who remained. The commander stationed in Hama, together with the troops under him and the reinforcements (1) that had come from Damascus, stood their ground opposite them. They resolved to engage the enemy and thereby earned a great reward. It is said that the enemy mustered several tumans (2)—either three or four—and it had been decreed that, once the matter was firmly decided and the believers proved truthful with Allah, He would cast terror into the hearts of their foe so that they would flee. Even so, they did ravage some of the smaller northern towns (3)—such as Tizin (4), al-Fuʿa, Maʿarrat Masrin, and others that they had not entered the previous year.
Another report states that many of those districts leaned toward them because of rafḍ (Shiʿite sympathies), and that some of the inhabitants even kept qarābīn (5) for them. Yet these people are oppressors, and whoever assists an oppressor will suffer for it. Allah the Exalted says, “And thus do We make some wrongdoers allies of others because of what they used to earn” (Quran 6:129).
Moreover, they were aided (6) against the Muslims by disbelievers from among the People of the Book—the inhabitants of Sis (7) and the Franks. We therefore hope that Allah will bring them down from their fortresses—which are
(1) Omitted in MSS F and K.
(2) So in the base manuscript; MS Q reads “zamanat,” MS K “lahmanat,” and Majmuʿ al-Fatawa, 28/465, “kamanat.”
(3) MS F: “al-buldan” (the lands).
(4) The base manuscript has “Tabriz” and MS Q “Naramin,” both scribal corruptions. All the names refer to villages in the Aleppo region; see Muʿjam al-Buldan 2/66, 4/280, 5/155.
(5) So in the base manuscript and MS Q; MSS F and K read “furamin,” probably the more accurate reading. Furamin is the plural of firman, a sultanic decree; cf. Muʿjam al-Mustalahat wa-l-Alqab al-Tarikhiyya, p. 338.
(6) MSS F and K read “zahirahum.”
(7) Sisah—pronounced simply Sis by its inhabitants—was one of the chief frontier towns of Bilad al-Sham, situated between Antioch and Tarsus (Muʿjam al-Buldan 3/297). Shaykh al-Islam, speaking of Tarsus (which lay in the territory of Sis), writes in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa 13/183: “At that time it was the greatest frontier post of Baghdad and one of the foremost of the Muslims. People of piety came from every direction to perform ribat (garrison duty) there; Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Sari al-Saqati and others served there. Abu ʿUbayd was its judge, as was Salih ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Hence it is mentioned frequently in the legal manuals, for it was a major frontier stronghold.”