so the senior emirs conspired to depose him, for they saw that the situation had swollen into flagrant corruption. They therefore summoned the caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ Sulaymān, before whom they proved the charges imputed to King al-Manṣūr. Only then did the leading emirs and others remove him from power and replace him with his brother, the one just mentioned. The deposed king was thereupon sent to Qūṣ under close confinement, accompanied by three of his brothers—some said more. They seated the new ruler, King al-Ashraf, upon the throne and appointed Emir Sayf al-Dīn Qūṣūn al-Nāṣirī to govern on his behalf. Affairs ran smoothly, and when the news reached Syria the emirs there pledged their allegiance on Wednesday. The drums of glad tidings were beaten on the eve of Thursday, the first of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, and the Friday sermon in Damascus was delivered in his name in the presence of the viceroy, the judges, and the emirs.
On Wednesday, the seventeenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the Chief Judge Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī attended the Ashrafiyya Dār al-Ḥadīth in place of our shaykh, the ḥāfiẓ Jamāl al-Dīn al-Marī, and he also assumed the chair of the Nūriyya Dār al-Ḥadīth in lieu of the latter’s son—may Allah have mercy on him (1).
During Jumādā al-Ūlā it became widely reported that the deputy of Aleppo, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Taštumur, nicknamed “al-Ḥimmaṣ al-Akhdar” (the Green Chickpea), had risen to aid the Sultan’s son, Emir Aḥmad, who was in al-Karak, recruiting men and mustering forces for that purpose—Allah knows best (2).
In the second ten days of that month the armies reached al-Karak, accompanied by Emir Sayf al-Dīn Qutlubughā al-Fakhrī, in pursuit of the Sultan’s son Emir Aḥmad. All through the month there was much talk about Emir Aḥmad ibn al-Nāṣir because of the siege laid to him by the force that al-Fakhrī had brought. It was said that the deputy of Aleppo, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Taštumur—“the Green Chickpea”—was siding with the Sultan’s children who had been removed from Egypt to Upper Egypt, determined to defend Emir Aḥmad, divert the army from him, and lift the siege; indeed, he planned to go to al-Karak to champion Aḥmad, the son of his former master.
The viceroy of Syria in Damascus therefore prepared to confront him, calling the troops to march out and repel his attempt to foment sedition and break the ranks. The soldiers busied themselves, made ready, and spent heavily; the populace grew anxious, fearing civil strife. They reasoned that if fighting broke out, the clans in the mountains and Ḥawrān would rise up and agricultural affairs and other interests would be disrupted.
Soon after, an envoy from Aleppo arrived in Damascus, bearing an oral message from the Sultan to the viceroy, Emir ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Alṭanbughā. The viceroy heard him and then dispatched the commander of the left wing, Ayyān al-Sāqī (3), to accompany him back to Aleppo. They returned in late Jumādā al-Ākhira and proceeded on to Egypt.
It became common knowledge that matters would remain as they were until agreement was reached for King al-Nāṣir’s children—save al-Manṣūr—to return to Egypt, and for the siege of al-Karak to be lifted (4).