792 AH, around 08/01
To turn now to the situation in Cairo in the meantime: Before Minṭāsh had departed from Cairo he had ordered Ḥusayn ibn al-Kūrānī to keep careful guard over those connected with the household of al-Ẓāhir Barqūq, and Ibn al-Kūrānī had done his utmost to satisfy Minṭāsh. For instance, he had gone to the Baysarīya Hall in the street “Between the two palaces” which was the home of the younger and older sisters of al-Ẓāhir, the latter of whom was also the mother of Baybars, [afterwards] the ʾatābak. Al-Kūrānī had rushed in upon the princesses in the Hall, and after violently cursing them and denouncing and reviling al-Ẓāhir, had roughly taken Baybars from his mother. He then had made captives of the princesses as well as of their slave girls, dragging them unveiled as they were through the streets of Cairo, while their weeping and lamentations brought tears to the eyes of all beholders and made everyone awestruck who reflected on their plight. Al-Kūrānī had dragged them in this manner as far as the Zuwayla Gate, which they had reached just as Muqbil, the interim viceroy, was entering; when the latter had seen what was taking place he had expressed his disapproval most vehemently, and, censuring Ibn al-Kūrānī for his action, had veiled the princesses and let them ride back from the Zuwayla Gate to the Baysarīya Hall. This event was to prove one of the most important causes of the later downfall of Ḥusayn ibn al-Kūrānī, as, please God, will be narrated in the account of al-malik al-Ẓāhir’s second sultanate.