—for my grandfather. When he began the recitation of Gharāʾib Shuʿbah and reached the report of ʿUmar concerning the wearing of silk, my father died after the late ʿishāʾ prayer. Such is what we witnessed.

He also mentioned Ibn Ṭāhir’s story (1): that al-Muʾtaman had only completed the Book of the Companions with Abū ʿAmr after the latter’s death and then returned it, and that he said to Ibn Ṭāhir, “You must rectify this, for it is a lie.”

He said: “Al-Muʾtaman was scrupulously pious, ascetic, and patient in poverty.”

Ibn Nāṣir said: “Al-Muʾtaman died in Ṣafar, 507 AH, in Baghdad, and I led the funeral prayer over him. He was a learned, reliable, and perceptive scholar, wholly trustworthy.”

196 – Fakhr al-Mulk ibn ʿAmmār

The lord of Tripoli, he was among the shrewdest men and outstanding figures of his time in courage, daring, judgment, and resolve. His city was afflicted by a Frankish siege that lasted five years, during which he resisted them, inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, gained the upper hand, corresponded with the border kings, and sent them gifts, while they remained bewildered and none came to his aid. He communicated several times with the Byzantine emperor as well. During the siege he displayed excellent management, masterful strategy and deception, by land and sea, in winter and summer, until his men were spent and his champions worn out. He then embarked by sea, landed, and made his way to Damascus, and Tripoli was taken from him in the year two—