—buffalo wool together with the horns. A man then stood up to auction them, calling out: “How much of the shaykh’s wool and horns do you have?” (1) I replied, “I have no need for this; you are fully absolved of it” (2). Abu Shamah records the story (3).
[Then the year 608 AH began]
It commenced while al-ʿĀdil was staying on Mount Ṭūr to supervise the building of its fortress.
News arrived from the Maghrib that the son of ʿAbd al-Muʾmin (4) had inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Franks at Toledo, perhaps even taking the city by force and killing a great number of them (5).
That same year a severe and violent earthquake struck Egypt and Cairo, bringing down many houses. In the city of al-Karak (6) and in al-Shawbak it toppled towers of the citadel as well, and many women and children perished beneath the rubble. A column of smoke was seen descending from the sky [to the earth] (7) between sunset and the night prayer near the grave of ʿĀtika to the west of Damascus (8).
During that year the Bāṭiniyyah openly professed Islam, enforcing the ḥudūd against those who committed unlawful acts (9). They built congregational and neighborhood mosques and wrote to their brethren in Syria—in Muṣayyab (10) and elsewhere—to inform them of this change. Their leader, Jalāl al-Dīn, wrote to the caliph to apprise him of the matter, and a group of them came to Baghdad as pilgrims; they were honored and shown great respect (11) on that account. Yet when
(1) The printed edition reads “you have at your disposal the sheikh’s horns and fleece.” In Abū Shāmah’s version it reads “whoever buys the sheikh’s fleece and horns.”
(2) In the appendix to al-Rawdatayn: “return your fleece and horns to yourselves.”
(3) In the appendix to al-Rawdatayn (p. 77) the reading in the transmission differs.
(4) In the original sources it appears as “Abd al-Mu’min.” The correct reading is the one adopted here, found in the appendix to al-Rawdatayn (p. 78) and in al-Tārīkh al-Manṣūrī (p. 66).
(5) The printed edition reads “khalqan kathīran” (many creatures).
(6) The printed edition reads “bi-l-Karak.”
(7) The printed edition reads “li-l-arḍ” (to the earth).
(8) Atika’s tomb was originally in western Old Damascus; today it lies in southern modern Damascus. Atika was the daughter of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān and the wife of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. The quarter of her tomb still survives to the present day. See the references to these visitation sites in Ibn al-Hurrani (33) and al-ʿAdawī (61).
(9) The printed edition reads “man taʿāṭā” (who engaged in).
(10) The printed edition reads “bimāḍāt” – a corruption. Yāqūt reports “Miṣyāb,” a well-known fortified stronghold of the Ismāʿīliyya on the Syrian coast near Tripoli; others read “Miṣyāf.” An-Nabulusī writes “Qalʿat Miṣyāf,” with an unvoweled ṣād and a final fāʾ; some read “Miṣayyāṭ,” rendering the fāʾ as a ṭāʾ mahmalah. See Muʿjam al-Buldān 5:144 and al-Ḥaqīqa wa-l-Majāz 1:165.
(11) In manuscript B it reads “hājah fa-akramtu wa-aʿẓamtu” (“I was honored and magnified because of a need”), while the printed edition reads “li-ajl al-ḥajj fa-akramū wa-aʿẓimū” (“for the pilgrimage, they honored and exalted”).