but the four thousand who set out to relieve them had scarcely arrived at Ifrāgha when everything there had already been consumed. Nothing was left to Ibn Mardanīsh except a single horse; he slaughtered it for them, and each man received one uqiyya (about an ounce) of meat.

Al-Yasaʿ relates: The warrior-king Ibn ʿIyāḍ (1) told me the story of this expedition. He said:

“When Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yaḥyā ibn Ghāniyah reached the town of Zaytūna, I rode out from Lārida with my horsemen to meet him. He said, ‘Give me your counsel.’

“I replied, ‘The sound plan is to gather the Andalusian troops under one banner, and Hilāl and Sulaym under another. Let al-Zubayr ibn ʿUmar advance with the men of the Maghrib and the pack-animals carrying the provisions, accompanied by drums and standards. We and the rest of the Arabs will lie in ambush on the army’s right and left flanks. When that accursed man sees the banners and hears the drums and pipes, he will charge at them; then we shall pounce on him from both sides.’

“We performed the dawn prayer on the night preceding the twenty-seventh of Ramadan, 527 AH. By then the accursed foe had recovered from his wounds and spotted the army. His force numbered twenty-four thousand cavalry, not counting their retainers. They headed straight for the drums, were thrown into confusion, and scattered—meaning the Muslims scattered. We then struck the Romans on their right flank; divine help descended, and the sword went to work among them until Ibn Rudhmīr was left with about four hundred horsemen. They sought refuge in one of their forts, and the Muslims kept vigil over it through the night. Overcome with grief, he fell ill and died fifteen days after his rout—may Allah’s mercy be withheld from him!

152 – Ibn Mus-hir ʿAlī ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī *
The accomplished man of letters, upright in religion: ʿAlī, son of Abū al-Wafāʾ Saʿd ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Mawṣilī, the poet, whose collected poems (Dīwān) fill two volumes.