On the second (1) of Muḥarram a herald arrived announcing the Sultan’s safe return from the Ḥijāz and his imminent entry into the realm. Drums of rejoicing were beaten and the city was decorated. The same herald also reported the death of the amir Sayf al-Din Baktamur al-Sāqī (2) and his son Shihab al-Din Aḥmad while they were on the road back after performing the ḥajj not far from Egypt: first the son, and three days later, at ʿUyūn al-Qaṣab (3), the father. Their bodies were transferred to their tomb in the Qarāfa cemetery. So vast was the money, jewelry, pearls, textiles, furnishings, and stored goods found in Baktamur’s estate that it could scarcely be counted or recorded (4).
During Muḥarram the minister Shams al-Din Ghubriyāl was released; in Ṣafar he was summoned to Egypt and departed on the postal mounts. Once he had left, precautions were taken against his household and large sums were seized from them for the public treasury (5).
Late in Ṣafar the minister Amīn al-Mulk arrived to oversee the bureaus in Damascus in place of Ghubriyāl. Four days later the qāḍī Fakhr al-Din ibn al-Ḥillī (6) assumed supervision of the army following the death of Qutb al-Din ibn Shaykh al-Salamiyya.
In mid-Rabīʿ al-Awwal Ibn Jumla donned the robe of office as Shāfiʿī judge in Damascus at Dār al-Saʿāda. He then proceeded to the Great Mosque wearing it, went on to the ʿĀdiliyya where his investiture decree was read before the notables, and on Wednesday, the twelfth of that month (7), delivered lessons at both the ʿĀdiliyya and the Ghazāliyya.
On Monday, the twenty-fourth of the same month, his nephew Jamāl al-Din Maḥmūd (8) attended the reinstated session at the Qaymariyya; Ibn Jumla ceded the chair to him, then appointed him deputy in the court. He proceeded to the ʿĀdiliyya and issued judgments there, but did not remain in office: he was dismissed from the deputyship that very day, and Jamāl al-Din Ibrāhīm ibn Shams al-Din Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Ḥaṣbānī (9)—a man of energy, integrity, and expertise in legal rulings—was appointed in his stead.