the town, topping it with towers. Provisions were exhausted, to the point that when a man died his body would be eaten; death swept through the inhabitants. The Tatars relaxed their assaults but continued to besiege them. A boy—perhaps more than one—slipped out and revealed the town’s desperate state to the Tatars, who could hardly believe it. They then approached the wall and remained for several days without daring to attack. One of al-Kamil’s mamluks lowered ropes to them, so they climbed up onto the rampart, yet for a whole week they still dared not advance. Barely ninety people were left in the town, where once there had been thousands.

The Tatars entered al-Kamil’s residence, granted him safe-conduct, and took him to Hulagu in ar-Ruha (Edessa). They found Hulagu drinking wine; he offered al-Kamil a cup, but he refused, saying, “This is forbidden.” Hulagu said to his wife, “Give it to him yourself.” She handed it to him; he refused again, cursed, and—so it is said—spat in Hulagu’s face.

Al-Kamil had previously travelled east and seen the Great Khan, and in their custom whoever has looked upon the Khan’s face may not be killed. When he confronted Hulagu in this manner, Hulagu flew into a rage and put him to death.

He went on to relate that al-Kamil was a man of fierce valor and indomitable spirit; he never yielded to the Tatars. They once seized his children from their fortress and brought them beneath the walls of Mayyāfarikīn, urging him to surrender the town under a guarantee of safety, but he replied, “You shall receive from me nothing but the sword.”

I add: his head was paraded through Damascus to the beating of drums and hung on the Bāb al-Farādīs gate. When the Tatars withdrew, al-Muẓaffar came and buried the head.

In 656 AH he had come to Damascus seeking aid from al-Nāṣir; al-Nāṣir honored and respected him greatly, promised to support him, and al-Kamil returned to Mayyāfarikīn. He was killed in 658 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.

121 – al-ʿAzīz Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ẓāhir ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn*

The sultan, al-Malik al-ʿAzīz, Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad, son of Sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, grandson of the great Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn.