Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī there to serve as its presiding judge.⦗1⦘ People flocked to greet him and to bid him farewell, for rumors against him had become widespread: it was said that a tribunal would be convened to charge him for the sums he had paid from the orphans’ funds to Altanbugha and to al-Fakhrī. A legal opinion obliging him to repay the money was drafted and circulated among the jurists for their signatures, yet no one endorsed it except Qāḍī Jalāl al-Dīn ibn Ḥusām al-Dīn, the Ḥanafī; I saw his handwriting on it alone after the prayer. I, too, was asked to issue a fatwa but declined, for it would only cause confusion among the judges. The deputy of the sultan’s very first decree had ordered the muftis to examine the case and give whatever ruling the noble Sharīʿah required, but they bore him a strange ill-will. Allah delivered him through this summons to Egypt, so he set out with the courier on Sunday night, and the grandees and notables went out to see him off, his retinue attending him.⦗2⦘

The month of Jumādā al-Ākhirah opened with the expeditionary force still assigned to al-Karak; the troops detached from the standing garrison numbered close to one thousand or even more.

On Tuesday, the fourth of the month, shortly after noon, Emir ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Aydaghmush,⦗3⦘ deputy of the sultanate in the protected Syrian provinces, died alone in a residence within the Dār al-Saʿādah. They entered, discovered his condition, and were perplexed, fearing he had suffered a sudden stroke, though some maintained he had revived—Allah knows best. They therefore kept vigil until the next day as a precaution. At dawn the people assembled for the funeral prayer, which was held outside Bāb al-Naṣr where funerals are customarily prayed; he was then borne southward toward the qiblah. Some of his family wished to bury him in the cemetery of Gibrīyāl beside the Mosque of al-Qubaybāt, but this proved impossible, so he was laid to rest south of the mosque on the edge of the road. The burial was not completed until some time after midday, and that Thursday night they held a khatmah (complete Qurʾānic recitation) for him—may Allah have mercy on him and pardon him.

Early in the same month word spread that al-Karak was under close siege: a party of its inhabitants had sallied out and many were killed, while only one soldier of the besieging force fell. The qāḍī and several others came down, bringing some jewels, and they agreed to surrender the town. When morning came, however, the garrison fortified themselves, set up their mangonels, and prepared for battle. A few days later they struck the army’s mangonel, snapped its throwing arm, and, being unable to remove the machine, burned it on the advice of the senior emirs. Terrible events followed—may Allah grant a good outcome.

Toward the end of the month another clash occurred between the army and the people of al-Karak. A band of Karaki fighters advanced against the troops and showered them with arrows; the soldiers rushed out from their tents, advanced on foot in full armor, and killed a number of the townspeople—Christians and others alike. Many soldiers were wounded, and one or two were killed. Emir Sayf al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn Bahādurās⦗4⦘ was taken captive, the Amir of the Arabs⦗5⦘ was slain, and other prisoners were seized and confined.