As the sultan became aware of that, he felt most happy. He addressed the ʾaʿyān of the ʾAshrafīya regarding the matter of driving back Jānim to his position as nāʾib of Damascus, as he had been, and he sent to him two ʾAshrafī amirs.
Then the sultan ordered the caliph to ascend to the Qalʿa and to stay in the Baḥra of the Ḥawsh Sulṭānī. He equally summoned the qadis and ordered them to stay in the Jāmiʿ al-Qalʿa al-Nāṣirī.
When the prayer of the amirs 100 in the company of the sultan was ended, and they wanted to leave and return to what they had been doing, the sultan prevented them from descending, and he ordered them as well to stay in the aforementioned mosque, until it would become clear what would ensue from the matter of Jānim and his arrival. The (result of) this strategy (nukta, litt. ‘pun’) was that the power of al-Ẓāhir grew because of this, while the authority of Jānim dwindled down, as most of the ʾAshrafī amirs were now, as it were, kept under guard in the Qalʿa, and not one of them was able to pass the Bāb al-Qilla of the Qalʿa. The absence of these amirs was to the disadvantage of Jānim’s power.
What could possibly be the power of the remainder of his khujdāshīya khāṣṣakīya and of the mamlūks to depose the sultan and to make him sultan instead?
Jānim’s power was also weakened by the fact that nobody came to him. How could they come to him?! As for his khujdāshīya, five of their muqaddams were guarded over in the Qalʿa. If one of them had followed his heart* and had come to him with his bark* and his mamlūks, then many of his khujdāshīya and others who wanted to stir a rebellion would have followed him. This was thwarted by the fact that the caliph, the amirs and the qadis were all kept at the Qalʿa.
This was a clever trick (plotted by the sultan).
Hence, after a long time, Jānim lost spirit, as will be recounted in detail.
As Jānim became aware of the condition he was in, he himself being in the Khānqāh Siryāqūs in a weak state, the only thing he could do was to show obedience and to agree to what he was ordered to do, as will be related.