Imad the Secretary (1) said: “He was without peer, abundant in virtue.” The learned judge al-Fadil, acting for al-Malik al-ʿAdil Abu Bakr (2), the deputy ruler of Egypt, wrote to the people of Yemen, Yanbuʿ (3), and Mecca, informing them of Sultan al-Nasir’s resolve to perform the pilgrimage that year to the Sacred Mosque (4), so that they might ready themselves for the sovereign and see to his needs. The Sultan took with him Sadr al-Din Abu al-Qasim ʿAbd al-Rahim (5), the shaykh al-shuyukh of Baghdad, who had arrived as an imperial envoy (6) from the Caliph, that he might remain in the Sultan’s service on the journey to Egypt and accompany him to the noble Hijaz.
The Sultan entered Egypt, where the army came out to welcome him; it was a day long remembered. As for Sadr al-Din, he tarried there only briefly before sailing to the noble Hijaz, where he began the fast in the Sacred Mosque (7).
In the same year, Qaraqush al-Taqawi (8) marched toward the Maghrib, besieged Gabès (9) and many surrounding forts, and gained possession of most of them. It happened that he captured from one of those strongholds a beardless youth (10) and resolved to kill him. The people of the fort pleaded, “Do not kill him; take ten thousand dinars instead” (11), but he refused. They then raised the offer to one hundred thousand dinars (12), yet he still insisted on killing him, and he did so. When the deed was done, the lord of the fort—an aged man—came down carrying the keys of the fortress (13) and said to him, “Take…"
(1) His biography will appear under the deaths of 597 in this volume.
(2) al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn Shādhī, known as Sayf al-Dīn. Born in 540 AH, he was raised in the service of Nūr al-Dīn alongside his father. His brother Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn frequently consulted him, relying on his judgment, intellect, and resourcefulness. He ruled Damascus for 23 years and Egypt for 19 years, leaving behind sixteen sons (in addition to daughters). He died in 615 AH. See Ibn al-Athīr (vol. 9, pp. 326–327); Dhayl al-Rawdhatayn (vol. 9, pp. 111–113); Abū al-Fidāʾ (vol. 3, pp. 119–120); and al-ʿIbar, Beirut ed. (vol. 3, pp. 167–168).
(3) In the printed edition: al-Baqīʿ, which is a scribal error. (al-Rawdhatayn, vol. 2, p. 19)
(4) Read from the letter bāʾ alone.
(5) He is ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Ṣūfī, Shaykh al-Shuyūkh and son of Shaykh al-Shuyūkh Ṣadr al-Dīn. He succeeded his father upon the latter’s death in 541 AH, combining religious and temporal leadership. The caliph sent him as an envoy to Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn; he died on his return to Iraq in 580 AH. (Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 9, p. 167; Abū al-Fidāʾ, vol. 3, p. 68)
(6) In the printed edition: “who came from the caliph’s side in the message and brought the khulʿ to enact it.”
(7) In the autograph: “in the mosque.”
(8) This Qarāqush is not the Amir Bahāʾ al-Dīn Qarāqush al-Asadī, whose biography is given under the deaths of 597 in this volume. (Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 4, p. 91)
(9) In the printed edition: Fās, which is a scribal error. (al-Rawdhatayn, vol. 2, p. 21) Qābis is a city on the seacoast between Tripoli and Sfax, later al-Mahdīyah (see Muʿjam al-BulDān). It is today in southeastern Tunisia on the Gulf of Gabès.
(10) In the printed edition: Aswad, which is a scribal error. (al-Rawdhatayn, vol. 2, p. 21)
(11) In the printed edition: “and take for yourself ratiyah.”
(12) In the printed edition: “so he conveyed him.”
(13) In the printed edition: “that fortress.”