those inside them, thereby resembling their predecessors among 1 the disbelievers from the People of the Book, as Allah—exalted is He—says in His clear Book 2: “They destroy their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers” 3 [al-Hashr: 2].
Section
On the 4 third of Ramadan the Franks tightened their siege of the town 5 until they descended into the moat. The townspeople sallied forth against them and killed a great many of them. They also managed to set fire to the battering-ram 6 that the enemy had built 7 to breach the walls; the flames spread to the roofs 8 and a mighty blaze 9 shot up into the sky. The Muslims then pulled the ram toward themselves with iron grappling-hooks attached to chains, secured it 10, and doused it with cold water. After several days it cooled, and it contained one hundred qintars of iron by the Damascene measure. All praise and favor belong to Allah.
On the 11 twenty-eighth of Ramadan King Zayn al-Din 12, ruler of Erbil, died 13 during the siege of Acre while accompanying the Sultan. People grieved for him because of his youth [his being far from home and his generosity] 14. His brother Muzaffar 15 al-Din was left bereft; he is the one who succeeded to the throne after him. He asked Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn to add Shahrazur 16 to his dominion and to leave Harran and al-Ruhaʾ (Edessa) to him.
(1) Not found in manuscript A.
(2) In the ṭ edition their place is the phrase “in the saying of Allah.”
(3) In ṭ: yukharribūn (they wreck). This is a gross scribal error.
(4) In manuscript B: “wa-fī thālith shahr Ramaḍān” (“and in the third of Ramadan”).
(5) In ṭ: “lil-madīnah” (“to Medina”).
(6) In ṭ: “al-kabs”; in A: “al-makbas.” Both readings are corrupt; see the report in al-Rawḍatayn (vol. 2, p. 164).
(7) In B: “aʿaddūhu” (“they prepared it”).
(8) In A and B: “al-sufūd”.
(9) In A: “lahab ʿaẓīm” (“great flame”); in B: “fa-raʿtifaʿat ilayhi” (“and it rose toward him”); in ṭ: “wa-raʿtifaʿat.”
(10) In ṭ: “fa-ḥaṣala” (“and it occurred”).
(11) In A: “And with the sultan, on the twenty-eighth of Ramadan, was Malik Zayn al-Dīn, lord of Irbil; he died at Acre.”
(12) He is Zayn al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Zayn al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Buktakīn ibn Muḥammad. His biography and reported deeds appear in Ibn al-Athīr (vol. 9, p. 210), al-Rawḍatayn (vol. 2, p. 164), and al-ʿIbar (vol. 4, p. 260).
(13) In B: “wa-kāna maʿa al-sulṭān ʿalā ʿAkkā” (“and he was with the sultan at Acre”).
(14) Not found in manuscript B.
(15) In ṭ: “wa-ʿazzā akhahu Muẓaffar al-Dīn” (“and he consoled his brother Muẓaffar al-Dīn”). The biography of Muẓaffar al-Dīn was given above in the footnotes for the year 581.
(16) Shahrazur is a large district (kūra) and town in Jabal, between Irbil and Hamadan. Ki Lustring noted that it lies four stages’ march northwest of Dinawar (see Muʿjam al-Buldān; Buldan al-Khilāfah, p. 226).