and invested him with robes of honor, whereupon he returned to his post. That same year he also took possession of Aleppo and Ḥamāh, capturing their ruler Sunq (1), son of Tāj al-Mulūk; the latter ransomed himself for fifty thousand dinars.

On Monday, the last day of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, the caliph conferred upon the naqīb al-nuqabāʾ—the Chief of the Prophet’s Descendants—the vizierate in his own right; no other member of the Abbasid house is known to have personally exercised that office.

In Ramadan of that year Dubays marched with an army to al-Ḥillah and seized it. He entered the town with only three hundred horsemen, then set about collecting money and the produce of the surrounding villages until he had amassed nearly five hundred thousand dinars. With this he hired close to ten thousand fighting men, and matters grew grave on his account.

He wrote to the caliph seeking reconciliation, but the caliph would not be appeased. Dubays then offered him exceedingly large sums, yet the caliph refused them and wrote to the sultan (2). The sultan sent an army against him; Dubays was routed, fled into the desert—may Allah never reunite his forces—and then raided Basra, seizing the stores that belonged to the sultan and the caliph. He again slipped into the desert, and news of him was cut off.

In this same year the ruler of Damascus slew six thousand of the Bāṭinīs (Ismāʿīlī extremists) and hung the head of their leader (3) on the gate of the citadel, thus relieving the people of Syria of their scourge.

That year as well, the Franks besieged Damascus. Its inhabitants sallied forth and fought them fiercely. The Damascenes dispatched ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (4) the preacher, together with a group of merchants, to Baghdad to seek the caliph’s aid; they even threatened (5) to smash the pulpit of the congregational mosque until he promised to write to the sultan (6) to send a large army in support of the people of Syria (7). Matters then calmed down, but no army was ever sent. Instead, Allah granted them victory directly from Himself, so the Muslims routed the enemy (8), killing ten thousand of them while only forty escaped. All praise and gratitude belong to Allah.

That same year Bohemond the Frank, lord of Antioch, was killed.

During this year the arrangements for the pilgrimage fell into chaos, for time had grown short because of Dubays’s rebellion—may Allah disgrace him—so one of the mamluks of Yaranqash al-Zakawī led the pilgrims; his name was Baghājaq.