—and on to the Frankish frontier (1), where they killed great numbers of people, devastated many places, seized abundant booty, and returned unscathed.
Al-Muʿazzam then set about fortifying Mount Ṭūr and building (2) a citadel upon it so that it might serve as a rallying point against the Franks. He poured vast sums into the project, but the Franks sent (3) envoys to al-ʿĀdil asking for safe-conduct and a treaty. Al-ʿĀdil concluded a truce with them; the construction was therefore abandoned, and all that al-Muʿazzam had spent on it went to waste—Allah knows best.
Among the notable figures (4) who died in that year were:
Shaykh Abū ʿUmar (5), builder of the school at the foot of Mount Qāsioun for the poor [who devote themselves to the Quran] (6) (may Allah have mercy on him). His full name was Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah, the righteous shaykh Abū ʿUmar al-Maqdisī. He erected the school where the Quran is recited at the foot of Mount Qāsioun and was the brother of the eminent scholar Muwaffaq al-Dīn (7) ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah (8). Shaykh Abū ʿUmar was the elder of the two, for he was born in 528 AH in the village of al-Sāwiyah (9)—some say in Jammaʿīl (10). Shaykh Abū ʿUmar (11) raised Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn, treated him with kindness, arranged his marriage, and oversaw his affairs.
When they returned from the Holy Land, they stayed (12) at the Mosque of Abū Ṣāliḥ outside Bāb Sharqī and then moved from there to
(1) In edition Ṭ: He then set out with his companions and his distinguished retinue toward the Franks.
(2) In edition Ṭ: And he built a fortress.
(3) In version Ab: “So I was sent.”
(4) In edition Ṭ: And some of the dignitaries died there.
(5) Biography of Abu ‘Umar in Mir’āt al-Zamān (vol. 8, p. 546); al-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Naqqāla (vol. 2, p. 202); Zhayl al-Rawdatayn (p. 71); Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 13, p. 171); al-‘Ibar (vol. 5, p. 25); Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’ (vol. 22, p. 5); al-Wāfī bi’l-Wafayāt (vol. 2, p. 116); Zhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila (vol. 20, p. 52); al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (vol. 6, p. 28); al-Dāris (vol. 2, pp. 100–102); al-Qalā’id al-Jawhariyya (vol. 21, p. 165); al-Maqṣad al-Arshad (vol. 2, p. 346); Shadharāt al-Dhahab (vol. 7, pp. 50–56). Bashshār reports that Ibn Ukhtih al-Ḍiyā’ (d. 643/1245) composed a volume on his life (Dahiriya collection no. 83, fols. 39–43), most of which al-Dhahabī incorporated into his Tārīkh al-Islām.
(6) Found only in edition Ṭ.
(7) In edition Ṭ: “He was the founder of the school on the slope where the Qur’ān al-‘Azīz is recited; he was the brother of the shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn.”
(8) His biography will appear under no. 620 in the Wafayāt section of this volume.
(9) In al-Dāris the name appears as “Aksawiya,” and its margin likewise reads “Aksawiya.” This matches the form here in Zhayl al-Rawdatayn (p. 71). I have not determined which is correct.
(10) Jammā‘īl: a village on Mount Nablus in Palestine; Nablus and its environs all fall under Bayt al-Maqdis (see Mu‘jam al-Buldān, vol. 3, p. 94; al-Qalā’id al-Jawhariyya, vol. 1, p. 218, no. 2). Bashshār reports that al-Dhahabī, quoting al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyā’, states: “His birth… in Jammā‘īl—I saw it in his father’s own handwriting.”
(11) In version Ab, it reads: “(and it is).”
(12) In versions A and B: “And he is the one who brought them from those lands, so they settled.” This is incorrect, since it was his father who brought them.