Consequently, Saladin gained control of the entire Jazira region and contemplated besieging Mosul, but that did not materialize. He then proceeded to Aleppo and received it from ʿImad al-Din Zangi, who was too weak to defend it because of the scant supply (1) of weapons and military equipment that ʿIzz al-Din had left behind. This occurred in the following year, as we shall relate.

In that same year: the Frankish prince (2), lord of Karak—may Allah curse him—resolved to march on Tayma in the Hijaz (3) so that he might thereby reach the Prophet’s City. Saladin therefore dispatched a detachment (4) from Damascus to stand between him and the Hijaz, and that thwarted his design; praise be to Allah.

Also in that year: Sultan Saladin appointed his brother, Sayf al-Islam Zahir al-Din Tughtakin (5) ibn Ayyub, as governor of Yemen, invested him with full authority, and sent him there. He did so because its deputies were divided and its people in turmoil after the death of al-Muʿaẓẓam Turanshah, the Sultan’s brother who had first conquered it. When strife erupted and confusion multiplied, Tughtakin’s ambitions turned toward Yemen, so his brother dispatched him and granted him authority over it. He traveled there and arrived in 578 AH, ruling with exemplary conduct and establishing justice and integrity. He seized the wealth of Haṭṭān ibn Munqid (6), the deputy (7) of Zabid, which amounted to roughly (8) one million dinars or more. As for the governor of Aden, Fakhr al-Din ʿUthman al-Zanjabili (9), he had left Yemen before Tughtakin’s arrival (10) and settled in Syria. He possessed well-known endowments in Yemen and Mecca, and the Zanjabili Madrasa (11) outside Bab Tuma, opposite the Dar al-Maṭʿam (12), is attributed to him. He had amassed exceedingly great wealth (13) from Yemen.