Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Qānī Bāy b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Jārkasī:
He was one of the mamluks of amir Jārkas al-Qāsimī al-Muṣāriʿ, and after the death of his ʾustādh, he was transferred (repeatedly), until he finally became a khāṣakī, after the death of al-Malik al-Muʾayyad Shaykh. He remained in that position for a long time, without anybody paying much attention to him, under the various following reigns, until Jaqmaq, the ʾatābak, became the niẓām al-mamlaka of al-Malik al-ʿAzīz Yūsuf, and favored him with an amirate of 10, as he was a mamluk of his ʾakh, amir Jārkas. He then made him a raʾs nawba. Before long, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Jaqmaq became sultan himself, and appointed him as shādd shirāb khānā, after ʿAlī Bāy al-ʾAshrafī had been seized, in the year 842. Some time later, he favored him with an amirate 40, and Qānī Bāy remained so, until the sultan transferred him to the position of amir 100, after the death of amir Taghrī Birdī al-Muʾadhdī (sic?) al-Baklamishī, in the year 846 (an amirate which Qānī Bāy added to his position of shādd shirāb khānā), while he favored amir Jānibak al-Qarmānī, the raʾs nawba thānī with (Qānī Bāy’s) amirate 40.
Qānī Bāy thus gained importance in the government, his esteem grew and he was blessed with fortune, (while, at the same time), his madness increased, his common sense weakened and his mind turned to confusion. He got almost carried away on the wings of arrogance, and forgot about the poverty and insignificance he had suffered that long period. He started claiming leadership in any art and skill, in as much as he was (even) delighted by someone (and took it as praise, when this person) said to him*, ‘You are Farʿūn, you are Nimrūd’. Thus he strove, until he was appointed as dawādār kabīr, after the transfer of amir ʾĪnāl al-ʿAlāʾī al-ʾAjrūd to the position of ʾatābak al-ʿasākir in the Egyptian domains, after the death of ʾatābak Yashbak al-Timurbughāwī in the year 849.
At that point, the people witnessed some strange things ensuing from his authority, the description of which would take to long (to give here), but he came to be considered as contemtible by the ʾaʿyān of the ʾarbāb al-dawla, and they mocked his triviality and fickleness. Then he was transferred from the position of dawādār kabīr to that of ʾamīr ʾākhūr kabīr, after the death of amir Qarājā al-Ḥasanī, in Ṣafar 853. He took up residence in al-Silsila, at his own request, conform to the custom of the ʾamīr ʾākhūrs before him. In that position, he was occupied in his construction works and all that he built of turbas and the like until (sic).