was dismissed from that position ⦗3⦘ because he had discharged the court witnesses, whereupon they rose against him and drew up records accusing him of matters detrimental to religion. An order was therefore issued removing him, and he was treated in the very way he had treated others—
[among those deeds was his assault on Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and the lies he fabricated against him, despite his ignorance and scant piety; so Allah hastened this humiliation upon him at the hands of his own companions and friends, a perfectly just recompense] ⦗4⦘.

In the month of Rajab fear spread in Damascus, and people moved from the suburbs inside the walls. The cause was that Sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn Qalāwūn had set out from al-Karak heading for Damascus to reclaim the throne. A group of emirs secretly supported, corresponded with, and advised him, while several Egyptian emirs defected to his side. Rumor had it that the city’s deputy, al-Afram, would leave Damascus for Cairo with a great host, so the populace panicked: the city gates were not opened until the sun was high, and affairs fell into disarray. The judges and many emirs gathered in the citadel and renewed the oath of allegiance to al-Malik al-Muẓaffar ⦗5⦘.

Late on Saturday afternoon the gates were shut, the people crowded at Bāb al-Naṣr and suffered greatly. Villagers poured into the city until it was packed. A courier then arrived announcing that al-Malik al-Nāṣir had reached al-Khammān ⦗6⦘. The deputy of Syria was alarmed, declaring his intention to fight him and bar him from the city. The two emirs Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Majnūn ⦗7⦘ and Baybars al-ʿIlmī ⦗8⦘ defected to al-Nāṣir. Emir Sayf al-Dīn Baktamur, chief of the court ushers, rode to the deputy advising him to withdraw, telling him he had no strength to fight the Egyptians. Emir Sayf al-Dīn Bahādur Āṣ ⦗9⦘ soon followed with the same counsel.

The deputy then returned to Damascus on Tuesday, the fifth of Rajab, and learned that Sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir had gone back to al-Karak. The people calmed, the deputy returned to the citadel, and some residents went back to their homes and resettled there.