and its restoration afterward would likewise come about through them. So the accursed Sulayṭīn and Ibn Hūd rode out with nearly forty thousand cavalry, while Tashfīn remained at al-Zahrāʾ. Ibn Hūd advanced toward Seville, continuing to bankroll Sulayṭīn’s armies for about eight months, on the condition that they take no captives.

Al-Mustanṣir later told me—after he had repented of the recklessness of his youth and his quest to regain his forefathers’ throne—saying, “What I spent on that expedition in pure gold was three million dinars, and from the arsenals of Rūṭa I handed over forty (1) thousand coats of mail, an equal number of helmets, and thirty (2) thousand mail-coifs.”

Several people informed me that he even presented Sulayṭīn with a tent so large that it required forty mules to carry it. Muḥammad ibn Mālik the poet told me he had seen the tent himself and declared that nothing larger had ever been heard of.

When Sulayṭīn’s stay in the land dragged on and no one came out to challenge Ibn Hūd, he withdrew, taking Ibn Hūd with him. The latter had no more than about two hundred horsemen. Ibn Hūd halted in Toledo, intending to move from there to the fortresses he had received in compensation—but what an evil exchange for the wrongdoers!

Meanwhile Cordoba fell into turmoil, and the Commander of the Muslims was distracted by the uprising of the Tumartīs (3). Al-Mustanṣir bi-Allah Aḥmad then set out from the city of Garlīṭish and made for Cordoba. Because of his fame he was beloved by the people. Ibn Ḥamdīn, the chief of Cordoba, marched out against him with the city’s army, but that army turned of its own accord toward Ibn Hūd. Ibn Ḥamdīn thereupon fled to Bulayda, and Ibn Hūd entered Cordoba without cost, without a blow and without a stab.

He appointed Abū Saʿīd—known as Faraj al-Dalīl—as his vizier and wrote to the provincial deputies, who rejoiced in him because of his genuine royal pedigree.

Faraj al-Dalīl then proceeded to the fortress of al-Mudawwar. Word reached Ibn Hūd that he had defected and broken faith, so Ibn Hūd himself set out and persuaded him down from