one hundred thousand men, with a like number of volunteers. He then crossed into al-Andalus, the Great Battle was fought, and victory and triumph were granted; it is said they captured sixty thousand coats of mail.

Ibn al-Athir reports: “One hundred and forty-six thousand of the enemy were killed, while the Muslims lost twenty thousand.”

Abu Shama also cites the engagement and speaks well of him, then adds (1): “Afterwards the reports about his fate diverged. Some say he abandoned his former life, withdrew and wandered until he reached the East in disguise and died obscurely—some claiming he died in Baalbek. Others maintain he returned to Marrakesh and died there; still others say he died in Salé. He lived a little over forty years.”

I say: the so-called Yaʿqūbi gold dinars are ascribed to him.

Ibn Khallikan (2) relates: “A large group in Damascus told me that in the Biqaʿ, near al-Majdal, there is a village called Himmāra where a shrine known as the tomb of the amir Yaʿqūb, king of the Maghrib, stands, and all the people of that district agree on this.”

Yet the stronger view is that he died in the Maghrib. Some place his death at the beginning of Jumada I, others in Rabiʿ II, and still others in Safar of the year ninety-five (595 AH).

It is said: “Had a sultan of his stature died in the seat of his power, such disagreement over his death would not have arisen—Allah knows best.” In any case, at that time his son Muhammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Muʾminī was given the oath of allegiance.