it became a raging fire (1) whose tongues of flame leapt high into the air, and everyone who had been inside was burned alive (2). The Muslims raised a single shout of tahlīl and takbīr, and in each tower seventy (3) of the unbelieving fighters perished. It was a day of hardship for the disbelievers—Monday, the twenty-eighth (4) of Rabiʿ al-Awwal of that same year. The Franks had laboured over the towers (5) for seven full months (6), only to see them consumed in a single day, as in the divine saying: “We shall turn to whatever deeds they wrought, and We shall render them as scattered dust” (al-Furqan: 23).

The Sultan then offered that young coppersmith (7) a generous reward, but he declined, saying, “I have done this solely to seek the Face of Allah and in hope of what is with Him—glorified be He (8). I desire from you neither recompense nor thanks.”

Soon an Egyptian fleet arrived bearing abundant provisions for the townspeople. The Franks mustered their own fleet to fight (9) the Muslim fleet, whereupon the Sultan advanced with his army to distract them from the naval battle (10). The townspeople fought as well, the two fleets engaged at sea, and it was a momentous, memorable day (11), with war on both land and sea. The Franks captured only a single shīnī (12) from the Muslims’ fleet, while Allah preserved all the rest, so the ships reached the city with their cargo of provisions—supplies for which the people had been in dire need even of a tenth—and they praised Allah Most High for the ease that followed their hardship (13).

As for the German king mentioned earlier, he advanced with an immense host (14) of nearly three hundred thousand fighting men, intent on destroying the city, killing its Muslim inhabitants, and reclaiming Jerusalem. He passed through province (15) after province, but by Allah’s help and power he accomplished none of that; rather, Allah—Mighty and Majestic—destroyed them at every