with severe poverty during the month of Ramadan, so he resolved to go to one of his companions and borrow something. He related: “While I was on my way to him, a bird suddenly alighted on my shoulder and said, ‘O Abū al-Maʿālī! I am the angel so-and-so; do not go to him—what you need will be brought to you.’” [He added: the man actually came to see me very early the next morning.] (1)
(1) Ibn al-Jawzī records this story in his al-Munẓam through several chains of transmission. Abū al-Maʿālī died in the present year and was buried near the grave of Aḥmad.
The Lady, daughter of the Caliph al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh (2)—whom Ṭughrul Beg had married—also died this year. She was buried in al-Ruṣāfa; she was noted for her abundant charity and her preference for others. [The vizier received the mourners for her in the Bayt al-Nūbah] (3).
[Then the year 497 AH began.]
In it: the Franks—may Allah curse them—advanced against Syria. The Muslims confronted them and killed twelve thousand of their men; Allah turned the unbelievers back in frustration, and they gained nothing. In this encounter Baldwin, lord of Edessa, was taken captive.
In the same year the minaret of Wāsiṭ collapsed. It had been one of the finest minarets, and the townspeople prided themselves on it and on the Dome of al-Ḥajjāj (4). When it fell, the crying and wailing of the inhabitants were unlike anything previously heard, yet no one was killed as a result (5). The minaret had been built in 304 AH, during the reign of al-Muqtadir.
That year also witnessed the final confirmation of peace between the two brother-sultans, Muḥammad and Barkiyāruq. They divided the realm: mention of Muḥammad was removed from the Friday sermon in Baghdad, while it was retained for King Barkiyāruq, and robes of honor were dispatched to him and to Emir Īyāz.
During the same year the Franks seized the city of Acre and other coastal towns.
Likewise, Emir Sayf al-Dawlah Ṣadaqah ibn Manṣūr, lord of al-Ḥiqqah, took possession of Wāsiṭ (6).
In that year King Duqāq ibn Tutush, ruler of Damascus, died. His mamluk Ṭughtakīn installed Duqāq’s young son in his place, secured the oath of allegiance for him, and himself became atabeg, governing the kingdom in Damascus for a time.
That year Sultan Sanjar dismissed his vizier Abū al-Fath al-Ṭughrāʾī and banished him to Ghazna.