—after having been the most flourishing of all cities—appeared as though it were a desolate ruin (1), with only a handful of people left, and they themselves in fear, hunger, humiliation, and scarcity. The vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī, even before this calamity, had been striving to dismiss the troops and strike their names from the government rolls. Thus, in the last days of al-Mustanṣir the army (2) still numbered close to one hundred thousand fighting men, among whose emirs were some who rivalled the greatest kings (3). He kept whittling them down until no more than (4) ten thousand remained. He then entered into correspondence with the Tatars, lured them with the prospect of seizing the lands, smoothed the way for them, set out for them the true state of affairs, and laid bare the weakness of the defenders. He did all of this out of a craving to eradicate the sunnah entirely, to make the Rāfiḍī innovation prevail, to install a Fāṭimid as caliph, and to wipe out the scholars and the muftis. But Allah prevails over His command: He turned the vizier’s plot back against his own neck, abased him after his lofty pride, and reduced him to a mere hūshkāshā (5) for the Tatars (6) after he had been vizier to the caliphs (7). He thereby earned the sin of every man, woman, and child killed in Baghdad (8). Judgment belongs to Allah, the Most High, the Most Great, Lord of earth and heaven.

A similar fate befell the Children of Israel in Jerusalem, as Allah, Exalted is He, has informed us (9) in His noble Book: “We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture: ‘You will surely cause corruption in the land twice, and you will surely rise to a great height’” (al-Isrāʾ 17:4) and the verses that follow. Many of the righteous among them were slain, a number of the prophets’ offspring were taken captive, and the Temple was destroyed after it had been frequented by worshippers, ascetics, scholars, and prophets, until it stood empty upon its foundations, its very structure tottering.

People have differed over the number of Muslims killed in Baghdad [in this catastrophe] (10). Some said eight hundred thousand; others said one million eight hundred thousand; still others said the dead reached two million souls. Truly we belong to Allah and to Him we return. There is no power and no might save in Allah [the Mighty, the Wise]. Their entry into Baghdad took place toward the end of Muḥarram, and the sword continued to cut down its inhabitants for forty days (11).