the shaykh Muḥammad ibn Qiwām, at their zawiya (1) on the hillside. The funeral prayer for him was performed on Friday in the Afram Mosque, after which he was buried in the zawiya; the judges, dignitaries, and a great many people attended. Six months and twenty days separated his death from that of his brother, and this loss was felt even more keenly than the earlier one.
At the very beginning of the year the qaysariyya (covered market) that Emir Sayf al-Din Yalbugha, the deputy of the sultanate, had constructed outside Bab al-Faraj was opened. It was leased for the impressive sum of about seven thousand each month. Inside stood a commercial qaysariyya with a pool and a mosque at its center; its outer face was lined with shops, and its upper floors contained apartments for residence.
On the morning of Monday, the twelfth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, a hearing was convened at the Mashhad ʿUthmān for al-Nūr al-Khurāsānī. He used to recite the Quran in the Tankiz Mosque and teach people certain obligations of wuduʾ and prayer. It was alleged that he had spoken against some of the four imams, had ventured into matters of creed, and had used expressions that went beyond what is found in the hadith. Several witnesses testified to various such statements. Consequently he was disciplined that day, paraded through the city, and then returned to prison in detention. On Thursday the twenty-second of the same month, Emir Aḥmad ibn Muhannā (2), “king of the Arabs,” interceded for him with the deputy of the sultanate; the latter summoned him, then released him to his family and household.
When Friday, the thirteenth of Jumada I, arrived, the deputy of the sultanate, Emir Sayf al-Din Yalbugha al-Yahyāwī al-Nāṣirī, led the Friday prayer in the Tankiz Mosque outside Damascus, near Bab al-Naṣr (3). The Shafiʿi and Maliki judges prayed with him, along with the senior emirs. Once the prayer was called he prayed, while some of his mamluks remained seated, armed, to guard him. After the prayer he withdrew with those emirs and they consulted at length. He then proceeded to the Dār al-Saʿāda. Late in the day he emerged with his attendants, mamluks, retainers, baggage train, weapons, and provisions, encamped south of the Qadam Mosque, and at the day’s end the troops and emirs set out, throwing the populace into alarm; the moon happened to rise eclipsed that night. The army advanced wearing armor beneath their clothes, with lamellar helmets, bows, arrows, horses, and pack animals, while the people had no idea what was afoot. The cause of all this was that the deputy had heard that the governor of Safad (4) was on his way to arrest him.
Shaken, he declared, “I shall die only on the back of my horses, not on my bedding!” The troops and emirs therefore set out, afraid he might escape. They spread out to right and left, yet he did not move from that encampment; rather, he remained there carrying out the duties of the deputyship, meeting the emirs together and one by one, coaxing them into sharing his view—namely, to depose al-Malik al-Kāmil Shaʿbān because he repeatedly seized emirs without cause and committed deeds unbefitting his station, many such matters being cited—and to install his brother, Emir Ḥājjī ibn al-Nāṣir, whose appearance and conduct were praised.