a virtuous precedent; and whoever among you insists on another course will soon taste its bitter outcome. Allah is the Reckoner of those who stand with me, and Allah alone suffices us—He is enough and the best guardian.

So ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf ordered the hostilities to stop, but how could that be carried out when the townspeople had already admitted the man into Zaragoza? Ibn Rudhmir—may he be cursed—the ruler of the kingdom of Aragón in eastern al-Andalus, was an experienced priest, a crafty ascetic. He overpowered Ibn Hūd’s territories and swallowed them up, while ʿImād al-Dawla ibn Hūd contented himself with the house in which he dwelt. Ibn Rudhmir never set out except with a small, fully equipped force, yet with a single thousand he would confront tens of thousands.

Al-Yasaʿ ibn Ḥazm said: Abū al-Qāsim Hilāl, one of the Arab notables, narrated to me, saying:

“A dispute arose between me and the Almoravids that forced me to go and visit Ibn Rudhmir. He welcomed me and assigned me a generous stipend. I joined him in a battle during which his horse was speared beneath him, so I stood by him, guarding his person. When we returned to Rashqa, he ordered the goldsmiths to make a golden goblet studded with pearls, and inscribed on it: ‘None shall drink from this save the one who stood firm in defense of his sovereign.’

“One day I was present when he produced the goblet, filled it with drink, and handed it to me in the presence of a thousand horsemen, whose necks had darkened from the rust of their mail. I cried out, ‘Someone else is more deserving of it.’ He replied, ‘No one shall drink from this unless he has done what you did.’

“This Hilāl was from the clan of Hilāl ibn ʿĀmir. He later repented and campaigned with us; whenever he took his place in the ranks he was like a steadfast mountain, preventing the surge of armies from wavering, and his heart in courage was hard as stone. While crossing swords with champions he would shout, ‘Is there any more?’ I saw him—one man yet an entire nation—whom the horsemen avoided.

“He told me of Ibn Rudhmir’s sense of justice. He said: I was with him outside Ruta when ʿImād al-Dawla, through his vizier Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hamushk (1), sent the emir as an envoy to him. A knight from among Ibn Rudhmir’s men asked permission to engage Ibn Hamushk in single combat, but Ibn Rudhmir said, ‘No, he is our guest.’

“When Ibn Hamushk heard of this, Ibn Rudhmir granted him his request and let him depart in peace.”