handed it out (1); therefore, let every servant beware of this world, for it is treacherous and deceptive. It (2) steals away even the foremost scholars and devout worshippers—let alone the common people and military commanders. Ibn al-Jawzī himself later fell into the very predicament that befell al-Suhrawardī, and to an even greater degree.

In this year: the Franks marched on Ḥimṣ, crossing the ʿĀṣī River on a bridge they had built in their own lands. When the victorious Muslim troops learned of them, they mounted (3) in pursuit; the Franks fled, many of them were killed, and the Muslims seized fine spoils—praise be to Allah.

In the same year: the lord of al-Jazīrah was slain. He was among the worst of men in conduct and the vilest (4) in secret disposition: King Sanjar Shāh (5) ibn Ghāzī ibn Mawdūd ibn Zankī ibn Āq Sunqur al-Atābakī, cousin of Nūr al-Dīn, ruler of Mosul. His own son Ghāzī undertook the killing, infiltrated his quarters, entered while he was drunk in the privy, stabbed him fourteen times with a dagger, and then slit his throat—seeking thereby to claim the throne. But Allah deprived him of that (6): the oath of allegiance was given to his brother Maḥmūd, and this Ghāzī—the undutiful to his father—(7) was killed the very same day. Thus Allah stripped him of both kingdom and life, yet He relieved the Muslims of his father’s oppression, brutality, and debauchery.

Allah the Exalted says: “And thus We set some of the wrongdoers over others because of what they used to earn.” ⦗al-Anʿām 6:129⦘

Among those who also died this year (8) was Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Bikhtiyār (9) ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Jaʿfar al-Wāsiṭī, known as Ibn al-Mandāʾī (10).