His demise was almost impossible, and the masters of brilliant arts and useful crafts from the Franks sought refuge in him. Their arrival was a blessing, and even the common people in that era, due to their ignorance, blamed him greatly for accepting and welcoming the Franks. They wrongly assumed that he favored them due to their religion, not realizing that God's protection enabled him to favor them for their knowledge and sciences. The need called for it, and he was right to say: "The learned man and the physician, both, Will not offer sincere advice if not honored. So be patient with your doctor if you shun his good, And be patient with your ignorance if you shun a teacher."

No one can deny that arts and crafts in that era have flourished, and indeed, have come into existence where they were not before. His Excellency was in his place, opening horizons. Look at the workshops, factories, and schools, and the like. Look at the organization of the jihadist campaigns, for it is among the best things His Excellency has done and the most worthy of being recorded as good deeds. Only those who have seen the lands of the Franks or witnessed events can grasp the necessity of this system. In general and in detail, the benefactor's hopes are always attached to progress. It is a known wisdom that construction is like life, and war is like death. Every king builds according to his ambition. His Excellency, may God Almighty protect him, has hastened to improve his country by bringing in whatever he could of the Franks' scholars and sending whomever he could from Egypt to those lands, for their scholars are greater than others in philosophical sciences. And in the hadith: "Wisdom is the lost property of the believer; he takes it wherever he finds it." It is said by Ba'idus II: "Take pearls from the sea, musk from the mouse, gold from the stone, and wisdom from its people." And in the hadith: "Seek knowledge even unto China." Among the sciences, and although the intention of the hadith is to travel to seek knowledge...