were those on whose behalf intercession was made, and others who were ordered to be sawn in two. Seven were thus executed: five ṭablakhānas (regimental drummers) and one commander of a thousand; among them was Burnaq, the deputy governor of Safad. Intercession was granted for the remainder, and they were returned to prison—another five men.
On Wednesday, the fifth [of Shawwāl], seven emirs of Damascus were arrested. Many fortunes were overturned and a number of troopers and others were elevated to emirship. (1) Here the account ends.
The Sultan’s Departure from Damascus toward Egypt
On Friday, the seventh of Shawwāl, the Sultan rode out from the Ablak Palace at the head of his army to attend the Friday prayer in the Umayyad Mosque. When he reached Bab al-Nasr, the entire army dismounted and walked before him on foot, though the day was cold and the mud deep. He prayed in the royal enclosure beside the ‘Uthmanic Qurʾān; no one shared the first row with him, while the other emirs stood in rows behind him. He listened to the preacher’s khutba, and when the prayer concluded a decree was read abolishing the ten-percent levy on waqf revenues.
Leaving once more through Bab al-Nasr, the Sultan and the victorious troops mounted and set off toward al-Kiswah, travelling under continual safety and well-being. He departed while Damascus had no acting viceroy; Emir Badr al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīr managed affairs there as deputy in absentia until the appointed viceroy should arrive. News soon came that the Sultan had reached Egypt unharmed and had entered it in splendid pomp toward the end of Dhu al-Qaʿda—an unforgettable day. He bestowed robes of honor upon all the emirs, invested Emir ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Mārdānī with the robe of the Syrian vice-regency, arrested Emir ʿAlam al-Dīn ibn Zanbū (2), and entrusted (3) the vizierate to al-Ṣāḥib Muwaffaq al-Dīn (4).
On the morning of Saturday, the fifth of Dhu al-Ḥijja, Emir ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn the jāmdār arrived from Egypt at well-guarded Damascus in imposing splendor and a large procession to assume the vice-regency. The emirs rode before him as was customary. He halted at the tomb of Bahādur Āṣ until the army paraded before him and then caught up with them. Entering the Dār al-Saʿāda, he took up residence there as previous deputies had done. May Allah make him a source of blessing for the Muslims.
On Saturday, the twelfth (5) of that same month, the Sultan’s dawādār, Emir ʿIzz al-Dīn Ṭuqṭāy (6), arrived from Egypt and took up quarters.