The Grand Emir (1) Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar Abū al-Ḥasan al-Tūrī (2) was counted among the foremost commanders. His praiseworthy efforts against the Franks were widely celebrated; among them he enjoyed great renown and high standing. He died when he was a little past ninety years of age. The cause of his death was that, on the day of Sunqur al-Ashqar’s engagement, he fell beneath the horses’ hooves; he lingered on in illness for two months, then passed away and was buried at the foot of Mount Qāsyūn—may Allah have mercy on him.
The poet al-Jazzār (3)—Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm ibn Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad (4) ibn ʿAlī, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥaḥarī—was a roguish bard, better known by his sobriquet al-Jazzār. He composed panegyrics for kings, viziers, and emirs (5). A witty libertine of pleasant repartee (6), he was born around the year 600 AH, give or take a year or two, and died on Tuesday, the twelfth of Shawwāl of this year. Among his verses (7):
[al-khafīf metre]
“Come rescue me! The cold has laden me with grief
that will not fade, while within my breast (8) a fire still burns.
Greed has robed me in naught but delusion—
my body is bare though mats and clothes are mine.
Whenever the chill turns my skin a bluish hue,
I fancy (9) it is sable fur.”
He also said, when (10) his father married an old woman (11):
[al-sarīʿ metre] (12)
“The shaykh—my father—has wed a crone
who owns neither intellect nor sense.
She lies in her bed like a decayed corpse,
and the hair around her is tufts of cotton.”
(1) Biography of al-Turi in the appendix to Mirat al-Zaman (vol. 4, pp. 56–57), Tarikh al-Islam (vol. 15, p. 375), and Dalil al-Shafi (vol. 1, p. 466); he died in 678 AH.
(2) A reads al-Tayyuri; this is a textual corruption.
(3) Biography of al-Jazzar al-Shair in the appendix to Mirat al-Zaman (vol. 4, pp. 61–78), Tarikh al-Islam (vol. 15, p. 378), al-Ibar (vol. 5, p. 324), al-Ishara (p. 370), Fawat al-Wafayat (vol. 4, pp. 277–293), Nujum al-Zahira (vol. 7, pp. 345–346, 347), Dalil al-Shafi (vol. 2, p. 778), Husn al-Muhadara (vol. 1, p. 568), and Shadharat al-Dhahab (vol. 7, pp. 636–637).
(4) B reads Abd al-Azim ibn Yahya ibn Umar; this is incorrect.
(5) A reads “praising kings, ministers, and senior figures,” while B reads “praising kings, princes, ministers, and senior figures.”
(6) B reads “hulw al-muhadara” (pleasant in discourse), “samih al-hadith” (gracious in hadith), and “wa kana mawliduhu” (“and that was his birthplace”).
(7) The verses appear in the appendix to Mirat al-Zaman (vol. 4, p. 63) and in Fawat al-Wafayat (vol. 4, p. 288).
(8) A reads “wa-fi hayati iltihab” (“and in my life, inflammation”).
(9) A reads “takhayyaltu lughat sanjab” (“I imagined the language of a squirrel”).
(10) A reads “wa-qad tazawwaja bi-ajuzat abuhi” (“and he had married his father’s old woman”).
(11) Both A and B read “bi-ajuza.” The reading here follows B, as does the introductory line to the verses in Fawat: “He spoke of his stepmother, and she was tarsha.”
(12) The verses appear in the appendix to Mirat al-Zaman (vol. 4, p. 64) and in Fawat al-Wafayat (vol. 4, p. 292).