by his uncle al-Ashraf, who confined himself to al-Karak and Nablus. Thereafter (1) fortune kept shifting and long-lasting ordeals overtook him until not a single stronghold remained in his hands. He had deposited a trust of nearly one hundred thousand dinars with the caliph al-Mustanṣir (2), but the caliph denied it and never returned the money.
He was eloquent, composed fine poetry, and possessed many virtues. He studied ʿilm al-kalām under Shams al-Dīn al-Khushru-Shāhī (3), a student of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (4), and was well versed in the sciences of the ancients. People have related about him (5) reports which—if authentic—point to unsound belief; Allah knows best.
It is said that he attended the very first lesson delivered at the Mustanṣiriyyah in 632 AH, where poets recited numerous panegyrics to al-Mustanṣir. One of them, in the course of a poem (6) in the kāmil metre, declaimed:
Had you been present on the Day of the Saqīfa,
you would have been the foremost, the greatest Imām.
al-Nāṣir Dāwūd said to the poet, “Be silent! You have erred. The grandfather of the Commander of the Believers, al-ʿAbbās, was present that day, yet he was not put forward; the greatest Imām is none other than Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him).”
The caliph replied, “You have spoken truly.” This (7) was one of the finest statements transmitted from him—may Allah have mercy on him.
His circumstances continued to decline until al-Nāṣir ibn al-ʿAzīz ordered that he be confined to the village of al-Buwayḍāʾ (8), which belonged to his uncle Majd al-Dīn Yaʿqūb. He died there in the present year; the people gathered for his funeral, his body was brought out, the funeral prayer was performed, and he was buried beside his father at the foot of Mount Qāsiyūn.
• al-Malik al-Muʿizz (9) ʿIzz al-Dīn Aybak al-Turkmanī.
He was the first of the Turkish (Mamluk) rulers and one of the foremost mamluks of al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn al-Kāmil. Devout, upright, chaste, and generous, he reigned for roughly seven years until his wife, Shajar al-Durr—Umm Khalīl—killed him. His son Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī then ascended the throne with the title al-Malik al-Manṣūr, but the actual running of the kingdom lay in the hands of his father’s mamluk, Sayf al-Dīn Quṭuz, who later deposed him.