In Shaʿbān of the year 581 AH, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn encamped before Mosul. Envoys shuttled between him and its ruler ʿIzz al-Dīn; he fell ill and withdrew to Ḥarrān, where his sickness intensified. At his behest they swore allegiance to his sons (1), and he entrusted their guardianship to his brother al-ʿĀdil (2). He then passed through Ḥoms, whose lord Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad (3)—his cousin’s son—had died; he bestowed the city upon his own son al-Mujāhid Shīrkūh, who was twelve years old.

In 583 AH, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn swept through the Frankish territories, subdued them, laid waste to their forces, and captured their kings at Ḥaṭṭīn.

He had earlier vowed to kill Reynald (4), the lord of al-Karak. That day he took him captive. Reynald had waylaid a party from Egypt during a time of truce; when they invoked the treaty he spoke words disdainful of the Prophet ﷺ and put them to the sword.

Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn thereupon assembled the captive kings. He offered King Guy (5) a cup of iced rosewater; the king drank, and he then passed it to Reynald, who also drank. The Sultan said to the interpreter, “Tell Guy: you are the one who gave him the drink— I myself have given him nothing.”

He afterwards summoned Prince Reynald to another audience and said, “I avenge Muḥammad ﷺ upon you.” He invited him to embrace Islam; when he refused, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn struck his shoulder with the nimjāh (6).

That year he conquered what no monarch had ever conquered; his fame soared across the world, and kings stood in awe of him.

Then lamentation and mourning spread throughout the islands of the sea and even reached Rome, and the call to arms was proclaimed to