and swept away the murk of that cloud, tearing its fabric apart. To Allah belong grace and bounty, and praise be to Allah in every circumstance.

In the very year of his death the ruler of Constantinople also died, so joys were perfected and the long-sought hope was attained. Praise, then, be to Allah—by His favour good deeds are brought to completion and misdeeds erased, and by His mercy slips are forgiven.

The point is that this accursed man—Naqfūr, surnamed al-Dumastaq, king of the Armenians—had earlier sent a poem to the caliph al-Muṭīʿ li-llāh. One of his secretaries—whom Allah had forsaken and humbled, sealing his hearing and heart, placing a veil upon his sight, and turning him away from Islam and its foundations—composed it for him. In that ode the wretch boasts, reviles Islam and the Muslims, and threatens the domain of Islam, claiming that he will soon seize it all, even the two noble sanctuaries—while he is in truth lower, more abject, viler, and further astray than cattle. He alleges that he is championing the religion of the Messiah (peace be upon him), the son of the Virgin, and he may even have taken liberties with the person of the Messenger—upon whom are the greetings and honour of his Lord and unceasing blessings for all days.

I have not learned of anyone in that age who penned a reply to him (1). Perhaps the poem did not become widely known, or they deemed him too contemptible to deserve an answer, for he was like a stubborn denier, and the soul of its author shows him to be a rebellious devil. Later, however, Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm the Ẓāhirī rose to the task of answering it: he rendered fine service, refuting every false passage with what is correct and sound. May Allah drench his grave with mercy and make Paradise his resting-place and abode (2).

Now I shall cite the cursed, thwarted Armenian ode and follow it with the victorious, blessed Islamic reply.

The apostate Armenian unbeliever, speaking in the name of his king—may Allah curse them both and all the people of their religion, aktʿayīn abṣʿayīn, amen, Lord of the worlds—said. I copied it from the handwriting of Ibn ʿAsākir, who transcribed it from the book “Ṣilat al-Ṣila” by al-Farghānī (3):

1. From the pure Christian king, Maʾluk (4)
   to the heir of kings from the House of Hāshim;

2. To the noble sovereign al-Muṭīʿ, partner of loftiness,
   the one to whom men look in grave and weighty matters;

3. Have your ears not heard what I am about to do?
   Indeed—yet weakness has kept you from decisive deeds.

4. If you have fallen asleep regarding the charge you bear,
   I, for my part, am wide awake concerning what concerns me.