Thursday, ⦗1⦘ the twenty-sixth of Rabiʿ al-Thani 512 AH. He had been ill for thirteen days with swellings in the collar-bone region ⦗2⦘ and died at the age of forty-one years and six days. He was gentle-tempered, noble in character, and his efforts were universally praised: if asked for a favor he granted it, and if reminded of a meritorious deed he looked eagerly toward it.
It is reported that a little before his death he recited these lines and wept:
O star whose life was all too brief—
So brief are the stars that gleam before dawn. ⦗3⦘
Early in his caliphate ⦗4⦘, Sultan Barkyāruq ibn Malikshah dispatched an army under Qasīm al-Dawlah—the grandfather of Nūr al-Din—and Būzban. Taj al-Dawlah Tutush met them outside Aleppo, captured Qasīm al-Dawlah and slew him, seized Aleppo after a siege, and likewise put Būzban to death.
(1) Ibn al-Athir records the same date for his death in al-Kamil, vol. 10, p. 435; a marginal note in the base manuscript adds the variant reading: “third.”
(2) Mirat al-Zaman explains that it is a boil that appears in the throat, whereas Shadharat, 4/33, says: “he died of al-khawanik” (quinsy).
(3) The verse is by Abu l-Hasan Ali b. Muhammad al-Tihami, assassinated in 416 AH/1025 CE, from an exquisite elegy he composed for his son. Its opening lines may be rendered:
“The decree of death is in force over mankind; this world is no abode of permanence.
I have been struck by a keen-edged sword prepared for avenging blows.
O star whose life was all too brief—so short are the lives of the dawn-stars.
A crescent of days set before it could wax full, with no respite till its wane.
An eclipse seized it before its time and erased it ere its re-appearance was due.
He was snatched from among his peers and playmates as the pupil is plucked from the lashes.
My heart is as though it were his grave, concealing within it a secret of mysteries.
I complain of your distance—yet were it not for death you would hear my whispered grief.
The span from east to west is closer than the five short spans that part us now.
He has taken up residence with his Lord, while I dwell among my foes—how vast the difference between our two abodes.”
(4) See al-Kamil, vol. 10, pp. 232, 234, 239, 243, 262, 263, 264, 265, 268.