He seized Armenia and waged war against Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. When word of the Sultan’s death reached him, he ordered the celebratory drums to sound, had a throne constructed, sat upon it, styled himself ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and assumed the royal epithet “al-Sulṭān al-Muʿaẓẓam Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn.” God, however, gave him no respite: after one month he was assassinated, at the beginning of Jumādā al-Ūlā in 589 AH. One of his fellow mamluks—who was also his son-in-law, the emir Hazar Dīnārī—rose against him, took power, and was given the title Badr al-Dīn (1). He ruled for five years and died. The emirs then placed Muḥammad ibn Buktemur on the throne, but Shujāʿ al-Dīn arrested him; other emirs rebelled, strangled Muḥammad, and installed Bulbān, who reigned for a year before al-Awhad, son of King al-ʿĀdil, assumed control.
151 – Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn and His Sons*
The great sultan, al-Malik al-Nāṣir, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, Abū al-Muẓaffar Yūsuf, son of the emir Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn Shādhī ibn Marwān ibn Yaʿqūb al-Duwaynī (2), later called al-Tikrītī (3) by place of birth.
(1) That is the amir Hazar Dinari, who had married his daughter.
(*) His career is celebrated far and wide because of his outstanding services to Islam and the Muslims, foremost among them the liberation of Jerusalem from the Crusaders. May Allah be pleased with him and reward him richly for what he did for Islam and its people. Scarcely any historical work that treats his period omits an account of him; see the commentary on al-Takmila by al-Mundhiri, biography no. 189.
(2) Some scholars vocalise the initial d of Dawin with a fatḥa; among them is Yaqut in Muʿjam al-Buldan. I have found al-Dhahabi doing so on occasion, although in most cases—according to his autograph of Tarikh al-Islam—he writes it with a ḍamma. Because the base manuscript has the ḍamma, we have retained it.
(3) Yaqut records the word with a fatḥa on the initial ta and notes that the common people pronounce it with a kasra. Al-Samʿani writes it only with a kasra and does not mention the fatḥa. The kasra therefore seems to be the widespread form; al-Samʿani adopted it, and people still pronounce the ta with a kasra today. This is further confirmed by the fact that when Ibn al-Athir abridged al-Ansab he cited no alternate vocalisation, though he certainly knew of it.