keep him abreast of Ismāʿīl’s movements.

Ismāʿīl soon learned of Saʿd al-Dīn’s arrival, summoned him, treated him with honor, then quietly removed the pigeons from the cage and substituted birds trained in Baalbek. From that moment the physician continued to write, “Your uncle has gathered his troops and resolved to march on Damascus,” and would release a pigeon. The bird flew straight to the citadel, where Ismāʿīl read the note. He would then draft a reply in the physician’s name: “Your uncle has assembled his army to support you and is on his way to join you,” and dispatch it on one of the original Nablus pigeons. Najm al-Dīn rejoiced at the good news and dismissed every contrary report—until Damascus slipped from his grasp.

As for al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl, after that long siege he abandoned Damascus and contented himself with Baalbek.

In al-Qūṣī’s Muʿjam, in the entry on the Ayyūbid princes, we read: “His brother Ismāʿīl aided the unbelievers, handed fortresses over to them, seized Damascus by stealth, broke his oaths, slew kings and emirs who could have served the jihad, used his judges to plunder the people, devastated property, lengthened the train of oppression and shortened that of justice. He imagined that the heavens would always turn in his favor, but Time struck him down for his heedlessness and showed him calamities…,” and al-Qūṣī goes on at length.

Subsequently Baalbek and Bosra were taken from him, his power crumbled, and he went to Aleppo to seek favor with his sister’s grandson, becoming one of that prince’s emirs. They brought him along, captured Damascus, and when they marched to take Egypt the Syrian forces were defeated. Many were taken prisoner, among them al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ, in 648 AH. He was jailed in Cairo, and as they passed him by the tomb of Sultan Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb, the Baḥrī mamluks shouted, “O Khawand, can your eyes now see your enemy?”

Khaḍir ibn Ḥammūyah relates: “On the last day of Dhū al-Qaʿdah that same year, they took al-Ṣāliḥ out at night, led him to the mountain, slew him, and erased every trace of him.”

I say: His death was an expiation for him.

Ibn Wāṣil adds: “When they brought al-Ṣāliḥ on the morning of the decisive battle, he was made to stand beside al-Muʿizz, …”