at al-Minya (1), and he was a man of gallantry and boldness. They begged him for relief, cut off the hair of the women and children, folded it inside the letter, and smeared the page with soot. When he examined the missive, the soldiers around him saw what it contained and wept. He put on mourning clothes, won over the Arabs of Upper Egypt, gathered and mustered troops, wrote to the commanders in Cairo, and stirred them to demand vengeance. They answered his call.

He then marched on Cairo. The bulk of the army hastened to his stirrup, while ʿAbbās was left with only a small force. His strength collapsed, and he fled—he, his son Naṣr, his mamluks, and the amir Ibn Munqidh (2).

Ibn al-Athīr relates that it was Usāmah who encouraged ʿAbbās and his son to assassinate al-Ẓāfir and to kill al-ʿĀdil. It is also said that al-Ẓāfir had granted Naṣr ibn ʿAbbās the fief of Qalyūb (3), whereupon Usāmah commented, “It is not much to perish for.” (4)

ʿAbbās then made for Syria, heading toward the region of Ayla (5) in Rabīʿ al-Awwal. His days after the murder of al-Ẓāfir were but few, for Ṣāliḥ Ṭalāʾiʿ ibn Ruzzīk seized the land of Egypt without a single blow or thrust. He entered ʿAbbās’s residence, summoned the young servant who had attended al-Ẓāfir, and asked him where his master had been buried. When the boy showed him, he had the paving lifted, exhumed al-Ẓāfir and those slain with him, carried them away, and public lamentations were held over them.

Ṭalāʾiʿ assumed guardianship of al-Fāʾiz and administered the state (6).

Al-Ẓāfir’s sister dispatched an envoy to the Franks in Ascalon and offered them money