Among the notable figures who died that year were:

The Commander of the Faithful al-Mustakfī billāh: Abū al-Rabīʿ Sulaymān (1), son of al-Ḥākim bi-amr Allāh Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, son of Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan, son of Abū Bakr, son of ʿAlī, descendant of the Commander of the Faithful al-Mustaʿrshid billāh. He was a Hāshimite ʿAbbāsid, Baghdādī by origin, yet born in Egypt in 683 AH—or the year before. He pursued only a little study and learning. His father entrusted the caliphate to him, and the Friday sermon was delivered in his name when his father died in 701 AH. He delegated every matter of binding and releasing to Sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir, then set out on the Tatar campaign and witnessed the battle of Shaqḥab (2). He entered Damascus in Shaʿbān 702 AH riding beside the Sultan while all the great men of the army walked on foot.

When the Sultan withdrew from affairs and retired to al-Karak, the emirs asked al-Mustakfī to appoint someone able to shoulder the kingship. He therefore invested al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Jashnakīr, fastened the banner for him, and clothed him in the robe of sovereignty. Later al-Nāṣir returned to Egypt and excused the Caliph for this action, but afterward grew angry with him and sent him to Qūṣ, where he died this very year at the beginning of Shaʿbān.

[Then came the year 741 AH]

The new year began on a Wednesday while the sovereign of the Muslims was al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad, son of al-Malik al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn. The judges in Egypt were the same as in the preceding year. There was no deputy of the sultanate in Damascus; the person attending to affairs was Emir Sayf al-Dīn Ta­shtamur, nicknamed al-Ḥimṣ al-Akḥar (“the Green Chickpea”), the one who had arrested Emir Sayf al-Dīn Tankiz. A royal decree then arrived ordering him back to Ṣafad, so he mounted at day’s end and set out for his province, while Tankiz’s assets remained under sequestration as before.

On the morning of Saturday, 4 Muḥarram of that same year, five emirs arrived from Egypt: Emir Sayf al-Dīn Bashtāk (3) al-Nāṣirī, accompanied by Barsbughā (4) the ḥājib, Tājar (5) the dawādār, Bayghir (6), and Baṭā (7). Bashtāk took up residence in the Qasr al-Ablak and the parade grounds with only a few of his mamluks, having come solely to renew the oath of allegiance to the Sultan.