At Aleppo Murtada ad-Dawla raised up many enemies. The Arabs of the B. Kalab tribe took up arms against him; he pretended to agree to their terms and invited them into the city to a feast: as soon as they entered he had the gates shut, arrested the chief men, and slew about one thousand. This took place in 402. Salih b. Mirdas, one of the chief men who had been imprisoned, filed through his irons and escaped in this year, 405. When he is at large he ravages the whole country, and when Murtada goes out to check him he is himself taken prisoner by the Arab. Salih, however, really desired peace, and agreed to liberate Murtada for a ransom of 15,000 pieces of gold, 120,000 pounds of silver, and 500 pieces of stuff, the freedom of the women and others of his tribe who were still in prison, the equal division of the towns and lands of Aleppo between himself and Murtada, and the gift of Murtada’s daughter in marriage. These extraordinary conditions were granted and Murtada was set free. But then he proved unwilling to divide the lands and towns of his principality or to give his daughter in marriage, so Salih makes war again and blockades Aleppo and starves it into unconditional surrender. In 406 a quarrel sprung up between Murtada and Fatah Kalai who was the governor of the citadel. Murtada considered that he had been instrumental in fomenting Salih’s rebellion. Finally Fatah openly revolted against Murtada and sent him the message, “Go out of Aleppo, or I give the citadel to Salih.” Soon after this, as Murtada was in his palace near the gate Bab al-Jinan, he heard drums and trumpets and cried out: “Hakim, O Mansur: Salih, O Mansur,” believing that the citadel was in the hands of the Arab chieftain: so greatly was he frightened that, without enquiring what was the real cause of the drums and trumpets, he fled out of the city with his family and escaped to Antioch, where he was given an asylum by the Greek Emperor. As soon as Fatah heard of his flight he proclaimed Hakim as sovereign over Aleppo, made terms with Salih and gave him half the revenues of the city and its suburbs, and presented to him the ladies of Murtada’s harim whom he had not taken with him in his flight. Salih sent all Murtada’s wives and the other ladies to Antioch, retaining only Murtada’s daughter whom he married.