In 546 AH Nūr al-Dīn renewed the siege of Damascus. He sent the Damascenes a message saying, “My sole concern is to set the subjects’ affairs aright and to wage jihad against the Franks. If your army will assist me in the campaign, that is all I seek.” They refused and held back; the Ghūṭa was devastated, the troops ran rampant, and the Franks moved out to support the king of Damascus. The righteous were dismayed and many people were wounded. When the Frankish relief forces arrived, Nūr al-Dīn withdrew to the Biqāʿ. The Franks then demanded from Damascus the tribute that had been promised them in return for Nūr al-Dīn’s departure. Nūr al-Dīn later returned to Darayya; the city’s garrison marched out, skirmishes ensued, and a truce was concluded. Mujīr al-Dīn, the ruler of Damascus, then travelled to serve Nūr al-Dīn in Aleppo; Nūr al-Dīn honored him and left him on as his deputy in Damascus.

Nūr al-Dīn went on to capture Tortosa (1), Tall Bāshir, and several other Frankish strongholds. Forty thousand Franks besieged Córdoba for three months and nearly seized it, but ‘Abd al-Muʾmin’s twelve-thousand-strong army drove them off. Sultan Masʿūd arrived in Baghdad.

In 547 AH Masʿūd died and was succeeded by his brother Muḥammad. The caliph al-Muqtafī’s authority grew; he marched to Wāsiṭ, secured it, then turned toward Kūfa. He returned victorious, and ceremonial domes were erected in his honor.

In 548 AH the Franks captured Ascalon. Famine in Damascus intensified and the poor died in great numbers, so Nūr al-Dīn hoped to take the city. At the beginning of 549 AH Shīrkūh arrived as an envoy with one thousand cavalry; no one came out to receive him, and the estrangement deepened. Nūr al-Dīn advanced, camped at Bayt al-Abbār, and stormed the city twice. His troops reached the Gate of Kaysān; finding scarcely anyone on the wall, one infantryman moved forward. A Jewish woman saw him and let down a rope, so he climbed the wall, others following behind him, and they set up