against the Franks. Taking advantage of their absence, Sama (1) al-Jabali, one of the foremost emirs (2)—he held the castles of Ajlun and Kawkab—hurried to Syria (3) intending to surrender the two strongholds. Al-ʿAdil therefore sent after him his son al-Muʿaẓẓam, the ruler of Syria, who outstripped him and reached the Holy Jerusalem (4) first. He laid hands on him and placed him under guard in the Church of Zion. The man was elderly and afflicted with gout, so the prince began by trying to win him back to obedience with gentle persuasion, but it proved useless. He then seized his stores, properties, and wealth, and sent him off to his fortress (5) at al-Karak, where he kept him confined. The value of what was taken from him (6) came to nearly one million dinars, including his house and bath inside Bab al-Salama; that very house was later turned by al-Badirāʾi into a Shafiʿi madrasa. The fortress of Kawkab was demolished, and his stores were transferred to the fortress of al-Tur, newly built by al-ʿAdil and his son al-Muʿaẓẓam.

In that same year the vizier Ṣafi al-Din Ibn Shukr (7) was dismissed, his assets were placed under sequestration, and he was banished to the East. He was the one who had written to Egypt ordering the exile of the ḥafiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghani (8) to the Maghrib, but the ḥafiẓ died (9) before the letter arrived. God—exalted is He—decreed that the vizier himself should be exiled to the East (10).

When the ruler (11) of Cyprus—may Allah curse him—seized the city of Antioch, this event (12) brought great harm and enabled him to launch raids on Muslim lands, especially against the Turkmen (13) living around Antioch. He slaughtered countless people and carried off large numbers of their sheep. But Allah—exalted is He—ordained that they should gain the upper hand over him in one of the valleys: they killed him, paraded his head throughout those regions, and then sent it to Sultan al-ʿAdil in Egypt, where it too was carried in procession. He was the very man who had raided (14)