12/05/0865:
On Monday 5, the death of the sultan was rumoured, but this turned out to be false. The following day, the people were confused and agitated, and a group of the populace was standing at the Bāb al-Mudarraj, one of the gates of the Qalʿa.
The wālī l-Qāhira came down and dispersed them.
Then ʾamān, buying and selling was proclaimed, and also that one should not speak of that what didn’t concern him.
The matter calmed down until Wednesday 14/05. In the early morning of Wednesday, the caliph and the 4 qadis were summonned to the Qalʿa. The amirs and the notables ascended and all assembled in al-Duhaysha. Nobody doubted that the sultan had died.
That turned out not to be the case; rather they had been summonned in order to make His Excellency al-Shihābī ʾAḥmad sultan before his death.
When all had assembled, the sultan deposed himself from the sultanate by implication (bi l-maʿnā), for at that time he was unable to speak. Rather he spoke to them, the meaning of his words by implication being that, after him, power should go to his son. From that, everybody understood that he wanted to depose himself and that he wanted his son to be the sultan.
So they did, as will be discussed in its proper place, at the beginning of the tarjama of al-Malik al-Muʾayyad ʾAḥmad, God willing.