and just as the Mu‘tazilah call it “the school of the rabble, the common people, and the people of hadith.” They hold that it is unlawful to marry the people of Syria, Egypt, the Hijaz, the Maghreb, Yemen, Iraq, Upper Mesopotamia, and all other Muslim lands, or to eat animals slaughtered by them. They consider the liquids in their possession—water, oils, and so forth—to be ritually impure. They regard their disbelief as graver than that of the Jews and Christians, because they consider the latter to be disbelievers who have never embraced Islam, whereas these people are apostates; and, by consensus, apostasy is a graver form of disbelief than never having embraced Islam.

For this reason, they assist the disbelievers against the Muslim majority, helping the Tatars against them. Through their wickedness and scheming, they were among the principal causes of Genghis Khan, king of the disbelievers, invading Muslim lands, of Hulagu’s advance into Iraq, of the capture of Aleppo, of the plundering of al-Sālihiyyah, and of other events. Those among them who served as viziers to Muslim rulers became involved in this, as did others who held no such office.

For this same reason, they plundered the Muslim army when it passed by them while returning to Egypt on the first occasion. For this reason, too, they waylay Muslims on the roads. This also explains the manifest assistance they have given the Tatars and the Franks against the Muslims, and the profound distress they have shown at Islam’s victories. Likewise, when the Muslims conquered the coastal towns—Acre and others—their support for the Christians and their preference for them over the Muslims became manifest in what people heard from them.

Everything I have described represents only some of their deeds; the reality is far worse.