ful purposes. After the sultan had
finished, homage was done by the sheiks, the emirs, and the other chief
officers of the kingdom. The caliph invested the sultan with power over
all the kingdoms subject to Islam, as well as over all future conquests,
whereupon the people of all classes were admitted to do homage likewise.
Then command was sent out to all the distant princes and governors to do
homage to the caliph, who has assumed the name of El-Mustanssir, and to
place his name beside that of the sultan in their prayers and also on
their coins.

Beybars' treatment of his viziers, governors, and other important emirs,
one or other of whom he either imprisoned or executed on every possible
occasion, was merciless, but he proceeded even more shamelessly against
Malik Mughith, Prince of Kerak and Shaubek, whom he feared so much as
one of the bravest descendants of the house of Ayyub that he stamped
himself publicly as a perjured assassin, in order to get him out of
the way. Beybars had at first, without any declaration of war, in fact,
without any notification of it in Egypt, suddenly sent a detachment of
troops under the leadership of Emir Bedr ed-Din Aidimri, which took the
fortress Shaubek by surprise, and placed the Emir Saif ed-Din Bilban
el-Mukhtasi in it as governor. In the next year, in order to win over
Mughith, he liberated his son Aziz, whom Kotuz had captured at Damascus
and imprisoned at Cairo; he also assured Mughith of his friendly
intentions towards him and repeatedly urged him to arrange a meeting.
El-Malik el-Mughith did not trust Beybars, and invented all kinds of
reasons not to accept his invitations. Beybars resolved at last to calm
the fears of his intended victim by means of a written oath. The fears
of Mughith, however, were not allayed, and he hesitated to fall in with
the wish of the sultan and to appear at his court. The following year,
when the sultan came to Syria and again urged a meeting, he was at a
loss for an excuse, and was forced either to acknowledge his mistrust
or risk everything. He sent his mother first to Gaza, where she was
received with the greatest friendliness by the sultan, and sent back
laden with costly presents; on her return to Kerak, corrupted by the
hospitality and generosity of the sultan, she persuaded her son to wait
on him, as did also his ambassador Alamjad with equal zeal. Finally he
set out from Kerak--when he had made his troops do homage to his son
El-Malik el-