A few days before that, Emir Sayf al-Din Abū Bakr ibn Bahādur Āṣ ⦗1⦘ escaped from the fortress of Karak. He had been taken prisoner at the very beginning of the siege, together with a group of al-Nāṣir Aḥmad’s mamluks whom the latter had accused of killing al-Shuhayb Aḥmad, the youth he cherished and loved. The troops rejoiced when Abū Bakr slipped from his grasp and reached safety, and he was dispatched to Egypt with great honor. Meanwhile, the three mangonels in the town remained trained on the citadel, bombarding it night and day and wrecking its inner structures, for its outer wall was completely impervious to attack. It was then reported that the siege had slackened, though strict watch was kept so that no provisions or supplies that might help the defenders prolong their stay could enter the fortress. We ask Allah for a good conclusion.
On Wednesday, the twenty-fifth of Ṣafar, an express courier arrived in haste from Karak with news that the citadel had been taken, its gate burned, and that the partisans of Emir Aḥmad ibn al-Nāṣir had sought a guarantee of safety. Aḥmad himself emerged in chains and was sent post-haste to Egypt; this occurred on Monday, after midday, the twenty-third of that month ⦗2⦘. To Allah belongs the final outcome of all affairs.
On the morning of Friday, the fourth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the drums of glad tidings were beaten at the Citadel, and, by order of Sultan al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ, the city was adorned in celebration of its capture and of the unity now achieved under him. The decorations remained until Monday the seventh, when an order was issued after the noon prayer to remove them. This unsettled many of the common folk, and some people spread the rumor that Aḥmad’s fortunes had revived and that the amirs with him had renewed their allegiance to him—an unfounded claim. The columns returning from Karak entered the city on Sunday morning, the thirteenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, accompanied by their regimental drums and troops.
It soon became publicly known that Aḥmad ibn al-Nāṣir had been executed ⦗3⦘.
On Friday, the eleventh of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the funeral prayer was performed in the Umayyad Mosque for Shaykh Athīr al-Dīn Abū Ḥayyān ⦗4⦘, the grammarian who had long been Egypt’s foremost scholar. He had passed away there at the age of ninety years and five months ⦗5⦘.
Then, in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, word spread that Sultan Aḥmad had been killed: his head severed, his hands cut off, his body buried at Karak, and his head carried to his brother al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl, where it was presented before him on the twenty-fourth of that month. The people rejoiced at the news.