also subdued the province of ash-Sharât with its mountains. It is stated by Saʿîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz on the authority of al-Waḍîn that after the [second] conquest of Damascus Yazîd came to Sidon, ʿIrḳah,[1] Jubail, and Bierût (which lie on the sea-coast)[2] with his brother, Muʿâwiyah, leading the van of the army. These cities he conquered with great facility, expelling many of their inhabitants. The conquest of ʿIrḳah was effected by Muʿâwiyah himself when Yazîd was governor. Toward the close of the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb or the beginning of the caliphate of ʿUthmân ibn-ʿAffân, the Greeks restored some of these coast-towns, and Muʿâwiyah again marched against those towns and conquered them. He then made repairs in them and stationed garrisons in them among whom he distributed the fiefs.
Tripoli captured. When ʿUthmân was made caliph and Muʿâwiyah became governor of Syria, the latter directed Sufyân ibn-Mujîb al-Azdi to Tripoli [Aṭrâbulus] which was a combination of three cities.[3] Sufyân erected on a plain a few miles from the city a fort which was called Ḥiṣn Sufyân [Sufyân fort], intercepted the recruits from the sea as well as from the land and laid siege to the city. When the siege was pressed hard against them, the inhabitants of Tripoli met in one of the three fortifications and wrote to the king of the Greeks asking for relief through reinforcement or ships on which they might escape and flee to him. Accordingly, the king sent them many ships which they boarded in the night time and fled away. When Sufyṣn arose in the morning—he having been accustomed to sleep
