and the Chief Judge of the Ḥanbalī school was Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan, son of Qāḍī al-Jabal al-Maqdisī; the Supervisor of the Bureaus was Saʿd al-Dīn ibn al-Tāj Isḥāq; the Keeper of the Secret Chancery was Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn al-Shahīd—who also held the title Shaykh al-Shuyūkh; the Inspector of the Syrian Armies was Burhān al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥillī; and the Agent of the Public Treasury was Qāḍī Walī al-Dīn, son of Chief Judge Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Baqāʾ. End.

The Deputy of the Sultanate’s Journey to Egypt

On the night of the twenty-first (1) Taštamur, Yalbughā’s duwaydār (mace-bearer), arrived post-haste and lodged in the Dār al-Saʿāda. After the final night prayer he and the deputy of the sultanate mounted their horses by torch-light, the chamberlains preceding them while the crowds prayed for their deputy, and they set off toward the Egyptian lands. Yalbughā received him with honor and favor, asking that he take charge of the region of Aleppo; he agreed, then returned, staying at the house of Sanjar al-Ismāʿīlī before departing for Aleppo. I met him there, and the people mourned his departure. During his absence Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Zibāla acted as deputy until the arrival of the deputy Muʿizz al-Sayfī Āqtemur ʿAbd al-Ghanī (2), as will be mentioned.

Judge Shams al-Dīn (3) ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥanafī, who had been serving as acting judge, died—may Allah have mercy on him—on Saturday, the twenty-sixth of Muḥarram, and was buried at Bāb al-Ṣaghīr. He was nearly eighty years old.

On that day, or the day after, Judge Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad (4) ibn al-Wazwāza, inspector of the endowments in al-Ṣāliḥiyya, also passed away.

On the morning of Friday, the third of Ṣafar, a proclamation was made in the city that none of the Ḥalqah troops was to remain behind from the march to Beirut. People hurried to comply, and both civilians and soldiers, fully armed, assembled on the plateau of al-Mizza. The king of the amirs, Amīr ʿAlī—formerly deputy of Syria—left his residence inside Bāb al-Jābiya with his retinue, all of them splendidly equipped, accompanied by his son Amīr Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad and his pupils. The acting deputy during his absence, together with the chamberlains, came before him in his reception hall and consulted him about the matter.

He said, “I have no command here, but when war and fighting begin, then I shall have a say.” A great many people volunteered to go. Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn, the Shāfiʿī, delivered the Friday sermon as usual, urging the people to jihad. He had equipped several of his pages with mail and helmets and was resolved to march with the people to Beirut. Praise and gratitude belong to Allah.