and the duke (1), commander of the Byzantines, together with Joscelin’s son; ten thousand of them were killed—some say twenty thousand.
In Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that same year, Nūr al-Dīn captured the city of Banias. Others maintain that its conquest occurred in 560 AH (2)—and Allah knows best. Accompanying him was his brother Naṣrat al-Dīn, the amir of amirs (3); an arrow struck one of his eyes and put it out. King Nūr al-Dīn said to him, “If you could see what (4) Allah has prepared for you of reward in the Hereafter, you would wish that the other eye were gone as well.” He also said to Ibn Muʿīn al-Dīn (5), “Today the skin (6) of your father has cooled from the Fire of Hell, for he had handed it over to the Franks (7) as part of a treaty for Damascus.”
In the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah [of this year] (8) the Palace of Jīrūn was engulfed (9) by a tremendous fire. That very night the emir (10) Asad al-Dīn Shīrkūh, having just returned from the Egyptian lands (11), hastened to the scene and strove mightily to stem (12) the blaze and shield the precincts of the Great Mosque from it—[may Allah reward him with good and grant him the abode of permanence] (13).
Among the notable figures who died that year was al-Jamāl, vizier to the lord of Mosul (14): Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Manṣūr, Abū Jaʿfar al-Isfahānī, known as al-Jawād (15), who had served as vizier to Qutb al-Dīn Mawdūd ibn Zangī, ruler of Mosul.
(1) In the edition (ṭ): “sahib.”
(2) In ṭ: “And it is said that he only conquered it in the year sixty.”
(3) Sources differ regarding his name and laqab: some record Nāsir al-Dīn, others Nusrat al-Dīn, others Naṣīr al-Dīn. Most agree he was Amīr al-Umara Nusrat al-Dīn ibn Zanki ibn Aq Sunqur al-Turki, brother of Nūr al-Dīn. He fell on the day of the conquest of Banyas. A brave and intrepid commander, he was beloved by his brother Nūr al-Dīn. He died in 560 AH, and his death was deeply mourned. His biography appears in Ibn al-Qalānisī (pp. 533 & 542–543), al-Rawḍatayn (vol. 1, pp. 107, 110 & 139), al-ʿIlāq al-Khaṭīrah (vol. 3/1, pp. 56–57), al-ʿIbar (vol. 4, p. 169), Ibn Khaldūn (vol. 5, p. 246), al-Kawākib al-Durriyya (pp. 153 & 168) and al-Nujūm (vol. 5, p. 367).
(4) In ṭ: “lamma.”
(5) In the B manuscript, after “that” reads “anz.”
(6) In ṭ: “Indeed, today it has cooled.”
(7) In ṭ: “for the Franks.”
(8) In B: “this is from the Sunnah (tradition),” a clause absent in ṭ.
(9) Absent in the Ā manuscript.
(10) In ṭ: “the amirs among them.”
(11) In ṭ: “from Egypt.”
(12) In ṭ: “itfa’” (extinguishing), a term not found in B.
(13) Both sentences are absent in ṭ; the second sentence is also absent in B.
(14) His biography is in al-Muntazam (vol. 10, p. 209), Ibn al-Athir (vol. 9, pp. 87–88), al-Rawdatayn (vol. 1, pp. 134–139), Wafayat al-Ayan (vol. 5, pp. 143–147), Tarikh al-Islam (vol. 12, pp. 163–164), al-Ibar (vol. 4, p. 166) and Mirat al-Jinan (vol. 3, p. 342).
(15) In ṭ: “bil-jamal” (with the camels), a corrupt reading, and he is not listed in any of the biographical sources cited here.