the greatest calamities in their eyes are the Muslims’ conquest of the coastal regions and the defeat of the Christians. Indeed, the Muslims’ victory over the Tatars is also among their greatest calamities. Among their greatest occasions for celebration is when the Christians seize Muslim frontier strongholds—Allah Most High’s protection is sought against this.

The Muslim frontier strongholds had remained in Muslim hands until partway through the fourth century AH, including even the island of Cyprus—may Allah facilitate its conquest soon—which the Muslims conquered during the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful, “ ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān,” may Allah be pleased with him. Its conqueror was “Mu‘āwiya ibn Abī Sufyān.” At that time, these people who oppose Allah and His Messenger grew numerous in the coastal regions and elsewhere, and the Christians seized the coast. Then, through them, the Christians seized noble Jerusalem and other places, for their conduct was among the principal causes of this.

Then Allah raised up Muslim rulers who fought in the cause of Allah Most High, “such as Nūr al-Dīn the Martyr and Saladin,” together with their followers. They wrested the coastal regions from the Christians and from those members of this group who were there, and they also conquered Egypt. This group had controlled Egypt for some two hundred years and had allied themselves with the Christians. The Muslims fought them until they conquered the lands, and from that time onward the call to Islam spread throughout Egypt and the Levant.

Furthermore, the Tatars entered Muslim lands and killed the caliph of Baghdad and other Muslim rulers only with this group’s assistance and support. For Hūlāgū’s astrologer, who had been their vizier, was “al-Nasīr