793 AH, Mon, 04/05
ʾAytamish arrived on monday, I jumādā 4, with the post, and was met by amir Sūdūn al-nāʾib and the chamberlains. With ʾAytamish there arrived also a number of amirs, including ʾĀlābughā al-ʿUthmānī, great chamberlain of Damascus; ʾAmir Malik, son of Jantamur’s sister; Damurdāsh al-Yūsufī; and ʾAlṭunbughā al-Ḥalabī; many of the mamlūks ẓāhirīya and others were brought to Cairo at the same time. All except the mamlūks ẓāhirīya were in irons, as will be narrated later.
When amir ʾAytamish now ascended into the Sultan’s presence and kissed the ground before him, the Sultan showed him great honor and seated him on the left side, just below amir Sūdūn al-nāʾib. The fact that ʾAytamish, before he had gone to fight al-Nāṣirī, had been ʾatābak al-ʿasākir in Egypt would have entitled him to a place on the right; at the time of his arrival, however, he was out of office, and the actual ʾatābak was ʾĪnāl al-Yūsufī al-Yalbughāwī, who in this assembly was seated below the great amir, Kumushbughā al-Ḥamawī, former governor of Aleppo; therefore, if ʾAytamish now had been given a seat on the right, he would have been in the third place there, for it would have been impossible to seat him above ʾĪnāl, who (as has been explained) was now ʾatābak in active service while ʾAytamish was not. Furthermore, when the Sultan directed him to sit on the left he did not venture to seat him above the nāʾib because of the latter’s great age and high rank, so he sat him below Sūdūn. I note that such is the way of the world, exalting and debasing.