The ruler of Homs concluded a truce with them, and the son of the Commander of the Armies advanced and wrested Jerusalem from Ibn Artuq. At the same time the Bāṭiniyya (Ismaili Assassins) spread through Isfahan, and vexatious wars broke out among the Persian kings. The Franks then seized the Holy City: they set up forty mangonels against it, battered its wall, and pressed the siege for a month and a half. In Shaʿban of the year 492 AH they entered it from the northern side and slew about seventy thousand people there. (1)

Yusuf ibn al-Jawzi—he alone is responsible for the report—relates: “The Franks marched under their leader Kundafri (2) with an army of one million, five hundred thousand of whom were fighting men. They constructed a wooden tower, attached it to the wall, and with it gained mastery over the town. Al-Afdal, Commander of the Armies, set out from Egypt at the head of twenty thousand reinforcements; he reached Ascalon, but Jerusalem had already been pillaged. The Franks then fell upon the Egyptians and routed them. Al-Afdal withdrew to Ascalon; his troops scattered and he was besieged. He offered them money, and so they lifted the siege. (3)”

Muhammad ibn Malikshah seized the throne and defeated his brother Barkyaruq. He next fought the army of Mosul, and extraordinary events ensued. Barkyaruq fled to Khurasan, ruled harshly, and fought a pitched battle with his brother Sanjar; both sides were routed. He then marched on Gorgan with his sights set on Isfahan. (4)

Ibn al-Dānshahd (5) encountered the Frankish army. Ibn al-Athir reports that they were three