and raised an army, recruiting the younger men as soldiers. The King of Damascus sought to placate him, but then dismissed him and banished him to Ṣarkhad. When Nūr al-Dīn seized power, he returned to Damascus claiming to be ill, and there he died in 549 AH.

He was a harsh, overbearing tyrant. His honorific was Muʾayyad al-Dawla, and he was buried in his own house in Damascus.

159 – Ibn Ḥamdīn, Ḥamdīn ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad

One of the leading figures of Córdoba. After the death of Ibn Tāshfīn he assumed the title “Commander of the Muslims” and launched raids against the territories of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿIyāḍ. Because of the misguided advice of his viziers he abandoned jihad, whereupon civil unrest broke out and the Murābiṭūn in Granada gathered two thousand horsemen. Later Ibn Ḥamdīn and Yaḥyā ibn Ghāniya (1) met in battle; Ibn Ghāniya emerged victorious, while Ibn Ḥamdīn fled to Córdoba. His followers deserted him, and Ibn Ghāniya pursued. Realising his weakness, Ibn Ḥamdīn escaped to Franjawāsh and sought the aid of the Christian ruler, the tyrant of the Romans, promising him large sums of money, while Ibn Ghāniya continued to press him hard. The tyrant arrived with one hundred thousand men; Ibn Ghāniya withdrew and Córdoba was entered. The accursed king and Ibn Ḥamdīn then encamped before the city. Ibn Ḥamdīn addressed its inhabitants, and many inclined toward him. The Romans entered the city, drawn by the breadth of its streets, and killed whoever they found. Unity collapsed, even though its people were said to number more than four hundred thousand fighting men (2) (3).

Ibn al-Yasaʿ al-Ghāfī said: “I heard Abū Marwān Ibn Masarra relate that ʿAbd al-Muʾmin asked him about the number of fighters among the people of Córdoba, and he replied, ‘We have counted within it, among those who attend the mosques, four hundred thousand men fit for battle.’”

When the enemy had firmly established himself in the city, he advanced toward the palace