They took him prisoner and appropriated all his stores and wealth—which were exceedingly great—then moved down the coast, occupying eighteen pulpits (1) in addition to the surrounding villages. A large number of people converted to Christianity at their hands—may Allah curse them— (2). They came to Ḥimṣ, where they burned and looted, and the Byzantine king remained for two months, seizing whatever territory he pleased and capturing every soul he could. An awesome dread of him settled in people’s hearts. When he finally returned to his own land he carried off nearly one hundred thousand boys and girls as captives. His withdrawal was prompted by the many diseases that had struck his army and their yearning for their children, families, and homelands.
He dispatched a column to al-Jazīrah, where they pillaged and enslaved. In those days Qarquwayh, once a slave of Sayf al-Dawlah, had seized Aleppo and expelled his master’s son Abū al-Maʿālī Sharīf ibn Sayf al-Dawlah. Abū al-Maʿālī set out for Ḥarrān, which was under his authority, but its people refused him entry. He therefore went to his mother in Mayyāfāriqīn—she was the daughter of Saʿīd ibn Ḥamdān—and stayed with her a while, then marched to Ḥamāh and took it, returning to Aleppo two years later, as will be mentioned. When the Byzantines devastated Syria that year, Qarquwayh courted their favour on behalf of Aleppo, sending them money and gifts. They then turned back to Antioch, captured it, slaughtered a great many of its inhabitants, and took almost all the rest into captivity. From there they rode on to Aleppo while Abū al-Maʿālī was besieging his former servant Qarquwayh. Fearing them, Abū al-Maʿālī fled; the Byzantines invested Aleppo, took the city, but the citadel resisted them. They eventually agreed with Qarquwayh to a perpetual truce in return for an annual tribute, handed the city over to him, and withdrew.
In this same year a man called Abū Khazr rebelled against the Fatimid al-Muʿizz while the latter was still in Ifrīqiyah. Al-Muʿizz advanced against him in person with his troops; Abū Khazr fled, and al-Muʿizz sent Yūsuf Bulukīn (3) ibn Zīrī after him. Bulukīn brought him back and drove him out, whereupon Abū Khazr returned and sought safe-conduct; al-Muʿizz granted it and pardoned him.
That year a messenger from the commander Jawhar reached al-Muʿizz with the glad tidings of Egypt’s conquest and the establishment of the Fatimid call there, together with an invitation for him to come. Al-Muʿizz rejoiced immensely, and poets hastened to praise him. Among them was his court poet Muḥammad ibn Hānī, who opened an ode with the lines:
The sons of al-ʿAbbās ask, “Has Egypt been taken?”
Say to the sons of al-ʿAbbās: “The matter is settled.”
Ibn al-Athīr relates that in this same year Nikophoros, who had first been domestikos and then became king of the Byzantines, died. He had intended to kill the two sons of the preceding monarch, but their mother discovered his plan and slew him by stealth.
He adds: This accursed man was himself born to Muslim parents; his father, one of the righteous Muslims of Ṭarsūs, was known as Ibn al-Faqqās. Yet this dog embraced Christianity, won favour with the Byzantines, and attained the rank he held. He became one of the fiercest of people against the Muslims and conquered many lands by force.