gained control and filled the administration with Armenians, thereby oppressing the populace. Ridwān al-Walakshī mustered an army and marched on Cairo, whereupon Bahrām advanced with his own troops toward Upper Egypt—most of them Armenian Christians. The Emir of Aswān barred him from entry, fighting ensued, and many Armenians and Sudanese were killed. Bahrām then sent to request safe-conduct from the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥāfiẓ; the caliph granted it, so Bahrām returned but was imprisoned in Cairo. He subsequently took monastic vows, was released, and al-Ḥāfiẓ appointed Ridwān vizier, granting him the honorific al-Malik al-Afḍal. Two years later a rupture occurred between the two men, so Ridwān fled to Syria and sought refuge with Amīr al-Dawlah Kamishtikīn, lord of Salkhad, who received and honored him.

Al-Muqtafī’s estates and fiscal districts were restored to him, and he consolidated his rule. The Damascene army under Buzwāsh defeated the Franks of Tripoli, and Zengī likewise met the Franks, routed them, and captured one of their castles. He then marched on and seized Baalbek. The Byzantines took Buzāʿah (1) under a pledge of safety, after which its judge and a number of others embraced Christianity—Allah alone disposes of all affairs (2).

Sultan Masʿūd married the daughter of Dubays al-Asadī because of her beauty, and Baghdad was closed for a full week to celebrate the wedding in 532 AH.

In that same year (3) al-Rāshid’s cause waxed strong and armies gathered around him, but the Ismāʿīlīs (the Bāṭinīs) assassinated him. Byzantine forces then invested Aleppo; the fighting blazed, many Christians were slain, and their patriarch was killed. They next besieged Shayzar for a time and laid waste to Syria. Zengī did not storm them head-on; instead he harassed them and sought reinforcements from Sultan Masʿūd, until Allah removed them.

In 533 AH an earthquake struck Ganja. Ibn al-Jawzī (4) states: “It destroyed two hundred—”