the gold. Al-ʿAzīz fell silent, then said, “Give him back his money and tell him: ‘Beware of ever repeating such conduct, for not every king is just. I refuse to sell the people of Alexandria for this sum.’”

Jahārkas continued, “I was dumbfounded, and it showed on my face. He asked, ‘I take it you have accepted something?’ I replied, ‘Yes—five thousand dinars.’ He said, ‘He has given you wealth that will profit you once, whereas I shall give you what will profit you many times over.’ He then issued a decree granting me the fief of Tunbudha (1), from which I drew an annual revenue of seven thousand dinars.

I say: He went on to seize Damascus and there built the ʿAzīziyya beside his father’s mausoleum. He left as heir his son al-Nāṣir Muḥammad, and they swore allegiance to him; but his two uncles, al-Muʾayyad and al-Muʿizz, refused to do so unless the atabegate was assigned to them. When that was granted, they swore, yet opinions diverged. They then wrote to King al-Afdal in Egypt, so he set out from Sarkhad toward them with twenty horsemen.

Events unfolded: al-ʿĀdil arrived, took control, installed his son al-Kāmil, al-Afdal’s position weakened, al-Nāṣir was deposed, and he joined his uncle in Aleppo.

153 – al-Afdal Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf * (2)