Al-Maqrīzī-May God have mercy on him- said about al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Ṭaṭar:
He was Circassian by race, one of the merchants raised him and taught him something about the Koran and about Hanafite fiqh. He arrived in Cairo in the year 801, while he was still a boy, and amir Qāni Bāy drew attention to him because he was related to him, and recommended him to sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, until he took him from his merchant, but the sultan died before his price was paid. ʾAmīr kabīr ʾAytamish paid his price, 12000 dirham and he put him with the other mamluks of al-Malik al-Ẓāhir in the barracks, and he was raised amongst them. Al-Malik al-Nāṣir Faraj emancipated him, but he continued to be just one of the mamluks of the barracks, until al-Malik al-Nāṣir Faraj returned to the sultanate, after his brother al-Manṣūr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. He gave him a horse, and gave him an ʾiqṭāʿ in the ḥalqa. He joined Nawrūz al-Ḥāfiẓī and suffered with him during those conflicts. End of al-Maqrīzī’s account-abbreviated.