the Sultan removed him, so he travelled to the ruler of Aleppo, al-Malik al-Nāṣir. Later in life he fell into poverty and sold his books, yet he remained a man of generosity and noble conduct. He died (1) in 656 AH, in the month of Dhū al-Qaʿdah.

256 – al-Malik al-Raḥīm, Abū al-Faḍāʾil Luʾluʾ the Armenian, al-Nūrī, the Atabeg

He is the Sultan Badr al-Dīn, Abū al-Faḍāʾil Luʾluʾ the Armenian, al-Nūrī, the Atabeg, formerly a mamluk of Sultan Nūr al-Dīn Arslān Shāh, son of Sultan ʿIzz al-Dīn Masʿūd ibn Mawdūd ibn Zangī ibn Aq Sunqur, the ruler of Mosul.

He was one of Nūr al-Dīn’s most cherished mamluks; Nūr al-Dīn appointed him master of the household and granted him an emirate. When Nūr al-Dīn died, his son al-Qāhir assumed power. In the year that al-Malik al-ʿĀdil died, al-Qāhir ʿIzz al-Dīn Masʿūd invested his own son with the sultanate; when that son passed away, Luʾluʾ undertook the administration of the kingdom, while the boy and his brother were only figureheads. They were the grandsons—through their mother—of Muẓaffar al-Dīn, lord of Irbil. Luʾluʾ set them up one after the other, and then in 630 AH he himself assumed the sultanate.

He was a valiant, brave, decisive, and shrewd leader—forceful and oppressive—yet, for all that, beloved by the populace. He combined generosity with authority and was counted among the most handsome of men. He lavished gifts on visitors, was diplomatic and cautious, and cultivated relations with both the Mongols and the Muslim kings; and he was formidable.