its inhabitants offered him seven thousand dinars, so he lifted the siege and withdrew (1).

In 502 AH Tughtekin marched out with two thousand men. He met the Franks; his army broke and fled, while he himself stood firm. They soon rallied to him, gained the victory, and captured a count. The prisoner offered a large ransom for his life, but Tughtekin refused and had him put to the sword. He then concluded a four-year truce with Baldwin (2).

In the same year the caliph al-Mustazhir married Sultan Muḥammad’s sister, paying a dowry of one hundred thousand dinars (3).

That year the Ismaʿilis seized Shayzar by stratagem. Its lord returned from a ceremonial ride to find the town lost. From the top of the keep his womenfolk let down ropes, hauled him and his soldiers inside, and fighting broke out. The slaughter of the heretics became fierce: they were a hundred in number, most of them cotton-carders in Shayzar, and not one escaped, though several of the garrison were also killed (4).

In 503 AH Tripoli fell at the end of the year after a siege of six years. The attackers set up wooden towers and placed them against its walls. They then accepted the surrender of Baniyas and Jubayl under a guarantee of safety, and afterwards captured Tarsus and the Fortress of the Kurds (5).

In 505 AH the armies of Iraq and the Jazira gathered (6) and advanced to fight the Franks. They crossed the Euphrates, but accomplished little; they soon withdrew while the enemy continued to roam through Syria (7).