So exalted is He in whose hand lies the dominion of all things, and to Him you will all be returned. (1)

As for the two villages that were spared, not a single person in either of them died, nor were their inhabitants even aware of what had happened to the surrounding villages; they went on exactly as before—no one was missing. Exalted is the All-Wise, the All-Knowing. (2)

In Yemen during that same year an exceedingly strange event occurred. A man named ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥamzah al-ʿAlawī had seized control of many districts of Yemen (3), mustering about twelve thousand cavalrymen and a great host of infantry. The King of Yemen, Ismāʿīl ibn Sayf al-Islām Ṭughtakīn ibn Ayyūb (4), feared him and was convinced that this usurper would bring his reign to an end. Certain of ruin—too weak to resist him, and with his own emirs [inclining toward this ʿAlawī out of fear]—the aforesaid ʿAlawī advanced against him. When only a few stages separated them, the king’s closest commanders assembled to consult with him (5). Allah thereupon sent a thunderbolt that struck them, and not one of them survived—[save for a band of horsemen and foot-soldiers] (6). [The army then fell into disarray; al-Muʿizz advanced with his forces, overwhelmed them, and slew] six thousand men (7)(8), after which he remained secure upon his throne.

That same year the two brothers—al-Afdal, stationed in Ṣarkhad, and al-Zāhir, in Aleppo—corresponded and agreed that they would join forces to besiege Damascus, wrest it from al-Muʿaẓẓam ibn al-ʿĀdil, and assign it to al-Afdal. They would then march (9) to Egypt and seize it (10) from al-ʿĀdil and his son al-Kāmil, who had violated the pact, annulled the Friday sermon in the name of al-Manṣūr ibn al-ʿAzīz, and broken their covenants. Once Egypt was firmly under their control (11) it would be granted to al-Afdal, while Damascus would be added to al-Zāhir’s domain (12) together with Aleppo. When this news reached al-Malik al-ʿĀdil (13)(14)