an army; join it in fighting these Tatars (1). Al-Ashraf, however, wrote back apologizing to the Caliph, saying that he was on his way to his brother al-Kamil in the Egyptian lands because of what the Muslims there had suffered at the hands of the Franks and their seizure of Damietta (2), for by taking it they now stood poised to seize all of Egypt (3). Their brother al-Muʿaẓẓam had already come to him at Ḥarrān (4) seeking help for al-Kamil so that together they might confine the Franks to Damietta, and he was just about to set out for Egypt.
The Caliph therefore wrote to Muẓaffar al-Din, lord of Irbil, appointing him commander over the forces he was dispatching—10,000 fighting men. Yet no more than 800 cavalry reported to him, and they scattered before they could even assemble. Inna lillāhi wa-inna ilayhi rājiʿūn (Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return). But Allah granted deliverance (5) by diverting the Tatars’ attention toward the region of Hamadhān. Its inhabitants sued for peace, and the Tatars left a garrison with them (6). The townsfolk then conspired to kill that garrison, so the Tatars returned, besieged them, forced the city open, and slaughtered every last soul.
Next they marched into Azerbaijan, captured Ardabīl (7) and then Tabrīz (8), after which they proceeded to Bīlaqān (9). There they massacred a vast multitude, burned the town, violated the women and then killed them, ripping open their wombs to extract the unborn.
They then returned to the land of the Georgians; though the Georgians had prepared for them, the Tatars defeated them once again with a dreadful rout. They captured many towns, killing their inhabitants, leading the women off as captives, and seizing the men to use in storming fortresses, placing them in front of their ranks as shields against arrows and the like. Whoever survived the fighting was killed once the battle was over.
After that they advanced toward the lands of the Alans and the Kipchaks (10), fought a great battle with them, and routed them. They then set their sights on the largest city of the Kipchaks (11), which is the city