and Sayf al-Din ʿAli b. Ahmad al-Mashtub (1). At the frontier of Homs he stationed his cousin Nasir al-Din b. Asad al-Din Shirkuh (2). He then sent word to his brother Sayf al-Din Abu Bakr—al-Malik al-ʿAdil (3), the viceroy of Egypt—ordering him to dispatch one thousand five hundred cavalry (4) to help him fight the Franks.

He also wrote to the Franks, commanding them to demolish the fortress they had built for the Templars (al-Dāwiyah). They refused unless he would reimburse them for what it had cost. He offered them sixty thousand dinars, but they would not accept; he raised the offer to one hundred thousand dinars (5), and still they refused. His nephew Taqi al-Din ʿUmar said to him, “Spend that money on the Muslim troops (6) and march against the fortress—then tear it down (7).” So he did, and that is indeed what came to pass (8) in the following year, as (9) we shall relate, Allah willing.

In the same year: The caliph al-Mustaḍīʾ (10) ordered that a tablet be set upon the grave of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal (11)(12). It bore Āyat al-Kursī (the Verse of the Throne), and beneath it the words: “This is the grave of the Crown of the Sunnah, the Unique One of the Ummah (13), lofty of aspiration, a scholar-worshipper, a jurist-ascetic,” together with (14) the date of his death—may Allah Most High have mercy on him (15).

That year as well, the authorities in Baghdad placed a watch on a poet who performed for the Rawāfiḍ (16), a man called Ibn Qurāyā (17). He would stand in the marketplaces reciting poems that contained censure of the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them (18)—reviling them, accusing them of injustice, and maligning those who loved them. A judicial council was convened for him