791 AH, 21/10
There Al-Ẓāhir, after the populace of al-Karak had conducted him from the citadel down into the city and paid him homage, and his following had been increased further by the arrival of the Bedouin Arabs (al-ʿUrbān) and then by the adhesion of the principal inhabitants of the town, had found his position so strengthened that he decided to leave al-Karak, and sent his baggage out of the city. The notables of al-Karak, however, went together to the qāḍī of al-Karak, ʾAḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Muqayrī, and proposed to him that, mindful of al-malik al-Manṣūr Ḥājjī and amir Minṭāsh, they should take a stand against al-Ẓāhir. They accordingly agreed to seize him, inform the people in Cairo of this, and offer to Minṭāsh as an apology for al-Ẓāhir’s escape from prison that it had occured only through the agreement of the ignorant among the people of al-Karak - this was to be their excuse to the sultan. They accordingly sent Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad, brother of qāḍī ʿImād al-Dīn, to lock the gate of the city, leaving al-Ẓāhir inside the walls and thus separated from his baggage and from most of his followers.
Al-Ẓāhir learned that this had been done as he was about to mount his horse. For qāḍī ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, who was confidential secretary of al-Karak and a brother of qāḍī ʿImād al-Dīn, had espoused the cause of al-Ẓāhir and had been doing his utmost to serve him, acting as his secretary ever since he had gone out from prison; and when he now saw the plight of al-Ẓāhir, and learned of the agreement of the people of the city with his own brother, qāḍī ʿImād al-Dīn, to seize him, he informed al-Ẓāhir but encouraged and urged him to proceed to the city gate. Al-Ẓāhir accordingly rode thither with him but found it locked and Nāṣir al-Dīn, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn’s brother, standing by it in accordance with the orders of his [other] brother, qāḍī ʿImād al-Dīn. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, however, argued with Nāṣir al-Dīn so effectively that the latter opened the gate for him, and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn escorted al-Ẓāhir through ot; they then joined the rest of al-Ẓāhir’s followers and his mamlūks who had come from Syria to join him. And he remained outside of al-Karak, in Al-Thanīya one day.