Meanwhile the deputy of the sultanate, Emir Sayf al-Din Baydamur—may Allah ennoble him—went on scrapping the customs duties, abolishing them one after another whenever they harmed the Muslims. I have been told that it is his fixed intention to wipe out every last one of those levies if Allah enables him—amen. And here that report ends.
Alert (1)
On a singular occurrence and an astonishing coincidence
We have heard that the deputy of the sultanate, Emir Sayf al-Din Baydamur, had taken offense at the atābak of Egypt, Emir Sayf al-Din Yalbugha al-Khāṣṣakī, the effective governor there. He suspected that Yalbugha was working to have him removed from Syria. Our deputy is a man of vigorous spirit and great severity; he therefore began to show a measure of defiance toward obeying Yalbugha, while continuing in obedience to the sultan. He resolved that, should Yalbugha succeed in having him dismissed, he would neither heed nor comply. In that frame of mind he took certain measures, and during the very same period the lieutenant of the Victorious Citadel of Damascus, Emir Sayf al-Din Burnaq (2) al-Nasiri, died. The deputy forthwith sent members of his household and retinue to seize the citadel in its entirety, entered it himself, and summoned Emir Zayn al-Din Zubāla—formerly a jurist and afterwards its lieutenant, and one of the people best acquainted with the fortress, its plan (3) and its stores. Accompanied by him, he made a circuit of the place, and Zubāla showed him its bastions, towers, gates, locks, apartments, palaces, armories, its cistern and everything that had been readied within and for it. People were astonished at this coincidence, for no previous deputy had ever enjoyed such an opportunity. He opened the gate opposite the Dār al-Saʿāda, allowing the deputy to enter and leave the citadel through it with his servants, retainers and full pomp, to look into its conditions and attend to its interests—may Allah aid him.
On Saturday, the fifteenth of Shaʿbān, he rode out in state as usual and summoned Emir Sayf al-Din Asandamur, the former deputy of Syria, who was confined to his house, riding out to see no one. He had him brought and rode with him, together with the emirs who had come from Egypt: Tunayraq (4), one of the commanders of a thousand, and Taydimur the hājib. As for Ibn Ṣubḥ and ʿUmar Shah, they had already departed on Friday toward sundown. He then led them all—including the other emirs—through the Horse Market and brought them down to the Dār al-Saʿāda. There they pledged, covenanted and agreed to stand shoulder to shoulder, a single band against anyone who wished them ill; to lend their hand against whoever sought to depose or kill any one of them; and to fight whoever fought them. They further affirmed that the sultan is the son of their former master, al-Malik al-Manṣūr ibn Ḥājī ibn al-Nāṣir ibn al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn. Each of them fell in with the deputy’s wishes, swore him an oath, and went out from his presence bound by that oath. The deputy of the sultanate then continued in his wonted, imposing magnificence and splendid pomp—and we ask Allah for a good outcome.