ibn Nizar ibn ʿAshāʾir (1) ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Shās al-Judhāmi al-Saʿdī, the Māliki jurist (2).
He authored the book “al-Jawāhir al-Thamīna fī Madhhab ʿĀlim al-Madīna” (The Precious Gems on the School of the Scholar of Madina), which is among the most useful works on subsidiary rulings; he arranged it following the model of al-Ghazālī’s al-Wajīz. Ibn Khallikān (3) said: “It bears clear witness to the breadth of his knowledge and virtue, and the Mālikī community in Egypt devotes itself to it because of its elegance and the profusion of its benefits.” He taught in Egypt and died (4) in Damietta—may Allah have mercy on him. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

Then the year 617 AH entered (5).

In this year tribulation became universal and mourning profound because of Genghis Khan, called Tumarjī (6)—may Allah Most High curse him—and the Tatars who were with him—may Allah disgrace them all. Their might swelled, and their corruption spread from the furthest reaches of China until they reached the lands of Iraq and its environs, coming even to Erbil and its districts. Within a single year—this very year—they seized all the kingdoms except Iraq, al-Jazira, Syria, and Egypt, and they subdued every people in those regions: the Khwarazmians, the Qipchaqs, the Georgians, the Alans, the Khazars, and others. During that year they killed, from among the Muslims and others in many towns, elders (8) and young in numbers beyond all reckoning or description. In short, they never entered a land without slaughtering all its fighting men and males, together with great numbers of women and children (9). Whatever they needed they plundered; whatever they did not need they burned. They would even gather huge quantities of silk that they could not carry away, set it ablaze, and watch it burn. They destroyed houses, and whatever they could not demolish they torched (10), most often turning their fire upon mosques and congregational masjids. They took Muslim captives, using them to fight and besiege others; if the captives did not fight with full commitment, they killed them.

Ibn al-Athīr, in his al-Kāmil (11), has set out their story for this year in a fine and detailed exposition, and he prefaced it with remarks