He installed in his place over the kingdom (1) his brother ʿIzz al-Dīn Masʿūd, appointing Mujāhid al-Dīn Qaymaz as his lieutenant and administrator of the realm.
Envoys of the caliph then arrived, requesting Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn to leave Sarūj, al-Ruha (Edessa), al-Raqqah, Ḥarrān, and Naṣībīn in his hands just as they had been in his brother’s; the sultan refused. He said, “These towns safeguard the frontiers (2) of Islam. I had left them with him only so that he might assist us in fighting the Franks, but he did not do so.” He therefore wrote to the caliph, informing him that in abandoning that arrangement lay the greater benefit for the Muslims (3).
The death (4) of Turanshah, the sultan’s brother (5) — may Allah Most High have mercy on him (6):
In this same year the sultan’s elder (7) brother, the illustrious King Shams (8) al-Dawlah wa-l-Dīn Turanshah ibn Ayyūb (9), passed away. At the command of his brother Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn he had conquered the land of Yemen, remained there for a time, and amassed great wealth; he then appointed a deputy there and (10) set out for his brother in Syria, yearning to meet him. On the road he sent him some verses composed for him by his poet Ibn al-Munajjim (11) when they had reached Taymāʾ (12):
In ṭawīl metre (13):
Shall my brother — nay, my sovereign — ever know that I …
Though the waiting be long, am returning to him? (14)
Mahmud hastened to the palace, seized it, killed his brother, and assumed power. He continued his efforts until he succeeded in killing his third brother. Sanjar Shah died in 605 AH (see Ibn al-Athir, vol. 9:299–300; Abu al-Fida, vol. 3:111–112).
(1) In Edition T: “wa-kana yuqalu lahu” (“and it was said of him”).
(2) In witnesses A and B: thaghr al-Muslimīn (the Muslims’ frontier fortress).
(3) In A: “an-al-maslaha fī kawnihā fī yadih” (“that the benefit lies in its being in his hand”); in B: “biyadih” (“in his hand”).
(4) In Editions T and B: “death of the sultan.”
(5) Attested only in witness A.
(6) For his biography and accounts, see Ibn al-Athir, vol. 9:152; Mir’at al-Zaman, vol. 8:362; Wafayat al-Ayan, vol. 1:306–309; Talkhis Majma al-Adab in Mu’jam al-Alqab, vol. 4:25/1185; Abu al-Fida, vol. 3:62; al-Ibar, vol. 4:228–229 (Beirut ed., vol. 3:138); Mir’at al-Jinan, vol. 2:404–405; Tabaqat al-Subki, vol. 5:52.
(7) Not found in Edition T.
(8) In A: Shams al-Din; in B: Shams al-Dawla wa al-Din.
(9) In Edition T, after the preceding phrase: “akhī Saladin wa-huwa alladhi” (“my brother Saladin, and it is he who…”).
(10) In Edition T: “wa-aqbal ilā ash-Sham shawqan ilā akhīhi” (“and he departed for Syria, longing for his brother”).
(11) In Edition T: “some poets composed for him a work called ‘Al-‘Amala.’”
(12) In Edition T: “Sama”; in B: “Asma’ and Tayma‘ Baliyda,” villages on the outskirts of ash-Sham, between them and Wadi al-Qura on the pilgrimage route from ash-Sham to Damascus (see Mu’jam al-Buldan). Note: today they lie within Saudi Arabia, between Tabuk and the Jordanian border.
(13) The verses appear in al-Rawdatayn, vol. 2:18–19.
(14) In Edition T: “ʿilm dha alladhi.”