and he was a jurist, adherent of the Shafi‘i school. He pursued the study of comparative law (khilāf) and dialectical reasoning (ʿilm al-naẓar), but later set all of that aside for poetry, and he was counted among the most knowledgeable of people concerning the poetry of the Arabs and the varieties of their dialects.

He (1) said: “He was called Ḥayṣa Bayṣa only because he once saw the people in frantic commotion and exclaimed, ‘What is the matter with the people—ḥayṣ bayṣ?’—meaning ‘in hardship and turmoil’; the phrase clung to him thereafter.” He claimed to be descended from Aktham ibn Ṣayfī, the “physician of the Arabs,” yet he left no offspring. He held a draft payable in al-Ḥillah and went there to collect it (2), but he died in Baghdad in that very year—may Allah Most High have mercy on him.

[Then entered the year 575 AH]

In that year the battle of Marj ʿUyūn took place.

At the very beginning of the year Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Nāṣir (3) was camped with his army on Tell al-Qāḍī near Bāniyās. The Franks then advanced against him with their entire host (4), so he rose against them [with a lion’s spring and confronted them] (5). No sooner had the two sides come face to face (6) and the armies collided (7) than Allah sent down His help, strengthened His troops, [and single-handedly routed the enemy] (8). The banners of the Cross turned and fled (9), while the cavalry of Allah rode upon their necks (10). A vast number of them were killed, [an immense throng] (11), and several of their kings were taken prisoner and submitted to obedience: among them the commander of the Templars, the commander of the Hospitallers, the lord of Ramla, the lord of Tiberias, the castellan of Jaffa, and other princes of theirs, together with many of their champions and heroes; from the knights of Jerusalem alone there were close (12) to three hundred prisoners drawn from the Christian nobility. They reeled in their fetters, passing one another (13) like drunkards—though they were not drunk.