The Deputation of Walī al-Dīn ibn Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Baqāʾ al-Subkī

Late that same day—that is, Thursday the 18th—Chief of Judges Walī al-Dīn (1), son of Chief Judge Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn Abī al-Baqāʾ, sat in judgment in the Great ʿĀdilīyya Madrasa as deputy for Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn, together with the deputised Chief Judges Shams al-Dīn al-Ghazzī (2) and Badr al-Dīn ibn Wahbah (3). As for Chief Judge Badr al-Dīn ibn Abī al-Fatḥ, he too was acting as a deputy, but by a noble rescript empowering him to adjudicate independently alongside Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn.

On Monday the 22nd of the month the viceroy, Emir Nāṣir al-Dīn ibn al-ʿĀwī, summoned the city’s governor, reproached him for several matters, and ordered that he be beaten. He was therefore struck across the shoulders in the viceroy’s presence, though not harshly. The governor was then dismissed, and Emir ʿAlam al-Dīn Sulaymān—one of the amīrs al-ʿasharawāt, son of Emir Ṣafī al-Dīn ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Buṣrawī, one of the amīrs al-tablakhānāt—was called in. Sulaymān had previously served as shadd al-dawāwīn (chief controller of the bureaus) and overseer of Jerusalem, Hebron, and other major provinces. He is a grandson of Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn ʿUthmān ibn Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn Abī al-Qāsim al-Tamīmī al-Ḥanafī; for more than a century his family has held the lectureships of the Amini-yya at Buṣrā and the Ḥakimiyya. Though reluctant, he was appointed governor; the viceroy compelled him to accept and invested him with the robe of office. Having governed well on a previous occasion, his piety, trustworthiness, and chastity were widely praised, and the people rejoiced—praise be to Allah.

Chief Judge Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Subkī’s Appointment to the Judiciary of Egypt after ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn Jamāʿa Voluntarily Resigned (4)

News arrived by courier from Egypt that Chief Judge ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, son of Chief Judge Badr al-Dīn ibn Jamāʿa, had resigned his post on Monday the 16th of this month and was determined to stand by his decision. The Grand Emir Yalbūghā sent other emirs to placate him, but he refused; Yalbūghā then went in person with the judges and notables, treated him courteously, yet he persisted in withdrawing.

The Grand Emir said to him, “Then designate for us someone fit to succeed you.”
He replied, “I will say only this: the office should not be entrusted to a single man. Appoint whomever you wish.”

Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī told me that he also said, “Do not appoint Ibn ʿAqīl.” The Grand Emir therefore nominated Chief Judge Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Baqāʾ. It is reported that Abū al-Baqāʾ at first demurred, then accepted and donned the robe of office.

He formally assumed the post on Monday, 23 Jumādā al-Ākhirah, and Chief Judge Shaykh Bahāʾ al-Dīn, son of Chief Judge Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, took over the military judiciary that had previously been in Abū al-Baqāʾ’s hands.

On Monday, 7 Rajab, Shaykh Bahāʾ al-Dīn passed away.