Then the year 743 AH opened. This blessed year began while the Sultan of the Muslims, al-Malik [Ahmad ibn] (1) Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Malik al-Mansur Qalawun, was residing in al-Karak, having seized the royal revenues from the Citadel of the Mountain in Cairo all the way to the citadel of al-Karak.

His deputy over the Egyptian territories was Emir Sayf al-Din Aqsunqur al-Sallari (2), who had earlier served as deputy-governor in Gaza. The judges of Egypt were the same as those named in the previous year, except for the Hanafi judge (3).

Damascus, for its part, still had no deputy-governor at that time. Emir Rukn al-Din Baybars the Hajib had been appointed by al-Fakhri as acting deputy during his absence; he managed affairs together with the hajib Allamash (4), Tamur the muhmandar, Emir Sayf al-Din—nicknamed Ḥalawah—governor of the countryside, and Emir Nasir al-Din ibn Rakbas, administrator of the city. These men handled the state’s business, while the judges were those we listed last year.

The city’s preacher was Taj al-Din ʿAbd al-Rahim, son of the judge Jalal al-Din al-Qazwini, and the Keeper of the Royal Chancery was the judge Shihab al-Din ibn Fadl Allah.

At the beginning of this same year Emir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Ahmadi was still quartered in Tankiz’s palace on the Darayya road. Letters from the sultan arrived continually, ordering that he be closely watched, arrested, and sent to al-Karak. Yet the emirs procrastinated, time after time delaying the execution of those decrees, arguing that al-Ahmadi had committed no offense and that, once he was taken, the accusation would simply move on to someone else. Meanwhile reports reached them of conduct on the sultan’s part that displeased them: his indulgence in games and his mingling with the riffraff and rabble of al-Karak; his gruesome killing of al-Fakhri and Tashtamur; his plundering of their families, stripping the womenfolk of their clothes and jewelry and driving them out of al-Karak in the worst condition; and his courting of the Christians and allowing them into his presence.

These matters prompted the emirs to send one of their number to investigate, but he never reached the sultan; instead, he fled back in fear. When he returned and reported, the emirs were greatly disturbed and confused. They gathered repeatedly in the Horse Market, consulted together, and agreed to depose him. They wrote about this to the Egyptians and informed the deputy of Aleppo, Aydaghmush, and the other deputies