and the leading Almohads would record them on their wooden tablets.

His lavish spending was made easy by the abundance of revenue, for each year he received from Ifrīqiyah one hundred and fifty mule-loads of land-tax proceeds.

In 579 AH he proclaimed a general call-up (1), summoning the inhabitants of the plains and mountains as well as the Bedouin. He then crossed to al-Andalus and marched on Santarém, which was in the hands of Ibn al-Rīq—may God curse him—laying siege to it for some time. When the cold weather set in he declared, “Tomorrow we strike camp.”

The first to pull down his pavilion was ʿAlī, the qāḍī’s son and Friday preacher. When the people saw him, they too dismantled their tents, and they were many. That very night the army crossed the river and pressed ahead to avoid crowding, while Abū Yaʿqūb remained unaware of what had happened. The Christians realised this, seized the opportunity, sallied forth, and charged the Muslims, routing them. They reached the Sultan’s encampment, where many brave warriors were slain at its gate, and they fought their way to the Sultan himself, stabbing him beneath the navel with a thrust from which he died a few days later. The troops rallied and drove the Christians back into the town.

The khatīb fled, sought refuge with the lord of Santarém, and was shown honour and respect. He then began corresponding with the Muslims, pointing out the enemy’s weak points, so they burned him alive.

They travelled with Abū Yaʿqūb for only two nights before he died. The funeral prayer was offered over him, he was placed in a coffin, sent to Tinmal (3), and buried beside his father and Ibn Tūmart.

He died on the seventh of Rajab in 580 AH, whereupon allegiance was sworn to his son Yaʿqūb.

In that same year there also died: Aḥmad ibn al-Mubārak ibn Darrak, the blind; Ṣadr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, son of the Shaykh of Shaykhs Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Saʿd; Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, son of the shaykh Abū ʿAlī ibn Nabahān, the littérateur; and the grammar master Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn