Then, when the month of Jumada I opened, the troops were in a state of intense agitation. The viceroy summoned the emirs to Dar al-Saʿada because of the events in Egypt; there they pledged that no one would be harmed and that they would stand shoulder to shoulder. That same day the malik al-umaraʾ (lord of the emirs) moved from Dar al-Saʿada to the Qasr al-Ablaq and took precautions for his own safety—and so did his household.
On Wednesday (1) the fourteenth of the month, an emir (2) arrived from Egypt by the postal service, bearing a letter from the Sultan that explicitly dismissed malik al-umaraʾ Yalbugha from the viceroyalty of Syria. The decree was read to him in the presence of the emirs at the Qasr al-Ablaq, and he was distressed and displeased. The same document ordered him to proceed to Egypt by express courier so that he might be appointed viceroy there; it was plainly a ruse, and he (3) declared his refusal, saying that he would never go to Egypt. He added, “If the Sultan finds the governorship of Damascus too much for me, let him grant me whatever province he wishes; I am content with it.” This was the answer he sent back.
At dawn the next day—Thursday the fifteenth—he mounted and encamped near al-Jasurah, on the very spot where he had camped the previous year, and in the same month, as mentioned earlier. He spent the night of Friday there and ordered the emirs to pitch their tents in that place, just as they had done the first time.
When Friday the sixteenth arrived, shortly after the prayer the populace was taken by surprise: the emirs had gathered beneath the Citadel, brought out two yellow royal standards, and beaten the war drums. They all rallied beneath the royal banner; only the viceroy, his two sons, his brothers, his retinue, and Emir Sayf al-Din Qalawun—one of the commanders of a thousand and the most prominent emir after the viceroy—held back. The emirs sent word to him, “Come and give ear and obedience to the Sultan,” but he refused. Messengers went back and forth repeatedly, yet he would not yield. They therefore advanced on him with kettledrums and trumpets, clad in full battle armor. When they reached him they found that he had already mounted his horses, fully armed and prepared to flee. Confronted, he and those with him bolted as one man. The troops pursued, but they could not even raise a cloud of dust behind him. Meanwhile the commoners and the Turkmans of al-Qubaybat swooped in and plundered what remained in his camp—barley, livestock, and tents—cutting the tents and their ropes to pieces. He and his followers thus lost belongings worth one million dirhams.
The grand chamberlain who had recently arrived from Egypt, Shihab al-Din ibn Subh, himself a commander of a thousand, volunteered to pursue him. He set out along the road to al-Ashrafiyyah and then veered toward the district of al-Qaryatayn.
On Sunday Emir Fakhr al-Din Iyas, the deputy of Safad, reached Damascus. The emirs and commanders went out to welcome him. He entered the palace, and late in the day he mounted with the main columns; not a single soldier remained in Damascus who did not ride with him. They set off in pursuit of Yalbugha, who had already taken the desert route. Bedouin tribes kept attacking him from every side, hindering him continually until he made his way toward