your uncle—Shihāb al-Dīn al-Ḥāramī. If we were to meet King Nūr al-Dīn, we would hurry to him and kiss the very ground before him; the same would be true of the rest of these emirs and the army, and if he were to write (1) ordering me to send you to him with a mounted courier, I would do so.

He then told those present to withdraw and depart. When he was alone with his son he said:

“Have you no sense? You raise such matters in front of these men, so ʿUmar comes out with words like that and you let them stand! Nothing would then matter more to Nūr al-Dīn than to set out against you, fight you, and lay our lands in ruin. If (2) these men were to behold him, not one of them would remain with you—they would all go over to him. Instead, write to him, speak gently, humble yourself before him and say:

‘What need is there for our lord the sultan to come all this way to fight me? Send me a courier—or even a camel-driver—and I will come with him into your presence.’”

Salāḥ al-Dīn sent that message. When Nūr al-Dīn heard such words his heart softened toward him; his attention turned elsewhere and he occupied himself with other matters. “And the command of Allah is a decree determined” (Quran 33:38).

In the same year:

Nūr al-Dīn set up a system of carrier pigeons, owing to the breadth of his dominions, for he ruled from the frontier of Nubia to Hamadan, interrupted only by the lands of the Franks—may Allah curse them (3)—all of whom were under his domination and truce. (4) Accordingly, he stationed in every citadel and fortress pigeons that conveyed letters to distant horizons with the greatest speed and the least expense. How apt is the remark of al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil: “Pigeons are the angels of kings.” Al-ʿImād the secretary (5) wrote on the subject at great length, with charm and delight, in passages wondrous and novel (6)—may Allah have mercy on him.

Among the notable deaths this year was that of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad [ibn Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad] (7), Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Khashshāb (8). He recited the Quran, heard hadith, and pursued grammar and philology until he surpassed the scholars of his age in both fields. He produced a commentary on “al-Jumal” (9) by ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī. He was a devout man who volunteered much in acts of worship—something rare among grammarians. [His death] (10) occurred in