It is considered as the first military office at the court (al-ḥaḍra) of the sultan. Its lord is called al-nāʾib al-kāfil, kāfil al-mamālik al-ʾislāmīya. (taʿrīf) He has the power on everything the sultan has power on and like the sultan he puts his mark on all sorts of diplomaʾs, taqālīd - tawāqīʿ - manāshīr. The other nāʾibs, who only put their marks on what belongs to their respective authorities.
It is a rank which brings great distinction. (Masālik) And all the nāʾibs of the mamālik correspond with him regarding everything on which they correspond with the sultan, and they ask his advice on it, as they ask the sultanʾs advice. He employs the soldiers, without consultation. He appoints the lords of the great offices, like the office of wazīr and kātib as-sirr, and it is unsignificant that he [the sultan] is not heared on who he appoints. He is the sultan in a concise form, or rather he is the second sultan. It is his habit that he rides with the army at the times of the mawkibs, and everyone takes a place in his service/court. When he appears in the court of the sultan, he stands in a corner of the ʾīwān,and when the khidma ends, he goes to his house, with the amirs, and he sits in a sitting which is public for the people/mamluks. The officers are present on it, the ḥājibs stand in front of him, and the petitions are read to him and then he spreads the tableclothes for the amirs, just like the sultan spreads for them. Then they eat and leave. When the office of nāʾib is performed in this way, the sultan usually does not occupy himself with the reading of the petitions and the hearing of the complaints. He orders on it as he thinks right, based on an example-writing. But he is not independent can not act freely in what is written for the sultan by him, rather it is written on his instruction and it is shown to him, afterwards the august signature is added to it.
The dīwān al-ʾiqṭāʿ / al-jaysh was in his service alone, and they only gathered with him, not with the sultan, on any case. But as for problematic cases, which he has to inform the sultan off, he informs him of it, sometimes by himself, sometimes by sending someone to him.
These were the last words in the masālik, except that sometimes the neck of the empire is sometimes raised and sometimes neglected by this nāʾib. This was the situation now and then in the time of an-Nāṣir b. Qalāwūn, and also in our time. And when he was erected, he was favored with the assigning of some of the ʾiqṭāʿs, and the ṣāḥib dīwān al-jaysh was subordinate to him, and the nāẓir al-jaysh to the sultan.