al-Din al-Kafri (1), taking the place of Najm al-Din al-Tarsusi (2), who had died in Shaʿban of the previous year. The deputy of Aleppo is Sayf al-Din Taz; of Tripoli, Manjak; of Hama, Asandamir (3) al-ʿUmari; of Safad, Shihab al-Din ibn Subh; of Homs, Salah al-Din Khalil ibn Haji Turk (4); and of Baalbek, Nasir al-Din [ibn] al-Aqoush (5).

On Monday morning, the fourteenth of Muharram, four thousand men, led by four captains, set out toward Aleppo to support its army in seizing Taz should he refuse to submit to the sultan’s authority, as he had been ordered. When the twenty-first of Muharram arrived, a proclamation was issued on behalf of the Deputy of the Sultanate that all remaining troops were to mount up in full armor and meet him at the horse market. He then rode with them toward Thaniyat al-ʿUqab, intending to prevent Emir Taz from entering the city, once it was confirmed that Taz was advancing with his forces toward the Egyptian lands. The populace was alarmed: Dār al-Saʿāda was cleared of stores and of the ladies of the household, who were moved to the Citadel; many emirs barricaded themselves inside their residences; Bāb al-Naṣr was shut, and the people felt a measure of dread.

All the city gates were then closed except Bāb al-Faradis and Bāb al-Faraj, and Bāb al-Jābiya as well, so that the pilgrims might enter. The maḥmal arrived on Friday morning, the twenty-third of Muharram, but many failed to notice it, being preoccupied with Taz’s affair and with the business of the tax-collector in Ḥawrān (6). News followed that Emir Sayf al-Din Taydamur, the Grand Chamberlain, had been captured in the land of Ḥawrān and imprisoned in the citadel of Ṣarḫad. His sword was brought by Emir Jamal al-Din the Chamberlain and taken to the royal pavilion at the Thaniyya.

Taz himself reached Bāb al-Qiṭayfa with his troops, where his shalish met the shalish (7) of the Deputy of Damascus; praise be to Allah, no fighting ensued. He and the Deputy exchanged letters proposing a settlement: Taz would surrender, ride with ten mounts to the sultan, relinquish his present position, and the Deputy would correspond on his behalf, interceding with the sultan and doing all he could for him. Taz accepted, and sent asking for witnesses to his testament; so the Deputy of the Sultanate dispatched to him the judge Shihab al-Din