—Shāh-i Armān (1)—and that his mamluk Bektimor had taken the reins of power. Bektimor was minded to place Khilāṭ (2) under Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s rule so that it would become part of his realm, and envoys went back and forth.
Pahlawān, the ruler of Azerbaijan, then moved to seize Khilāṭ, but Bektimor adroitly played the two kings against one another. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn meanwhile descended on Mayyāfāriqīn, pressed the siege until he captured it, and wrested it from Qutb al-Dīn al-Artuqī. He then turned toward Mosul, where he fell ill for a time; his heart softened, he reconciled with the people of Mosul, and swore an oath to them (3). Masʿūd was thus able to consolidate his position and felt at ease until, a few months after Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s death, he himself died of dysentery. He was buried in his Great Madrasa. After him his son Nūr al-Dīn held power for a while, then died, leaving two sons: al-Qāhir Masʿūd and al-Manṣūr Zankī.
123 – al-Shīrāzī, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm,
Shaykh, Imām, ḥadith scholar, ḥāfiẓ, itinerant scholar, Abū Yaʿqūb (4) Yūsuf
(1) He is Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Sukman al-Qutbi.
(2) Ibn Khallikan’s wording reads: “He was sent to the sultan, lured him with the promise of Khilat, agreed with him that it would be handed over to him, and that he would be compensated for it to his satisfaction.”
(3) The sultan—may Allah have mercy on him—fell seriously ill and was on the brink of death. Ibn Kathir reports: “He then vowed that, if Allah cured him of this illness, he would devote all his energy to fighting the Franks, would never again fight a Muslim, would make the conquest of Jerusalem his greatest concern even if he spent in Allah’s cause all the wealth and treasures he possessed, and that he would personally kill the prince of Karak for breaking the treaty and insulting the Messenger (peace be upon him).” (Al-Bidaya, 12/316). He kept this pledge until his death.
(*) Biographical notices appear in: al-Mundhiri, Takmila, no. 84; Ibn al-Dubaythi (cited in al-Mukhtasar al-Muhtaj ilayh, 3/231); Ibn al-Najjar (quoted in Ibn al-Futi’s abridgement, 4, no. 653, under those titled ‘Adud al-Din). Ibn al-Futi records him again under those titled Mujir al-Din (5, no. 648), drawing on Ibn al-Dubaythi. Further entries are found in al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 25 (Paris MS 1582); Tadhkira, 4/1356; A‘lam, fol. 211; Ibn Taghribirdi, Al-Nujum, 6/111; and Ibn al-‘Imad, Al-Shadharāt, 4/284.
(4) In al-Mundhiri’s Takmila and Ibn al-Dubaythi’s Tarikh, as indicated by al-Mukhtasar al-Muhtaj …