and of fasting. Then certain people (1) rallied to his side (2), praised his integrity, and he was set free (3). It is said that on one occasion he preached in the Ḥarbiyyah quarter (4), where nearly (5) thirty thousand people (6) gathered to hear him.

Ibn al-Saʿī said:
In the same year Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, son of the Commander of the Believers al-Mustaḍīʾ, fell from a lofty dome to the ground, yet—praise be to Allah—escaped with his life. His right hand and the forearm of his left arm were dislocated (7), and part of his nose was skinned off. With him was a Black servant named Najāḥ; when he saw his master plunge downward, he flung himself after him, saying, “Life holds no worth for me after him.” He too survived unscathed. When the caliphate later passed to Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Nāṣir—this being the very youth who had fallen—he never forgot Najāḥ’s devotion (8): he gave him power in the administration of the state and treated him generously, for both of them had been children at the time of the accident.

In that year King Nūr al-Dīn marched toward the lands of the Byzantines, accompanied by his army, the king of the Armenians, the lord of Malatya, and a host of other kings and amirs. He captured several of their strongholds, praise be to Allah. He then laid siege to the Byzantine citadel, whose ruler placated him with fifty thousand dinars in tribute (9). After that he returned to Aleppo, having achieved success (10) in everything he sought, and subsequently went back (11) to Damascus, divinely aided and victorious, joyful and content.

[And in this same year] (12) King Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb conquered the lands of Yemen. The reason was that Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn had learned of a man there called ʿAbd al-Nabī ibn Mahdī who had seized control of the country (13), summoned the people to pledge allegiance to him, styled himself “the Imām,” and assured (14) his followers that he would one day rule (15) the entire earth. His brother ʿAlī ibn Mahdī had previously taken power