He loved learning and charitable giving, and every pilgrim who traveled with him enjoyed the utmost ease, comfort, and security, thanks to his bravery and to the esteem in which he was held by caliphs, kings, and amirs.

[His death occurred after he had returned] (1) from (2) the Hijaz route, on the night of Tuesday, the eleventh of Dhu al-Qaʿda; he was buried in al-Rusafa.

[Then the year 545 AH began.]

During it:

Nur al-Din Maḥmūd captured the fortress of Afamiyah, one of the most impregnable strongholds, [and one of the most delightful spots] (3).

It is also said that he seized it (4) in the year (5) before.

In the same year he marched against Damascus intending to take it, but was unable to do so (6). He therefore invested its ruler, Mujir al-Din Abaq (7), and his vizier, al-Raʾīs Ibn al-Sufi, with robes of honor; thereafter the Friday khuṭbah (8) was delivered in his name there, directly after that of the caliph and the sultan, and the coinage likewise bore his inscription.

In that year too Nur al-Din took the fortress of ʿAzaz (9) and captured the son of its ruler, the son of Joscelin. All the Muslims rejoiced at this. Soon afterward his father, Joscelin the Frankish king, was also taken prisoner (10), whereupon the joy was even greater. After Joscelin’s capture a great many of his fortresses were conquered—praise and favor belong to Allah, and with Him is success and protection (11).

In Muḥarram of the same year Yūsuf al-Dimashqī assumed the teaching chair at the Niẓāmiyyah, receiving a robe of honor in the presence of the prominent figures of the city. Because the appointment had been issued by decree of the sultan and Ibn Niẓām al-Mulk, without the caliph’s prior permission, it was annulled; he therefore remained in his home and never returned to the madrasa. Shaykh Abū al-Najīb was appointed after him with the caliph’s authorization and the sultan’s decree (12).