who wrested the vizierate from the hands of the Banū Ruzzīk (1). He was also the first to appoint al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil as a state secretary, having summoned him from Alexandria through Bāb al-Sidrah (2). The judge quickly rose in his favor, and the palace secretaries withdrew before him once they witnessed his learning and distinction.

Poets sang Shāwar’s praises. Among them was ʿUmārah al-Yamanī, who said (3):
[from al-Kāmil]
Iron grows weary of iron, yet Shāwar—(4)
in championing (5) the religion of Muḥammad—never tires.
Time swore it would one day bring his equal;
you have broken your oath, O Time, so make expiation!

Shāwar remained in office until the amir Dirghām ibn Sawwār rose against him. He sought refuge with King Nūr al-Dīn (6), who dispatched Amīr Asad al-Dīn Shīrkūh to accompany him; together they defeated his enemy. Thereafter Shāwar broke his pledge—[and exceeded his bounds] (7). Asad al-Dīn continued to harbor resentment toward him until, in this very year, Shāwar was put to death at the hands of Asad al-Dīn’s nephew Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf: his neck was struck off in the presence of [the amir Jurdīk] (8) on the seventeenth of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir. After him Asad al-Dīn [Shīrkūh, as we have mentioned] (9) assumed the vizierate, but he held it for only two months and five days.

Ibn Khallikān (10) states: He is Abū Shujāʿ Shāwar ibn Mujīr (11) ibn Nizār ibn ʿAshāʾir ibn Shaʾs ibn Mughīth ibn Ḥabīb ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Rabīʿah ibn Mukhais (12) ibn Abī Dhuʾayb ʿAbd Allāh, the father of Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah (13).

Such are his words (14), yet this lineage warrants examination, for it seems too short to span so great a stretch of time. Allah knows best.