LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Purchased by the 
 
 Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund. 
 
 Division... D.S23+ 
 
 Section...#. E,...LS 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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The Eclipse of the 
 'Abbasid Caliphate 
 
 Original Chronicles oj the Fourth Islamic Century 
 
 Edited, Translated, and Elucidated 
 
 by 
 
 H. F. AMEDROZ, 
 
 Barrister at Law, 
 and 
 
 D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, 
 
 D.Litt., F.B.A. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 Ojforb: 
 
 BASIL BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET 
 
 LONDON: 4 STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C. 4 
 
 1921. 
 
THE CONCLUDING PORTION OF 
 
 The Experiences of the 
 
 Nations 
 
 BY 
 
 MISKAWAJEII, 
 
 Office-holder at the Courts of the Buwaihid Sultans, 
 Mu'izz al-daulah, Rukn al-daulah, and ‘A&ud al-daulah. 
 
 Translated from the Arabic 
 
 by 
 
 D. S. MARGOLIOUTH. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 REIGNS OF MUQTADIR, QAHIR AND RADI. 
 
 BASIL BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET. 
 
 LONDON: 4 STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C. 4 
 
 1921 . 
 
Printed by 
 
 FOX, JONES & Co., 
 Kemp Hall Press, 
 OXFORD. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The System of Ibn Abi’l-‘Azaqir. 
 
 From Yaqut’s Dictionary of Learned Men, i. 301. 
 
 It was found that he claimed to be the Truth of Truth and the God 
 of Gods ; the First, the Ancient; the Outer, the Inner ; the Creator, 
 the Sustainer ; the Perfect, to Whom all notions are entrusted ; he 
 was called The Messiah, even as the Israelites used to call God Almighty 
 the Messiah. He averred that God entered everything according to its 
 capacity, and that He had created the contrary in order that thereby 
 that of which it is the contrary may be indicated ; thus He was 
 revealed in Adam when He created him and in Iblis (Satan), which 
 are two contraries, indicating each other by virtue of their contrariety 
 in notion. He asserted that the guide to the Truth is superior to the 
 Truth, and that the contrary of a thing is nearer to it than its semblance. 
 That when God enters into a human frame, He displays such miracu¬ 
 lous power as proves that it is He ; and that when Adam disappeared 
 the Divinity appeared in five humanities, of which as oft as one 
 disappeared it was replaced by another, and in five Iblises their con¬ 
 traries. Then the Divinity was gathered in. Idris (Enoch) and his 
 Iblis, and was afterwards separated as it had been separated after 
 Adam. It was then united in Noah and his Iblis, and separated when 
 they disappeared as before. It re-united in SaliA and his Iblis, the 
 Slayer of the Camel, and was separated after them ; it re-united in 
 Abraham and his Iblis, Nimrod, and was separated after them. It 
 re-united in Aaron and his Iblis Pharaoh, and was separated again as 
 before. It was re-united in David and his Iblis Goliath, and was 
 separated when they disappeared. It was re-united in Solomon and 
 his Iblis, and was separated afterwards as usual. It was re-united in 
 Jesus and His Iblis, and separated to be re-united in His Disciples 
 and their Iblises. Then it was re-united in ‘Ali son of Abu Talib and 
 his Iblis, and separated afterwards. Finally it was re-united in Ibn 
 Abi’l-Azaqir and his Iblis. 
 
 He declared that God appears in everything in every notion, that 
 He is in each person in the thought that comes into his mind, so that 
 what is at a distance from him takes shape with him as though he were 
 in its presence, that God is a name for a certain notion, viz., He whom 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 men need is their God 1 ; and this is the principle whereon God should 
 be named in every language. Further, each one of his associates 
 claimed to be the Lord of the next in rank ; he would say I am the 
 Lord of AB and AB of CD ; at the apex was Ibn Abi’l-Azaqir, who 
 called himself Lord of Lords and God of Gods, above whom there was 
 no lord. 
 
 They did not affiliate i/asan and i7usain to ‘Ali, holding that one in 
 whom the Divinity was united had no parent nor child. They called 
 Moses and Mohammed " the two Traitors,” averring that Aaron had 
 commissioned Moses and ‘Ali Mohammed, and they had betrayed their 
 trust. They maintain that ‘Ali had respited Mohammed the same 
 number of years as the days of the Seven Sleepers, viz., 350; and that at 
 the end of that period there would be a religious revolution. 
 
 They hold that an Angel ( malak ) is one who controls (malak) himself, 
 knows the Truth and sees it (or Him) ; that the Truth is their Truth, 
 Paradise their knowledge and the embracing of their tenets, Hell 
 ignorance of them, and aversion to their system. They condone 
 omission of Prayer, fasting and ablution, asserting that it is one of God’s 
 favours to His servant to grant him both pleasures at once. Their 
 sexual relations are not regulated by marriage, arrangement or licence, 
 but are promiscuous ; they maintain that as Mohammed was sent to 
 the Qorashite chieftains and Arab champions, whose hearts were hard 
 and spirits proud, there was wisdom in the prostration which he pre¬ 
 scribed for them ; whereas now there is similar wisdom in trying people 
 by promiscuity for their womenfolk ; and that provided a man belong 
 to their sect he may do as he likes in this matter. It is, they hold, 
 desirable for the superior to associate with the inferior in order that 
 the light may be communicated to the inferior. On this subject Ibn 
 Abi’l-Azaqir wrote a book which he called On the Sixth Sense. If a 
 man refuse to follow this principle, he would in the next creation be 
 transformed into a woman. For transmigration was one of his doc¬ 
 trines. He and his followers repudiated the descendants of Abu 
 Talib as they repudiated those of ‘Abbas, they proclaimed themselves 
 only, as the truth was with them and was manifested in them. 
 
 There follow specimens of letters addressed to Ibn Abi’l- Azaqir and 
 his chief associates by his followers wherein language is applied to the 
 former which the orthodox use only of God. 
 
 1 Apparently the theory was that ilah (God) was equivalent to ilaih “ To 
 him.” 
 

 
Corrigenda. 
 
 35, 11 Baduriyya read here and elsewhere Baduraya. 
 153, 4 a.f. 312 read 924. 
 
 166, 6 Qudhaf - Qadhaq. 
 
 177, 21 Junddisabur- Jundaisabur. 
 
 236, 8 a.f. 922 - 322. 
 
 440, 9 Canal- River. 
 
J 
 
 THE EXPERIENCES OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 (2) The Caliphate of al-Muqtadir Billah. 
 
 Account of the procedure at the proclamation of Ja‘far 
 son of Mu‘tadid, whose kunyah 1 was Abu’l-Fadl, 
 and who was thirteen years of age at the time. 
 
 When Muktafi's illness grew serious, his vizier 
 'Abbas b. #asan began to consider whom he should 
 appoint Caliph ; and his choice wavered. On his way 
 from his own palace to that of the Sultan he used to be 
 accompanied by one of the four persons who had charge 
 of the bureaux, viz., Abu ‘Abdallah Mohammed b. 
 Dawud b. Al-Jarrah, Abu’l-#asan Mohammed b. 
 ‘Abdun, Abu’l-TTasan Ibn Al-Furat, and Abu’l- 
 #asan ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. When the first of these was his 
 companion, and was consulted by him on the matter, he 
 nominated Abu'l-‘Abbas ‘Abdallah son of Mu‘tazz, 2 
 eulogizing his character. The next day his companion 
 was the third of these (Abu’l-iJasan ‘Ali b. Mohammed 
 b. al-Furat), who, when consulted, replied that this was 
 a matter to which he was unaccustomed ; (3) he begged 
 
 1 A name of which the first element signifies " father of " or mother of ; 
 and is used as a respectful mode of address even to quite young people. Among 
 modern travellers the Rev. C. T. Wilson [Peasant Life in the Holy Land, 1906, 
 
 * p. 91) notices the practice in Palestine ; “ sometimes a mere boy is called the 
 ‘ father of So-and-so the name being that of the son which it is hoped he will 
 one day have ; for when a child is born, the parents are known thenceforth 
 not by their own names, but as the ‘ father of So-and-so ’ and the mother of 
 so-and-so’ ”. 
 
 2 Caliph 251-265 (a.d. 86Q-869). 
 
2 A.H. 295. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 therefore to be excused ; he was accustomed to being 
 consulted only about officials. "Abbas displayed annoy¬ 
 ance, and said : This is hedging ; you know well what 
 is wise. When he insisted, Ibn al-Furat said : If the 
 vizier's choice is fixed upon an individual, let him ask 
 God’s blessing and proceed with the execution of his 
 plan. He understood (said Ibn al-Furat) that I referred 
 to Ibn al-Mu"tazz, about whom rumour was rife. But 
 he said to me : All I want of you is your candid advice. 
 I replied: If that is what the vizier requires, then what 
 I say is : For God's sake do not appoint to the post a man 
 who knows the house of one, the fortune of another, the 
 gardens of a third, the slave-girl of a fourth, the estate of a 
 fifth, and the horse of a sixth ; not one who has mixed with 
 people, has had experience of affairs, has gone through his 
 apprenticeship, and made calculations of people s fortunes. 
 The vizier requested me to repeat those words several 
 times, and said at last : Then whom do you nominate ? 
 I replied : Ja"far son of Mu"ta^id ! 1 What, he said, 
 Ja"far is a child ! True, I said, only he is Mu"tadid’s 
 son. Why should you introduce a man who will govern, 
 and knows our resources, who will administer affairs 
 himself, and regard himself as independent ? Why not 
 deliver the empire to a man who will leave you to 
 administer it ? 
 
 On the third day "Abbas asked the advice of Abu’l- 
 #asan ‘Ali b. "Isa, and tried hard to make him nominate 
 someone. He declined, saying : I shall nominate no- 
 one ; only let God be feared, and religion be considered. 
 
 "Abbas b. H asan inclined to Ibn al-Furat’s view, 
 and with this there coincided the testament of Muktafi, 
 which assigned to his brother Ja"far the succession to 
 the Caliphate. So when Muktafi died, late in the day 
 on Saturday 12 Dhu’l-Qa'dah (Aug. 13, 908), the vizier 
 
 1 Caliph 279-289 (a.d. 892-902) ; he had restored the might and independence 
 of the Caliphate. 
 
VlZIERATE OF ‘ABBAS B. i?ASAN. 
 
 3 
 
 ‘Abbas appointed Ja‘far to the Caliphate, albeit un¬ 
 willingly, owing to Ja‘far's tender years. Safi the 
 H urami (attendant of the women's apartments) went 
 to bring him down the river from Ibn Tahir's palace 1 2 3 4 ; 
 when the Yvarraqah 2 in which he was brought came on 
 its way to the palace of ‘Abbas b. 77asan, the retainers 
 of ‘Abbas called out to the boatman to come inside. It 
 occurred to Safi the i^urami that ‘Abbas only desired 
 Ja‘far to enter his palace because he had changed his mind 
 with regard to the prince ; fearing then that the vizier 
 might transfer his choice to some one else, Safi told 
 ( 4 ) the boatman not to go in, and drawing his sword 
 said to the boatman : If you go inside, I will slash off 
 your head. So the boatman proceeded without stopping 
 to the Sultan's Palace. 
 
 Ja‘far’s appointment was then effected, and he took 
 the title al-Muqtadir Billah (“ the powerful through 
 God "). The new Sultan gave ‘Abbas a free hand, and 
 the latter gave out the accession money. 3 
 
 The qadi Abul'-JTasan Mohammed b. Salih Hashimi 
 stated that he had been told by the qadi Abu ‘Umar 
 
 Mohammed b. Yusuf how, after ‘Abbas had carried 
 
 « 
 
 through the appointment of Muqtadir, he felt that 
 the prince was too young, and designed dethroning 
 him and appointing Abu ‘Abdallah Mohammed son 
 of Mu‘tamid, 4 a prince who was well-conducted and 
 of fine principles. The vizier employed the qadi Abu 
 ‘Umar as intermediary in the negotiations. The qadi 
 demanded an oath of the prince, but the prince said : If 
 a man's intentions be not honourable, an oath will be 
 of no avail; whereas if they are honourable, it is 
 
 1 See Le Strange’s Baghdad, 1900, 119-121. The princes who were not 
 actually of the reigning family were confined here at this time. 
 
 2 Some form of rivercraft. 
 
 3 The gratuity given to the troops on the occasion of a sovereign’s accession, 
 
 4 Caliph 256-279 (a.d. 870-892). 
 
4 
 
 A.H. 295. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 unnecessary. God is his protector and guarantee that 
 I will not betray him or overthrow him. 
 
 'Abbas was waiting before proceeding further for the 
 arrival of Baris the Chamberlain, retainer of Isma'il 
 b. Ahmad, ruler of Khorasan, 1 a despatch from whom 
 had arrived, imagining that he would have all his sup¬ 
 port and that of his retainers against the retainers of 
 Mu'ta^id. His arrival however was long delayed ; and 
 meanwhile a dispute arose between the prince (Abu 
 'Abdallah Mohammed son of Mu'tamid) and Ibn ‘Amra- 
 waihi, prefect of police in Baghdad. Meeting in the 
 saloon of the vizier, 'Abbas b. Hasan, they interchanged 
 words, and Ibn 'Amrawaihi used offensive expressions 
 to the prince, not knowing to what the latter was aspiring. 
 Owing to the position of his assailant the prince was un¬ 
 able to get satisfaction for the affront; the suppression 
 of his furious indignation caused him to fall down in the 
 vizier's saloon smitten with a paralytic stroke. 'Abbas 
 called for ( 5 ) a litter, in which he ordered him to be 
 conveyed to his home. He very shortly died. 
 
 'Abbas then designed to appoint as Caliph a son of 
 Mutawakkil, 2 Abu'l-Husain; but he too died. So 
 Muqtadir was safely installed. 
 
 Year 296. 
 
 In this year there was the rebellion of 'Abdallah 
 Ibn al-Mu'tazz. 
 
 Account of this affair. 
 
 Mohammed b. Dawud b. al-Jarra/z and Husain b. 
 Hamdan were conspiring to dethrone Muqtadir and 
 install ‘Abdallah son of Mu'tazz in his place. The con¬ 
 spiracy was joined by many commanders,3 clerks 4 and 
 judges. One day when 'Abbas b. Hasan was riding out 
 
 1 Samanid prince 279-295 (a.d. 892-907). 
 
 2 Caliph 232-247 (a.d. 847-861). 
 
 3 A commander had a hundred men under him (Tabari iii. 1799). 
 
 4 For this profession see the Introduction, 
 
VlZIERATE OF *AbBAS B. #ASAN. 
 
 5 
 
 to his Gardens known as the Rose Gardens, his path was 
 crossed by #usain b. #amdan, who fell upon the vizier 
 with his sword and killed him. 1 By his side was Fatik, 
 freedman of Mu'tadid, accompanying him ; he shouted 
 at #usain, denouncing his act; ifusain turned upon 
 him and killed him too. There was great confusion, 
 during which i^usain b. #amdan galloped off to the Race¬ 
 course, 2 3 4 5 where he supposed he would find Muqtadir 
 playing polo, meaning to kill him. But when Muqtadir 
 heard the shouting, he hurriedly entered his Palace, and 
 locked the doors against iiZusain. 
 
 i^usain then went off to the palace in Mukharrim 
 called after Sulaiman b. Wahb,3 and sent to 'Abdallah 
 son of Mu'tazz to inform him of the success of his scheme. 
 'Abdallah came down from his house on the Sarat and 
 crossed to Mukharrim.4 There were present the com¬ 
 manders and the army, the heads of bureaux, among 
 them 'Ali b. 'Isa and Mohammed b. 'Abdun, the judges 
 and notables, with the exception of Abud-i^asan Ibn 
 al-Furat and the persons attached to Muqtadir. The 
 persons assembled swore allegiance to 'Abdallah, son of 
 Mu'tazz, who was addressed as Caliph, formally invested 
 with the office, 5 and took the title al-Murtadi Billah 
 ("the resigned to God”). A& his vizier he appointed 
 Abu 'Abdallah Mohammed b. Dawud b. ( 6 ) al-Jarrah ; 
 he made 'Ali b. 'Isa president of the bureaux and first 
 estimates, Mohammed b. 'Abdun of the bureaux of con¬ 
 trol. Letters were despatched to all the great cities in 
 the name of 'Abdallah b. al-Mu'tazz, who sent to Muq¬ 
 tadir bidding him retire with his mother to the palace 
 of Ibn Tahir, in order that he, Ibn al-Mu'tazz, might move 
 
 1 ‘Arib, p. 26, assigns some personal motives for this act. 
 
 2 See Le Strange, p. 292. This ground was still used for polo in 479 (a.d. 
 1086). 
 
 3 Used as the viziers' palace ; see below, p. 258. 
 
 4 As appears from the map the Tigris had to be crossed. 
 
 5 The formalities are described at length below, p. 290. 
 
6 A.H. 296. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 to the Caliph’s Palace himself. Muqtadir replied that 
 he obeyed. 
 
 The next day Husain b. Hamdan came again to the 
 Caliph’s Palace; where however he met with resistance 
 from the eunuchs, retainers and attendants, and such 
 infantry as were behind the walls ; they prevented his 
 entry, and at the end of the day he carried off such of his 
 property as . he could, with his women and children, and 
 departed by night for Mausil. 
 
 Of the chief officers none remained with Muqtadir 
 except Mu’nis the Eunuch, Mu’nis the Treasurer, Gharib 
 the Queen-mother’s brother and the court-attendants. 1 
 When Ibn al-Mu'tazz sent his order to Muqtadir to retire 
 to Ibn Tahir’s palace, these people said to each other : 
 Friends , are we going to surrender in this style ? Why 
 should we not summon up courage to avert what threatens 
 us ? Perhaps God will dispel it. They agreed then to go 
 up the river in shadha’ ahs , 2 taking withthem a company, 
 whom they armed with cuirasses, helmets and weapons, 
 and thus they proceeded to the Mukharrim palace. When 
 they approached it, those who were there on the bank of 
 the Tigris seeing them called out: Here are shadha’ahs 
 coming up stream from the Palace. Terror seized their 
 hearts, and they began to disperse in all directions before 
 there was any engagement and before the shadha’ahs 
 had even arrived at the Mukharrim palace.3 'Abdallah 
 son of Mu'tazz departed, accompanied by his vizier 
 Mohammed b. Dawud and his chamberlain Yumn, who 
 had drawn his sword, and was crying out: People , pray 
 to God for your Caliph ! They took the road into the 
 country, supposing that they would be pursued by the 
 army, and meaning to proceed to Samarra, where they 
 
 1 The reference is probably to various freedmen who held confidential posts, 
 and whose names will frequently meet us. 
 
 2 See Index “ Rivercraft.” 
 
 * ‘Arib makes the party pass the palace and shoot the inmates with arrows. 
 
Temporary Vizierate of Mohammed b. Dawud. 7 
 
 hoped to maintain themselves. No one pursued them ; 
 and when Mohammed b. Dawud saw this, he dismounted 
 when he came in front of his own house, entered it and 
 hid. 'Abdallah son of Mu'tazz dismounted at another 
 spot, walked in the direction of the Tigris, descended to 
 the house of (7) Abu 'Abdallah Ibn al-Jassas, went 
 inside and implored his protection. People fled in all 
 directions, and there was rioting with pillaging, battery, 
 and bloodshed in Baghdad. Mohammed b. 'Amrawaihi, 
 who was prefect of police, mounted his horse, but was 
 attacked by the mob, having been one of the chief abettors 
 of 'Abdallah son of Mu'tazz, and routed. Muqtadir 
 appointed in his place the same day Mu’nis the Treasurer. 
 
 At the same time when 'Abdallah son of Mu'tazz 
 left his house Abu’l-Hasan 'Ali b. 'Isa and Mohammed b. 
 'Abdun were among those who took their departure 
 thence. The two went to hide in the dwelling of a 
 greengrocer ; they were noticed by the mob, who sur¬ 
 prised and dragged them out, and delivered them to a 
 servant of Muqtadir, who was passing along the streets. 
 He mounted them both on a baggage mule which was 
 with him, and they were subjected to great annoyance 
 from the mob till they reached the Palace, where they 
 were placed under surveillance. 
 
 The following persons were arrested the same day : 
 Wasif b. Suratakin, Khurtamish, Yumn, Fatik, 1 
 with a number of persons who were present in the house 
 of Ibn al Mu'tazz ; among them were the qadi Abu 
 'Umar Mohammed b. Yusuf, and the qadi Mohammed 
 b. Khalaf b. Waki'. They were all confined in the 
 Palace, and delivered to Munis the Treasurer. Presently 
 he was ordered to put them all to death ; he carried out 
 the order the same night on all except 'Ali b. 'Isa, Mo¬ 
 hammed b. 'Abdun, the qadi Abu 'Umar, and the qadi 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf. These escaped. 
 
 1 Clearly a different person from the man murdered by Husain b. Hamdan. 
 
8 A.H. 296. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Muqtadir despatched Mu'nis the Treasurer to the 
 house of AbuT-T^asan 'Ali b. Mohammed b. al-Furat 
 in Suq al-‘Ateish, where he ordinarily resided ; having 
 first given his ring to Mu'nis and informed him that it 
 was the Caliph's intention to make Ibn al-Furat vizier. 
 Ibn al-Furat was in hiding near his house, and did not 
 show himself to Mu'nis. Mu'nis was again sent to him, 
 and cajoled the neighbours, assuring them that Ibn al- 
 Furat was to be appointed vizier ; the latter showed 
 himself at the time of afternoon prayer ( 8 ) on that day. 
 Mu'nis brought him to the Palace, where he was admitted 
 to the presence of Muqtadir, who invested him with the 
 vizierate and the presidency of the bureaux. He returned 
 to his house in Suq al-'Afesh and on the morrow morning 
 (a Monday) visited the Caliph, who bestowed on him the 
 robes of honour appropriate to the vizierate ; the officers 
 in a body proceeded in front of him. On the same day 
 a robe of honour was bestowed on Mu'nis the Treasurer 
 on the occasion of his appointment to the prefecture of 
 police. Ibn al-Furat paid out money for a second pre¬ 
 sent to the army, and the oath of allegiance to Muqtadir 
 was renewed. 
 
 Account of the capture of * Abdallah son of Mu'tazz. 
 
 A serving man of Abu 'Abdallah Ibn al-Jassas 
 named Sausan went to Safi the i^urami to give informa¬ 
 tion that 'Abdallah son of Mu'tazz was hiding in his 
 master's house. Muqtadir thereupon sent Safi the 
 #urami with a company ; he raided the residence of 
 Ibn al-Jassas, dragged thence 'Abdallah son of Mu'tazz, 
 and conveyed both him and Ibn al-Jassas to the Palace. 
 Ibn al-Jassas was presently fined a sum of money, which 
 he offered to pay. He was allowed to return to his re¬ 
 sidence after the vizier Ibn al-Furat had guaranteed 
 payment. 
 
 'Ali b. 'Isa and Mohammed b. 'Abdun were delivered 
 to Ibn al-Furat; he examined them through messengers 
 
VIZIERATE OF IBN AL-FURAT. 9 
 
 and inflicted fines upon them ; a light fine on the first, 
 a heavy fine on the second, owing to previous hostility 
 between them. He assured Muqtadir that neither of 
 them had any part in the affair of Ibn al-Mu'tazz. Ibn 
 al-Furat made himself responsible for them and for the 
 qadi Mohammed b. Khalaf b. Waki‘, and obtained their 
 release. He proceeded to banish Mohammed b. 'Abdun 
 to Ahwaz, ordering him to be delivered to Mohammed b. 
 Ja'far 'Abarta'i. He banished 'Ali b. 'Isa to Wasit, 
 after ransoming him with five thousand dinars paid out 
 of his own stock to Sausan the chamberlain, whom he 
 thereby restrained from persecuting him ; for Sausan 
 used to rouse the Caliph's anger against 'Ali b. 'Isa, by 
 declaring that he had been in league with his uncle. 1 
 It was announced that 'Abdallah son of Mu'tazz had 
 died in the Palace, and the corpse was given to his family, 
 wrapped in horse-cloths. That then was accomplished 
 which God had foreknown and foreordained, that Muq¬ 
 tadir ( 9 ) should be established in the Caliphate. The 
 efforts and schemes of created beings to remove him were 
 unavailing. 2 
 
 With regard to Mohammed b. Dawud the following 
 story was told by Abu 'Ali Mohammed b. 'Ali b. 
 Muqlah : We were, he said, one day in the presence of 
 the vizier Ibn al-Furat when he was disengaged. One 
 of his retainers came and whispered into his ear. The 
 vizier seemed deeply grieved ; it turned out that he had 
 been told of Mohammed b. Dawud's execution. He 
 said : He was, though my enemy, a man of intelligence 
 and many virtues \ with his professional attainments 3 
 he combined proficiency as clerk of the kharaj and of the 
 army, rhetoric, law, literature and poetry ; he was also 
 
 1 The vizier Mohammed b. Dawud. 
 
 2 The author takes the view which is shared by Tanukhi, and which is in 
 accordance with a prophecy attributed to Mu tadid, that Muqtadir was per¬ 
 sonally responsible for the eclipse of the Caliphate. 
 
 3 As vizier. 
 
10 A.H. 296. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 generous and free-handed. He has now been put to 
 death in a terrible manner. He proceeded to curse 
 ‘Ali b. #usain Qunna’i the Christian, saying : It was 
 he who led this man astray, for the friendship between 
 the two is well known. He secured his own life and put 
 his friend to death. 
 
 Account of the proceedings of Qunnai in the matter of 
 
 Mohammed b. Dawud . 
 
 Sausan and Safi the i/urami were both enemies of 
 Mohammed b. Dawud. They incited Muqtadir against 
 him, telling him that ‘Ali b. #usain Qunna'i knew his 
 hiding place. Qunna'i was arrested, and threatened with 
 death. He swore that he did not know Mohammed b. 
 Dawud’s hiding place, as his letters came through a 
 woman who brought them to a Christian woman, who 
 brought them to him. He undertook however to 
 hunt him down, and so was released. He proceeded 
 to write to Mohammed b. Dawud, informing him 
 that he was negotiating with Sausan an arrangement 
 which would lead to his rescue ; only the transaction 
 could not be managed by correspondence, whence Mo¬ 
 hammed must give him permission to come to him in 
 his hiding place. If the master of the house would not give 
 leave for this, ( 10 ) then he must come to Qunna'i in a dis¬ 
 guise. Mohammed b. Dawud wrote that he would come 
 to Qunna’i on a night which he named. 'Ali b. iJusain 
 took his letter to Sausan and Safi, and let them read it. 
 They lay in wait on the night appointed and told the 
 prefect of police to give orders to the heads of the dis¬ 
 tricts and captains of police to be on the look out for him. 
 When he came out on that night, he was caught, and 
 delivered to Mu'nis the Treasurer, who put him to death, 
 and flung his body into the road, whence his family took 
 it and buried it. 
 
 It was stated by Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah and Abu 
 'Abdallah Zanji the Clerk that Mohammed b. Dawud 
 
VIZIERATE OF IbN AL-FURAT. 
 
 11 
 
 wrote a letter to Ibn al-Furat, which reached him ; he 
 could not send an autograph reply, so he bade the bringer 
 of the missive whom he regarded as trustworthy, greet 
 the sender and say to him : Your offence is no light one ; 
 it is fresh , and hiding is an art. You must put up with 
 having to hide four months , till your story is forgotten , and 
 then leave me to manage for you. By God's grace after 
 that period I shall negotiate for your rescue , and obtain an 
 autograph amnesty for you from the Caliph. I shall say : 
 He entered into the same scheme as the officers and their 
 clerks ; it has been found necessary to pardon them , and his 
 case may be treated in the same way. Then I shall advise 
 the Caliph in your interest. Mohammed b. Dawud how¬ 
 ever would not wait, and what I narrated occurred. 
 
 Ibn Zanji further narrated how once when he was in 
 the presence of Ibn al-Furat the latter received a missive 
 from the secret service agent to the effect that an 
 “ adviser ” had presented himself, who stated that he 
 had information which he would only communicate to 
 the vizier. Ibn al-Furat bade his chamberlain go out 
 and ask the man about it. He did so : but the man 
 declined to tell him, saying that he wished to tell it to 
 the vizier personally. There were a party of us in the 
 room, and at a signal from the vizier we rose, and left 
 the two by themselves. Presently Ibn al-Furat sum¬ 
 moned his chamberlain 'Abbas of Farghanah, and said 
 to him : Collect the men who are assigned to the service 
 of this house. He then called Abu Bishr Ibn Fara- 
 jawaihi and said to him privately : This person has 
 brought me information about Mohammed b. Dawud, 
 asserting that he is acquainted with his hiding place, 
 and that ( 11 ) he spent yesterday night with him. He wants 
 me to send some one with him to whom he may deliver 
 Mohammed b. Dawud. I have offered to give him a 
 thousand dinars reward if it be true, but to punish him 
 if it prove false. Do you go accordingly and write to 
 
12 A.H. 296. Caliphate of Muqtada. 
 
 Mohammed b. Dawud at once to move from that place, 
 for I am sending people to raid it and search for him. 
 The vizier kept urging his chamberlain to make haste 
 with gathering the men, the chamberlain replying that 
 he had sent the sergeants in various directions after 
 them, as the men were quartered in different parts of 
 the town, some of them in Qasr Tsa, and some at the 
 Shammasiyyah Gate. And he kept deferring operations 
 till a reply had come to Abu Bishr thanking him and 
 stating that its author had moved to another place. 
 Ibn al-Furat then bade the informer go to the place which 
 he knew with the soldiers, with orders to surround it and 
 its immediate neighbourhood, and after that seize Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Dawud and bring him. If he were not found, 
 then he was to search the houses adjoining the place, 
 taking the precaution of barring the outlets of the streets 
 (so that he might not fail for lack of forethought), and 
 he was also to take a supply of ladders. The chamber- 
 lain 'Abbas, the informer and the soldiers proceeded, and 
 a guard was set on the outlets of the streets and the houses 
 adjoining the place. He entered the house named by the 
 informer, but did not find Mohammed b. Dawud. The 
 informer swore by Almighty God that he had left him in 
 that place, and that it was where he had spent the night. 
 He went about from place to place, but found no trace 
 of him ; then he searched the adjoining house for him, 
 but again failed to find him. The chamberlain returned 
 with the informer to the vizier's presence, and charged 
 the informer with having given false information. The 
 vizier ordered him to be conveyed to the Public Gate 
 and there receive two hundred lashes, after which he 
 was to be paraded on a camel, while a crier proclaimed 
 This is the reward of one who gives false information. 
 The vizier further wrote to Muqtadir giving an account 
 of the affair, and how he had raided numerous houses 
 in the search after Mohammed b. Dawud, but had failed 
 to find him ; and had inflicted punishment upon the 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN AL-FURAT. 
 
 13 
 
 informer in order that his fellows might not venture to 
 give false information. When the informer returned 
 home, the vizier ordered two hundred dinars to be trans¬ 
 mitted to him, and that he should be conveyed to Basrah. 
 Then he said to us : The man told the truth, and we 
 punished him ; had I not done what I did, I could not 
 be sure but that he would go to the Sultan's ( 12 ) Palace. 
 Abu Bishr was acquainted with the hiding place of 
 Mohammed b. Dawud, and told the vizier ; the vizier 
 however kept the information to himself. This story 
 may well be believed of Ibn al-Furat, a man of generous 
 nature, high moral worth, and noble performance. 
 
 And in this year Mohammed b. 'Abdun and Sausan 
 the Chamberlain were arrested and executed. 
 
 Account of the reason for this . 
 
 The reason for this was that Sausan the Chamberlain 
 had been involved in the plot of Ibn al-Mu'tazz, suppos¬ 
 ing that the latter would confirm him in the office of 
 Chamberlain. When Ibn al-Mu f tazz showed a prefer¬ 
 ence for Yumn, Sausan took alarm and took refuge in 
 the Sultan's Palace. Sausan had a share in the adminis¬ 
 tration with 'Abbas b. iJasan at Muqtadir's court; but 
 when Ibn al-Furat was appointed vizier, he monopolized 
 the administration to the exclusion of Sausan ; whence 
 the relations between the two became strained. A 
 rumour was circulated that Sausan had fully determined 
 to make an assault on the person of Ibn al-Furat, having 
 conspired thereto with a number of H ujari retainers 1 ; 
 and he plotted to make Mohammed b. 'Abdun vizier, 
 nominating him to Muqtadir for the post, and offering 
 a large sum of money if the appointment were made. 
 He despatched Bunayy b. Nafis to Ahwaz to fetch Mo¬ 
 hammed b. 'Abdun without informing Ibn al-Furat, 
 Bunayy alleging that he had been sent merely to collect 
 
 1 A class of retainers originally purchased by Mu'tadid and instructed to 
 remain within the Palace. Hilal, p. 12, 
 
14 A.H. 296. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 some money which had been deposited by 'Abbas b. 
 Hasan in Basrah. Before Mohammed b. 'Abdun had 
 reached Wasit, Ibn al-Furat got wind of the plot, and 
 persuaded Muqtadir that it was Sausan's intention to 
 assassinate him (the vizier) first, and then Muqtadir 
 himself ; that he had been one of the chief supporters 
 of Ibn al-Mu'tazz and only deserted him ultimately 
 when he learned that Ibn al-Mu'tazz had appointed 
 some one else chamberlain. He obtained Muqtadir’s 
 permission to arrest Sausan, and had him arrested and 
 executed the same day. The officer appointed to carry 
 out this order was Takin the Favourite, 1 who was in 
 training for the chamberlainship, and actually admin¬ 
 istering it. 
 
 ( 13 ) The vizier then sent an officer to waylay Moham¬ 
 med b. ‘Abdun, and had him imprisoned in the Palace; 
 after imposing on him a fresh fine, he handed him 
 over to Mu'nis the Treasurer, who had him executed. 
 This alarmed Abu’l-Hasan 'Alib. Tsa, who was in Wasit; 
 writing to the vizier he assured him that his enmity 
 towards Mohammed b. 'Abdun was unabated, but that 
 truth compelled him to attest that Mohammed b. ‘Abdun 
 was not the man to risk his life by undertaking the office 
 of vizier, being only too glad to be safe after the sedition 
 of Ibn al-Mu'tazz. Sausan had therefore organized this 
 affair without consulting him or obtaining his consent. 
 For himself he begged that he might be removed to 
 Meccah in order to be secure against suspicion and that 
 his name might be forgotten by the Sultan. To this 
 Ibn al-Furat assented ; 'Ali b. Tsa was transferred by 
 his order from Wasit to Meccah in honourable style, 
 making his way thither via Basrah. 'Ali b. Tsa wrote 
 this letter hoping that thereby Mohammed b. 'Abdun 
 might escape execution, and the writer himself also be 
 
 1 I.e. member of a special class of freedmen instituted by Muwaffaq. Hilal, 
 p. 12, 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN AL-FURAT. 
 
 15 
 
 saved. God requited him personally for the excellence 
 of his intentions, but the appointed term of Mohammed 
 
 b. 'Abdun having come, he was not helped by the en¬ 
 deavours of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. 
 
 When Muqtadir had become firmly seated as Caliph, 
 he handed the government over to Abu'l-i^asan Ibn al- 
 Furat, who proceeded to administer it in the style of a 
 Caliph. Muqtadir devoted all his time to his amuse¬ 
 ments, avoided male companions—even minstrels—and 
 consorted with women, so that women and slaves became 
 supreme in the empire. Abu’l-i/asan ceaselessly ex¬ 
 pended the money in the private Treasury and 
 squandered it until he exhausted the whole. It is to 
 the credit of Ibn al-Furat that he commenced his gov¬ 
 ernment by obtaining an order from Muqtadir to send a 
 circular note to all the provincial governors, bidding 
 them deal justly with the populations, and abolish 
 illegal imposts ; and ordered that a pension be paid to 
 each member of the Hashim family, and presently that 
 it should be increased. Further he produced an order 
 that all members of the family who had rebelled and 
 joined the party of Ibn al-Mu'tazz should be pardoned, 
 and treated with the same liberality as those who had 
 committed no offence. ( 14 ) Finally he interceded for 
 Husain b. Uamdan and Ibrahim b. Kaighalagh, till 
 Muqtadir was willing to invest them with offices. For 
 this he used the good offices of Ibn 'Amrawaihi. 
 
 His wise conduct of this affair. 
 
 He pointed out to Muqtadir that, if he were to punish 
 all who had joined the conspiracy of Ibn al-Mu'tazz, 
 the result would be disloyalty, and the increase of rebels 
 and persons in fear of their lives, who would endeavour 
 to compass their own safety by endangering that of the 
 kingdom. He advised the burning of the rolls containing 
 the names of Ibn al-Mu'tazz's followers. Muqtadir 
 agreed ; Ibn al-Furat gave orders that the rolls should 
 
16 A.H. 296. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 be sunk in the Tigris, and when this was done, the result 
 was tranquillity and gratitude. 
 
 Affair of the Qadi Abu 'Umar. 
 
 The qadi Yusuf b. Ya'qub was an aged man, attached 
 to Ibn al-Furat; and constantly in his presence he 
 begged with tears for the deliverance of his son Abu 
 'Umar from execution. Ibn al-Furat told him that he 
 could only compass this by holding out hopes to Muq¬ 
 tadir of a vast sum to be paid to him. The old man 
 offered to beggar both himself and his son to obtain the 
 latter's life. Ibn al-Furat requested his pardon, offering 
 the wealth of the two in exchange. The Caliph put Abu 
 'Umar in the power of the vizier, who demanded a fine 
 of 100,000 dinars, imprisoning him in the office of the 
 Treasury till he should pay the money ; he paid the 
 greater part. Part of the payment was a sum of 
 45,000 dinars said to have been deposited with him by 
 'Abbas b. Hasan. When he had paid 90,000 Ibn al- 
 Furat permitted him to return to his residence, excusing 
 him the remaining 10,000. He was ordered however 
 to stay at home and never go outside. 
 
 (15) A case of treachery involving an unpleasant coincidence. 
 
 Sulaiman b. Hasan b. Makhlad was an intimate 
 associate of Ibn al-Furat, on whom he had a hold by 
 virtue of certain affairs which had passed between his 
 father and the vizier’s father, Abu Ja'far Mohammed 
 b. Musa b. al-Furat. The vizier found certain docu¬ 
 ments in his handwriting bearing on the conspiracy in 
 favour of Ibn al-Mu'tazz, due to his former association 
 with Mohammed b. Dawud b. Al-Jarrah, and their 
 kinship. Ibn al-Furat did not reveal these documents or 
 mention them to Muqtadir; and nominated this Sulaiman 
 for the presidency of the public audience-chamber. Pre¬ 
 sently Sulaiman injured his own cause by backing Abu’l- 
 Hasan Ahmad b. Mohammed b. 'Abd al-Hamid for the 
 vizierate; addressing a personal letter f° Muqtadir, 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN AL-FuRAT. 17 
 
 wherein he attacked Ibn al-Furat, his accumulation of 
 wealth, his estates, his secretarial staff, and his friends. 
 This letter was in his sleeve 1 when he paid a visit to Ibn 
 al-Furat. Standing up to perform the evening prayer 
 with a number of clerks he let the note drop out of his 
 sleeve, when it was picked up by Al-Saqr b. Mohammed 
 the clerk, who was praying at his side. He hastened to 
 bring it to Ibn al-Furat, who had the man arrested and 
 taken down stream in a covered boat to Wasit. There 
 he was put into custody and fined ; presently Ibn al- 
 Furat, acting in accordance with his usual disposition, 
 admitted him to favour and bestowed on him an office. 
 
 In this year Abu'l-Haija 'Abdallah b. Hamdan 
 was invited by letter to attack and fight against his 
 brother Husain, being reinforced with four thousand 
 men under Qasim b. Sima. The forces joined and met 
 Husain, who defeated them ; Ibrahim b. Hamdan then 
 came down to intercede in the interest of his brother 
 Husain ; he succeeded ; a pardon was drawn up for 
 Husain, who came to the capital, and took up his quarters 
 in the fields on the Western bank, not entering the 
 Palace. He was put in charge of the war in Qumm, 
 invested with a robe of honour, and proceeded to Qumm, 
 whence 'Abbas b. 'Amr was withdrawn. 
 
 ( 16 ) In the same year there arrived in Baghdad Baris, 
 retainer of Isma'il b. A#mad, governor of Khorasan, 
 accompanied by 4,000 Turkish slaves and others seeking 
 refuge ; his master followed him as far as Rayy, dis¬ 
 playing resentment at his retainer being harboured by 
 the Sultan. Ibn al-Furat sent a letter which appeased 
 him ; he returned to Khorasan ; the vizier put Baris 
 in charge of Diyar Rabi'ah and despatched him thither. 
 
 The vizier also made Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj governor 
 of Armenia and Adharbaijan, giving him the revenues, 
 
 1 For the use of the sleeve as a pocket see Wilson, l.c., p. 139, 
 
18 A.H. 297. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 for 120,000 dinars to be paid yearly into the public 
 treasury of the metropolis. Yusuf proceeded from 
 Dinawar to his province. 1 
 
 In this year Tahir and Ya'qub sons of Mohammed b. 
 'Amr b. Laith were brought as prisoners to Baghdad in 
 a litter on a mule, with coverings removed, followed by 
 Abu’l-Fadl 'Abd al-Ra^man b. Ja'far Shirazi, secre¬ 
 tary of Subkara governor of Fars. He was brought into 
 the presence of Muqtadir and they with him after their 
 fetters had been removed ; a robe of honour was be¬ 
 stowed on ‘Abd al-Ra/unan b. Ja'far, who was assigned 
 rank in the first group ; riding in his robe he was lodged 
 in a house in the Square of al-Khurasi. Tahir and 
 Ya'qub were imprisoned in the Palace. 
 
 Subkara had got control over Fars, and when his 
 secretary 'Abd al-RaAman arrived in Baghdad, he 
 arranged that his master should continue in his govern¬ 
 ment on condition of his sending a fixed tribute for Fars. 
 He then returned to his master. Presently news came 
 that Laith b. 'Ali had left Sijistan, and invaded Fars, 
 ( 17 ) which was evacuated by Subkara. The vizier 
 called upon Mu’nis the Eunuch to march to Fars, and 
 bestowed on him a robe of honour. On his march he 
 united forces with Subkara at Ramhurmuz, and the 
 two proceeded together. Laith marched to Arrajan 
 to meet Mu'nis. 
 
 A hasty move and a disagreeable coincidence . 
 
 Laith, hearing that #usain b. tfamdan had marched 
 from Qumm to Bai^a, was afraid Shiraz might be wrested 
 from him ; he therefore sent his brother with a detach¬ 
 ment of his army to guard Shiraz. He himself took a 
 guide who indicated a short cut close to Bai^a, hoping to 
 attack tfusain b. tfamdan. The guide took him by a 
 
 i For the administration of Yusuf Ibn Abi 1-Saj in Armenia, see the Armenian 
 Chronicle by Stephanos of Taron, translated by Gelzer and Burckhardt, pp. 119- 
 123. Also Gfrorer, Byzantinische Geschichten iii. 356, 
 
19 
 
 VlZIERATE OF IBN AL-FuRAT. 
 
 footpath, which was narrow and difficult, unfit for the 
 passage of an army, wherein he encountered great hard¬ 
 ship so much so that both beasts and men perished. 
 He executed the guide and left the path, coming out 
 at Khuwabdan, whither Mu’nis had already arrived. 
 Seeing the army of Mu’nis, Laith imagined it to be that 
 of his brother whom he had despatched to Shiraz, and 
 advanced towards it, when he . was assailed and taken 
 prisoner. When he had come into the power of Mu’nis, 
 the officers of the latter advised him to arrest Subkara, 
 which however Mu’nis declined to do ; still, when they 
 insisted, he feigned assent, undertaking to arrest him 
 when he visited him on the morrow. For it was the 
 custom of Subkara to ride out from his camp to Mu'nis 
 every day to salute. Mu’nis sent him a private message 
 informing him of the officers’ advice, and suggesting 
 to him to hasten away to Shiraz ; which Subkara pro¬ 
 ceeded to do. When it was morning and the day pro¬ 
 ceeded, Mu’nis pointed out to his followers that Subkara 
 had not come ; so they sent to enquire about him ; the 
 messenger when he returned informed them that Subkara 
 had gone off to Shiraz last evening ; Mu’nis thereupon 
 began to rate his officers, declaring that Subkara must 
 have been informed by some of them, and taken alarm. 
 Mu’nis then, taking Laith with him, started back to 
 Baghdad, while Husain went off to Qumm. 
 
 A wicked plot and its result . 
 
 ( 18 ) When Subkara reached Shiraz, he had with him 
 an officer named Qattal, who set him against his secre¬ 
 tary ‘Abd al-Ra^man b. Ja'far, informing Subkara 
 that this person was on the side of the Sultan, and had 
 even taken an oath of allegiance from all his officers to 
 the Sultan ; whence at any time he might produce a 
 letter from the Sultan, ordering his arrest. Subkara, 
 alarmed at this, arrested ‘Abd aJ-Ra/unan b. Ja'far, and 
 appointed to the office of secretary in his stead one 
 
20 A.H. 298. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Isma'il b. Ibrahim Taimi, who urged him to rebel, 
 observing that the Sultan’s army having depafted, and 
 being unable to return quickly, he had best retain the 
 money which he had been in the habit of sending to the 
 Sultan, set his own affairs in order, conciliate his army, 
 and then see. ‘Abd al-Ra/mian b. Ja'far from his prison 
 managed to write a letter to Ibn al-Furat informing 
 him of the state of affairs, what had happened to himself, 
 and Subkara's rebellion. Ibn al-Furat thereupon wrote to 
 Mu’nis, who had reached Wasit, a letter wherein he said : 
 If you have opened , you have nevertheless closed) and if 
 you have bound, you have nevertheless loosed ) you had 
 best return and fight Subkara. Mu’nis thereupon re¬ 
 turned to Ahwaz, and Subkara began to cajole him, 
 requesting him to offer the Sultan on his part for the 
 government of Fars and Kirman more than Qasim b. 
 
 ' Ubaidallah had paid for the same fiefs in the time of 
 Muktafi, that sum having been four million. 1 Mu’nis 
 assented and offered seven million. Ibn al-Furat de¬ 
 clined this offer ; Mu’nis raised the bid gradually to nine 
 million without deduction for delivery, stating that 
 Subkara required the rest of the money raised for the pay. 
 of the army in Fars and Kirman ; and pointing out that 
 there were many expenses there. Ibn al-Furat would 
 be satisfied with nothing less than thirteen millions ; 
 Mu'nis advised Subkara to meet the wishes of the Sultan 
 and the vizier, but ( 19 ) Subkara declined to raise his 
 bid above ten millions. The vizier was annoyed by his 
 obstinacy, and suspected Mu’nis of favouring Subkara 
 unduly. 
 
 Year 298. 
 
 Account of Subkara*s captivity. 
 
 He then adopted the plan of sending Wasif Kamah 
 with a number of officers from Baghdad, and with them 
 Mohammed b. Ja'far ‘AbartaT, on whom he relied for 
 
 1 i.e. Dirhems, 
 
VlZIERATE OF IbN AL-FtJRAT. 21 
 
 the re-conquest of Fars. He wrote to Mu’nis informing 
 him that he placed confidence in no one but him for the 
 safe custody of Laith, and that it was his best plan to 
 bring him to Baghdad, leaving the greater number of his 
 officers with Mohammed b. Ja'far in the neighbourhood 
 of the districts of Fars, lest they should all be drawn to 
 Baghdad before affairs were settled with Subkara with 
 regard to the tribute, and Subkara endeavour to get at 
 the Sultan. 
 
 So Mu’nis departed from Ahwaz, whereupon the vizier 
 wrote to Mohammed b. Ja'far 'Abarta’i, and to the 
 officers, bidding them hasten to Shiraz with a number 
 of the officers in Ahwaz; with him was associated 
 Wasif Kamah, and there were sent to aid besides Sima 
 Khazari, Fatik Mu'tadidi 1 and Yumn Tuluni. When 
 Mohammed b. Ja'far’s army was complete, he marched 
 against Subkara, and gave him battle at the gate of 
 Shiraz, when Subkara was defeated and fled to Bamm, 
 where he entrenched himself ; followed thither by his 
 adversary, who again defeated him, he retreated to the 
 desert of Khorasan, while Qattal was taken prisoner. 
 When the news of the victory reached Baghdad, the 
 Sultan' bestowed a robe of honour on the vizier; 
 Mohammed b. Ja'far appointed Futaih slave of Afshin 
 to the ministry of war and public security in Fars and 
 Kirman, being partial to Futai h on account of his good 
 looks. 
 
 This year too there came a despatch from Ahmad 
 b. Isma'il, governor of Khorasan, announcing the 
 conquest of Sijistan, and the capture of Mohammed b. 
 ‘Ali b. Laith ; this was followed by a despatch an¬ 
 nouncing that he had captured Subkara ; and orders 
 were sent to AAmad b. Isma'il to bring them both to 
 the capital. ( 20 ) In Shawwal of this year (June, 910 
 A.D.) the two were brought to the city exposed on a 
 
 1 According to p. 5 he was killed in 296. 
 
22 A.H. 299. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 couple of elephants ; robes of honour were bestowed 
 on the vizier Ibn al-Furat, then on Marzubani, the 
 deputy of the governor of Khorasan, while the messengers 
 who had brought the two prisoners were sent back with 
 robes, scent and jewels for the governor of Khorasan. 
 
 In the same year came the news of the death of 
 ‘Abarta'i, and presently of Futai# ; ‘Abdallah b. 
 Ibrahim al-Misma‘i was then made minister of 
 public security in Fars. 
 
 In it too Fatimah the Stewardess was drowned in 
 her boat under the Bridge on a windy day ; she had 
 married her two daughters to Bunayy b. Nafis and 
 Qaisar, and these persons attended the funeral, which 
 was also attended by various officers and judges. The 
 Queen-mother appointed Umm Musa the Hashimite 
 Stewardess in her place, and the latter acted as inter¬ 
 mediary between the Queen-mother with Muqtadir, 
 and Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 Year 299. 
 
 In this year Ibn al-Furat was arrested and his palace 
 placed under surveillance, where the privacy of the 
 women's apartments was disgracefully violated; his 
 dwelling and those of his clerks and dependents were 
 plundered, while civil war raged in Baghdad, and houses 
 were pillaged. Now Mu'nis the Treasurer commanded 
 the police of Baghdad, having under his orders in virtue 
 of his office 9,000 mounted men ; when the civil war 
 grew fierce and the pillaging increased, he would ride 
 about, and out of respect for him the people would grow 
 calm and stop plundering : but when he had dismounted 
 things would resume their former course. For three 
 days and nights the disorder was very serious, then it 
 was allayed. 
 
 The duration of this first vizierate of Ibn al-Furat 
 was three years, eight months and thirteen days ; the 
 appointment was now given to Abu 'Ali Mohammed b. 
 
23 
 
 VlZIERATE OF ABU ‘AlI KhAQANI. 
 
 *Ubaidallah b. Yahya b. ( 21 ) Khaqan, in Dhu’l-ffijjah 
 299. 1 He appointed the heads of departments, and gave 
 them their respective rank in their offices. He put the 
 examination of Ibn al-Furat and his dependents and 
 clerks in the hands of Abu’l-#asan Ahmad b. Yahya 
 b. Abi'l-Baghl. He also entrusted him with the 
 bureau of the fined, that of the ‘Abbasi estates, and that 
 of the control of the estates of Ibn al-Furat. Of the 
 associates of Ibn al-Furat there went into hiding Abu 
 ‘Ali Mohammed b. ‘Ali b. Muqlah, Abu'l-Tayyib 
 Kalwadhi, Abu’l-Qasim Hisham, and Abu Bishr 
 b. Farajawaihi ; the remainder were arrested, their 
 houses plundered and demolished, and themselves im¬ 
 prisoned. Their inquisitor was Ibn Abi’l-Baghl, who 
 tortured them; he also was inquisitor in the case of Ibn 
 al-Furat, only was not allowed to do him any personal 
 injury, though permitted to maltreat all his dependents 
 and clerks. 
 
 Account of the schemes of Ibn Abil-Baghl and 
 their turning against him . 
 
 Abu’l-#usain Ibn Abil-Baghl had been banished in 
 the days of Ibn al-Furat to Ispahan ; and when the civil 
 war arose in Baghdad, and his brother 2 was appointed 
 to examine Ibn al-Furat and his dependents, that 
 brother intrigued to obtain the vizierate for him so soon 
 as he was able to interview Umm Musa, 3 offering a large 
 sum which he was prepared to raise and increase. With 
 this he sought to work on the covetousness of Muqtadir. 
 He then circulated a rumour that the appointment had 
 been made, and wrote to his brother bidding him hasten 
 to Baghdad, the missive being conveyed by Abu Bakr 
 brother of Umm Musa. On his way he was addressed 
 as Vizier, and was met by the officers and others on his 
 arrival at the metropolis. 
 
 1 Began July 19, 912. 
 
 2 More correctly his cousin. 
 
 3 The recently appointed Stewardess of the Palace. 
 
24 
 
 A.H. 299. Caliphate of Muqtadib. 
 
 On a certain evening Abu 'Ali Khaqani rode to the 
 Palace, and requested an audience of Muqtadir, which 
 was granted ; he pointed out to the Caliph that affairs 
 were in disorder, the tribute delayed, and the world 
 rendered desolate by the number of rumours on this 
 subject, Ibn Abi’l-Baghl stating that he had been sum¬ 
 moned to assume the vizierate. Muqtadir returned a 
 soft answer, and gave him permission to remove Ibn 
 Abi'l-Baghl and his brother from the metropolis ; he 
 accordingly arrested and banished them. 
 
 ( 22 ) Umm Musa the Stewardess withdrew her favour 
 in consequence from the vizier Abu 'Ali Khaqani; and 
 he in alarm at this, and fearing she might ruin him, con¬ 
 ciliated her by investing Abu'l-#usain of the pair with 
 the control of the kharaj and the Estates in Ispahan, and 
 his brother Abu'l-Hasan with the government of SilA 
 and Mabarik. 
 
 The vizier further wrote ordering the release of Abu’l- 
 Haitham 'Abbas b. Thawabah who had been imprisoned 
 in Mausil, whither he had been transferred by Ibn al- 
 Furat during the reverse of Mohammed b. 'Abdun owing 
 to their relationship. 1 This Ibn Thawabah used to act 
 as secretary for Mohammed b. Devadadh , 2 and had a 
 bad character. Coming to Baghdad in the year 300 he 
 was appointed by the vizier Abu 'Ali Khakani to the 
 bureau of fines and of the 'Abbasi and Furati estates, 
 and into his hands was put the inquisition on Ibn al- 
 Furat, his dependents and clerks. He maltreated them 
 excessively and tortured them in all sorts of ways, and 
 repeatedly examined Ibn al-Furat; insulting and re¬ 
 viling Ibn al-Furat on some of these occasions, in the 
 presence of Umm Musa,3 when he was repaid by Ibn 
 al-Furat with the like, who ascribed to him every evil 
 
 1 See above, p. 12. 
 
 2 Brother of Ibn Abi’l-Saj, called Afshin. 
 
 8 See below, p. 88. 
 
Vizierate of Abu 'Ali Khaqani. 25 
 
 quality. Ibn Thawabah wrote to Muqtadir, asserting 
 that Ibn al-Furat had only ventured to do this owing to 
 his extreme pride and his vast wealth, and asked leave to 
 torture him. Muqtadir accordingly let Ibn Thawabah do 
 what he liked with him ; so he put him in chains and 
 fetters, clothed him in a woollen jubbah, and exposed 
 him in the sun for a period of four hours till he all but 
 perished. An account of this was brought by Badr 
 the H urami to Muqtadir, who expressed disapproval of 
 Ibn ThawabalTs action, and ordered Ibn al-Furat to be 
 removed to one of the private apartments under the 
 control of Zaxdan the Stewardess, where he was well 
 treated and comforted, but only after Ibn al-Furat had 
 sworn a solemn oath that there remained no treasure, 
 property, or goods of value to which he had not confessed 
 when questioned by Ibn Abi’l-Baghl. 
 
 ( 23 ) This oath was accepted by Muqtadir, who for¬ 
 bade Ibn Thawabah to examine him further. After this 
 Muqtadir began to consult Ibn al-Furat about affairs 
 of state, showing him the letters of the viziers to himself 
 and answering them in accordance with his advice. 
 Then charges against Abu 'Ali Khaqani became frequent, 
 and Abu’l-Qasim Ibn al-Hawari became powerful. 1 
 
 Account of the mismanagement of the vizierate by 
 
 Abu ‘Ali Khaqani . 
 
 This vizier found his time fully occupied with paying 
 court to the Sultan and looking after his own enemies, 
 so that he had not time to read the letters that came or 
 were despatched ; he relied on his son Abu’l-Qasim 
 'Abdallah, to whom he gave besides the charge of show¬ 
 ing despatches to the Caliph, with that of acting as his 
 deputy in general administration. 
 
 This son was given to drinking, and attended exclu¬ 
 sively to the affairs of the officers and troops, and the 
 
 1 In Hilal’s work he is represented as an ally of Umm Musa. 
 
26 A.H. 299. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 appointments to governorships, neglecting all else. He 
 had given the duty of reading incoming letters to Abu 
 Nasr Malik b. al-Walid, and that of reading outgoing 
 documents to Abu ‘Isa Yahya b. Ibrahim Maliki. Abu 
 ‘Ali and his son had summaries made of what came 
 in and went out, but neither of them read them until 
 the affairs with which they dealt were past; the memo¬ 
 randa of remittances and cheques remained unopened 
 in their storehouse, their contents being unknown. Thus 
 under the administration of Abu ‘Ali Khaqani affairs 
 went to wrack and ruin. In one week he would appoint 
 a number of governors to the same district, as many as 
 seven, it is said, to Mah al-Kufah in the course of twenty 
 days; these all met in a Khan in Hulwan. For the 
 administration of Qurdi and Bazibdha he appointed five 
 governors who met in a Khan at ‘Ukbara on one day. 
 The reason for this was the profits obtained by his sons 
 and clerks from the governors whom they appointed. 
 All sorts of stories were written and remembered about 
 him. He also was very free in issuing orders, increases, 
 gratuities and ratifications, both directly and through 
 his sons, and Bunan, Ya/zya b. Ibrahim ( 24 ) Maliki, 
 and AAmad and Mohammed sons of Sa'id. Khaqani 
 endeavoured to endear himself to the hearts of the nobles 
 and the commons by forbidding the servants of the 
 Sultan and the chief officers of the army to head their 
 letters with servile expressions, while he conciliated the 
 common people by praying with them in the mosques 
 which are in the streets. If he saw a company of sailors 
 or others of humble rank praying in a mosque on the 
 river-bank, he would order a boat, embark and join the 
 worship. By his conduct the office of vizier became 
 degraded and humiliated. 
 
 When any one asked him a favour he would beat his 
 breast, and say “ with all my heart.” Hence he was 
 called “ He beat his breast.” Money began to run short, 
 
Vizierate of Abu ‘Ali Khaqani. 27 
 
 and he was unable to pay in full the stipendiaries and 
 chief officers, &c. In consequence they rioted, made for 
 the Oratory, 1 and abode there, taking with them most 
 of the officers. The affair became serious, and they 
 assailed him with violent language. He was ordered by 
 Muqtadir to pay them their stipends, but excused him¬ 
 self on the ground of the deficiency of supplies, and the 
 reduction of the revenue ; observing further that the 
 moneys extracted from Ibn al-Furat and his dependents 
 had gone into the private Treasury, out of which the 
 Treasurer declined to make any payment. Muqtadir 
 accordingly ordered that half a million dinars should be 
 paid out of that Treasury to be expended in satisfying 
 the demands of the rioters. ShafF Lu’lu’i was then 
 appointed postmaster of Baghdad, and overseer of the 
 vizier, the army, the officials, judges and police. 
 
 When Ibn Thawabah saw the weakness of the vizier 
 he endeavoured to conciliate Muqtadir by letters, 
 delivered by Umm Musa, wherein he asserted his ability 
 to extract vast sums from the officials which had been 
 overlooked by Khaqani; e.g., 700,000 dinars from 
 
 Mohammed b. ‘Ali Madara’i and his brother Ibrahim 
 alone. Khaqani was ordered to give full powers to Ibn 
 Thawabah, who, receiving them, (25) began to extort 
 moneys with violence, and got control of affairs, dis¬ 
 charging the officers appointed by the vizier, and appoint¬ 
 ing whom he thought fit. Various knaves managed to 
 write letters and convey them through Umm Musa to 
 Muqtadir, requesting posts, and promising money; 
 Khaqani was ordered to appoint them. His adminis¬ 
 tration was thus weakened, and these knaves became 
 associated with him in his duties, and extorted money 
 by all means and every form of violence. 
 
 Now Hamid b. ‘Abbas had been farming the revenue 
 of Wasit and the district for four years ; the clerks had 
 
 *See Note on p. 56. 
 
28 A.H. 300. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 drawn up his account, making him owe 240,000 dinars 
 for each year, and besides 24,000 kurr of barley, of 
 normal size, for the horses of the troops, to be exacted 
 from him in addition to the cash specified. In reality 
 Hamid had contracted according to the register of the 
 preceding year with a slight addition. The deficit, waste 
 and confusion were due to Khaqani, who during the days 
 of ‘Ub aidallah b. Sulaiman 1 and down to the time of 
 his concealing himself during the first vizierate of Ibn 
 al-Furat had been in charge of the post, the appeals and 
 the portfolios in Masabadhan. When he was invested 
 with the vizierate, he was bewildered owing to want of 
 experience. Mu’nis bethought him of appointing ‘Ali 
 b. Tsa instead. 
 
 Year 300. 
 
 When Muqtadir perceived the disorder, mismanage¬ 
 ment and anarchy, he consulted Munis the Eunuch, 
 informing him that the state of affairs suggested the 
 restoration of Ibn al-Furat to the vizierate ; Mu’nis 
 was however offended with Ibn al-Furat owing to certain 
 matters, some of which we have recorded in the account 
 of the episode with Subkara, when he arranged the 
 affairs of Fars, and that arrangement was cancelled by 
 Ibn al-Furat. He told Muqtadir that it would cause a 
 scandal if the provincial governors were to learn that 
 the Sultan had dismissed a vizier and then been com¬ 
 pelled to restore him to office after a few months of dis¬ 
 missal , ( 26 ) and that the Sultan’s action would be 
 
 attributed simply to the desire to seize the vizier’s goods. 
 He went on to say that the cosmic secretaries who had 
 managed the empire and been at the head of the bureaux 
 since the days of MuTadid were the two sons of Furat, 
 of whom Abu’1-'Abbas was now dead, whereas the other 
 had held the vizierate until dismissal; further Mohammed 
 b. Dawud and Mohammed b.^Abdun, both of whom had 
 been killed in the sedition of Ibn al-Mu4azz. Besides 
 
 1 Vizier of Mu'tadid 278. 
 
VlZIERATE OF 'ALI B. ’ISA. 
 
 29 
 
 these there was 'Ali b. 'Isa, and with the exception of 
 him there was no-one left capable of administering the 
 empire. Mu’nis described him as trustworthy, faithful, 
 pious, single-minded, safe and competent; so he was 
 ordered by Muqtadir to despatch Y albaq 1 to him to 
 summon him to the metropolis. To Khaqani he alleged 
 that he was summoning him to act as deputy for 
 Khaqani’s son 'Abdallah in the bureaux. And indeed 
 Khaqani used to say in his audience-chamber that he 
 had written to have 'Ali b. 'Isa brought to the metro¬ 
 polis in order that he might be the deputy of 'Abdallah. 
 On Monday 10 MuAarram, 302, 2 when Khaqani rode to 
 the palace of the Sultan, he, his sons 'Abdallah and 'Abd 
 al-WaMd, Abu’l-Haitham Ibn Thawabah, YaAya b. 
 Ibrahim Maliki, A/unad and Mohammed sons of Sa'id 
 the chamberlains, Bunan and Sa'id b. 'Uthman al- 
 Naffat were arrested, and given in custody to Nadhir 
 #urami ; Sa'id b. 'Uthman was one of those who had 
 helped to procure the vizierate for Khaqani, and been 
 rewarded by him with an important office. In this year 
 'Abdallah b. Ibrahim al-Misma'i was dismissed from the 
 ministry of public security in Fars, and the office was 
 given to Badr #ammami, who had held the same office 
 in Ispahan. After his transference to this office in Fars 
 and Kirman, his former charge was given to ‘Ali b. 
 Wahsudhan the Dailemite. 
 
 Year 301. 
 
 In this year Abu’l-#asan 'Ali b. 'Isa assumed the 
 office of vizier at the time of his arrival from Meccah. 
 Robes of honour were bestowed on him (27) and he rode 
 from the Palace to his own house, accompanied by Mu nis 
 the Eunuch, Gharib the Queen-mother’s brother and the 
 other captains and retainers, also mounted. The day 
 of his decoration he was given possession of the persons 
 of Mohammed b. 'Ubaidallah Khaqani, his two sons 
 
 1 Freedman of Mu'nis, who plays an important part later. 
 
 2 Aug. 5, 914, 
 
30 A.H. 301. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 and the rest of the persons whom I have named^above. 
 He imposed upon them fines of moderate amount, which 
 he exacted in full; he then permitted Khaqani to return 
 to his home, where he was to remain under custody, 
 but great care was taken to guard his family from insult. 
 He had Abu’l-Haitham Ibn Thawabah tortured. 
 
 He then commenced an investigation of the state of 
 the departments, carrying this out in the vizier’s palace 
 in Mukharrim ; thither he betook himself every morning 
 and there he worked till the latest time when the last 
 evening prayer may be said, and then he returned home. 
 He sent the usual notification to every provincial 
 governor of the robes bestowed on him by the Caliph, 
 and his being entrusted with the management of the 
 bureaux and of the empire. While confirming them in 
 their several appointments he bade them use their best 
 efforts to secure the prosperity of their provinces, and 
 ended as follows : This is the commencement of the year, 
 the beginning of a new season, and the time when the 
 land-tax is capable of being made to thrive. I know of 
 nothing which I need demand of you or remind you of; 
 I will only bid you send a considerable portion of the 
 money, and despatch advice thereof together with the 
 answer to this letter so soon as you have seen it. You 
 shall then write to me describing the state of your pro¬ 
 vince with a report such as we can understand and will 
 show us how you have conducted yourself therein and 
 the nature of your methods for rendering the resources 
 of your province copious and fruitful; and you may 
 delay the apportioning of revenues and the ]ike to special 
 purposes until letters and orders come from me for the 
 purpose of sounding your judgment concerning the prin¬ 
 ciples to be observed in your action. Make up your 
 mind that I will have no laxity nor tampering with any 
 of the rights of the Commander of the Faithful, nor wil] 
 leave a single dirhem of his money unaccounted ; nor 
 
VIZIERATE OF ‘AlI B. ‘ISA. 
 
 31 
 
 will I put up with any negligence of the interests of the 
 government whether the culprit be my kin or a stranger ; 
 and you should not be more anxious to earn merit in such 
 matters than to deal justly and equitably with your sub¬ 
 jects and to remove from them unfair burdens small or 
 great. For I shall hold you answerable for these things 
 as I hold you answerable for the honest administration 
 of the Sultar’s revenues and the ( 28 ) proper guarding of 
 his property. And do you write to me without fail from 
 time to time about your dealings, that I may know them, 
 if God will. 
 
 After this he installed various persons in the bureaux 
 and dismissed others, and did the like with the provincial 
 governors. He then tried to find out who were in the 
 habit of appropriating the revenues of the Sultan, and 
 living in grand style therewith, or neglecting the improve¬ 
 ment of the provinces and devoting their energies else¬ 
 where ; dismissing such officials, he put the frontiers 
 into a state of defence, and repaired the hospitals, saw 
 that the overseers of these institutions were properly 
 paid, provided for the wants of the patients and their 
 attendants, and repaired the public mosques. Orders 
 on these subjects were issued by him to the governors in 
 all the provinces, and he further issued an order about 
 appeals, as follows :—In the name of God, &c. When 
 any appeal is lodged with you before New Year’s Day, 
 the appellant asserting that portions of his fruits have 
 been ruined by some disaster, in enquiring into the truth 
 thereof you must rely on the most trustworthy and 
 competent of your helpers, in order that you may ascer¬ 
 tain the truth. Then when the injustice is made mani¬ 
 fest, you shall remove it and substitute justice for it; 
 you shall reduce the assessment in accordance with the 
 results of the investigation ; you shall then proceed to 
 exact the land-tax without favour to the strong or in¬ 
 justice to the weak. And in all that has been committed 
 
32 A.H. 301. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 to you court publicity, and compass complete justice, 
 towards the subjects and general equity—if God will. 
 
 He further issued an order abolishing the supplement 
 ary tax in Fars, and a series of similar documents, which 
 won fame and eulogy, on a variety of similar matters. 
 In short Abu'l-i^asan ‘Ali b. 'Isa administered the world 
 admirably, giving his deputies excellent instructions, 
 seeing that justice was done to the subjects, abolishing 
 unfair usages, and displaying thorough competence in 
 his management of the vizierate, the bureaux and the 
 general business of the empire. He was honest, self- 
 denying and pious. He devoted attention to appeals, 
 abolished the duty in Meccah, the supplement in Fars, 
 and the “ Sea-market ” in Ahwaz, 1 as well ( 29 ) as the 
 wine-tax in Diyar Rabi'ah. Thus he proved a blessing 
 to the world. He put the country into a prosperous 
 condition, and thereby obtained increased revenues. 
 He won the favour of the Sultan, whose dignity was 
 restored, while the subjects prospered. 
 
 'Ali b. Tsa proceeded to abolish the increases made 
 by Khaqani during his vizierate in the bureaux of the 
 army and their fiefs ; now this increase had been extended 
 to all ranks in the army from generals downwards, 
 
 . to servants and attendants and further to all clerks and 
 employes. It amounted therefore to a vast sum ; when 
 it was withdrawn the vizier incurred general hostility, 
 and was charged with parsimony, miserliness, and starv¬ 
 ing the army. He was however forced to adopt this 
 course because he found the Sultan's expenses greatly 
 in excess of his revenue, necessitating the demolition of 
 treasuries and expending their contents on useless objects. 
 
 Thabit b. Sinan records the following statement made 
 by ‘Ali b. Tsa : I had made, he said, a statement of the 
 revenue of the empire and the expense which I had to 
 
 Yacjut (in his geographies! dictionary) knows nothing more about this than 
 what this passage implies. The supplement in Fars was a tax on trees. 
 
33 
 
 VIZIERATE OF ‘ALI B. 'ISA. 
 
 meet, and found the expenditure considerably larger 
 than the revenue. Ibn al-Furat said to me one day after 
 he had superseded me, when I had been brought out of 
 prison in the Palace to be examined by him : You have 
 abolished the customs and so put an end to the revenue. 
 —What customs, I asked, have I abolished ?—He 
 replied : The duty in Meccah and the Supplement in Fars. 
 —I said : Are those the only duties which I have 
 abolished ? On the contrary I have abolished a number, 
 which I proceeded to enumerate, amounting to half a 
 million dinars annually. But, I said, I do not consider 
 this a large sum if compared with the burdens whereof 
 I have eased the Commander of the Faithful, and the 
 stains and blots which I have removed from his rule. 
 At the same time as you consider my reductions and 
 abolitions, consider also the sums which we respectively 
 have raised and the sums which we each have spent.-— 
 Thabit said he asked 'Ali b. Tsa what answer Tbn 
 al-Furat gave him.—An attendant, he replied, came out 
 and separated us before he could answer. 
 
 I was informed, he adds, by A#mad b. Mohammed 
 b. Sam'un, who was inspector of the province Nahra- 
 wanat ( 30 ) as follows: We had, he said, been assessing 
 the produce of the farmers, when one of them without 
 our knowledge came to the door of the vizier 'Ali b. Tsa 
 to complain that we had overestimated one of his fields. 
 All of a sudden we received a visit from an officer named 
 Ibn al-Badhdhal, with a troop of surveyors from Badu- 
 riyya and an escort of cavalry and infantry. We felt 
 sure that he had come to cashier us. My colleague 
 asked me to meet him and find out the news. I did so 
 and learned about the complainant. My colleague then 
 asked me whether I knew how the complainant’s land 
 had been assessed, and when I answered in the negative, 
 he told me to go and make an exact measurement. I 
 accordingly took with me the local surveyors and by using 
 
34 A.H. 301. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 the utmost diligence obtained the exact measurement; 
 in the previous survey we had made it 22 jaribs, but this 
 time it came to 21 jaribs and one qafiz. I argued in 
 excuse that the previous measurement had been made 
 when the corn was standing, whereas this time it was 
 measured after reaping, and there was nothing surprising 
 about this amount of difference being found between the 
 two measurements in these two different states. Ibn 
 al-Badhdhal went away ; and presently there arrived a 
 terribly menacing letter from 'Ali b. 'Isa, threatening 
 terrible things if he found that any one of the subjects 
 had been unfairly treated in the survey or any other 
 transaction. In consequence, he said, we did not venture 
 to make our demands very strict; and when the next 
 year came, the revenue had gone up 30 per cent., the 
 rumour having spread that justice was being practised, 
 and that robbery and extortion were at an end. Hence 
 people were encouraged to go in more for agriculture. 
 
 He acted similarly with appeals. Ibn al-Musharrif 
 records how one of the administrators of Baduriyya made 
 a demand for land-tax with arrears, and imprisoned the 
 persons concerned ; they put up with imprisonment, so 
 he put them in irons ; they endured those too, but he 
 did not venture to torture them, for fear of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 
 So he wrote a letter in their presence ( 31 ) to 'Ali b. 'Isa 
 wherein he strove to exasperate the vizier against them, 
 declaring that they were people who were proud of their 
 powers of endurance, and had been withholding moneys 
 which they owed ; they showed themselves indifferent 
 to imprisonment and fetters ; unless the vizier gave the 
 writer full powers to chastise them and extort the money 
 from them, they would permanently retain it, and the 
 example would be followed by the inhabitants of the 
 Sawad, and the revenue cease to come in in consequence. 
 
 The vizier however would be able to judge best._The 
 
 prisoners said that they were in despair fearing that the 
 
VIZIERATE OF ‘ALI B. ‘ISA. 35 
 
 officer would be given full power to torture them to 
 death, knowing what his feelings towards them were ; 
 they thought of giving in, but finally decided to wait 
 till the vizier's reply came. Presently there came a re¬ 
 script in the vizier's own writing on the back of the 
 letter : it was as follows : The land-tax, God preserve 
 you, is a debt, for which the debtor may be arrested ; 
 but beyond that you may not go. Greetings. Thus 
 we were delivered, and we paid just what was due. When 
 next year came, the revenue of Baduriyya increased 20 
 per cent., and we went so far as to sow on our rooves, 
 such confidence had we in the justice of the government. 
 
 When Abu ‘Ali Khaqani was cashiered, many docu¬ 
 ments were forged in his name ; a number of grants 
 of this sort were brought to ‘Ali b. Tsa, who, suspecting 
 their genuineness, collected them and sent them to 
 Khaqani, asking him to examine them and to report 
 to him which were genuine and which were spurious. 
 It so happened that when the messenger arrived, Abu 
 ‘Ali Khaqani was saying his prayers ; the messenger 
 in consequence placed the documents before his son 
 Abu'l-Qasim, and delivered the message. Abu'l-Qasim 
 began to separate the genuine from the spurious, but his 
 father made a sign to him to stop. When he had finished 
 his prayer, he took and glanced at them, then mixed 
 them together and returned them to the messenger, 
 saying : Give my greetings to the vizier and inform him 
 that all these deeds are genuine. I ordered these grants, 
 and use your discretion about ratifying them. When 
 the messenger had retired, he said to his son : Did you 
 want to make me incur people's hatred for no reason, 
 and to be yourself the vizier's ( 32 ) catspaw ? We are 
 out of office, so why should we not earn popularity by 
 letting all these forged orders be ratified ? If they are 
 ratified, we shall get the credit, whilst the loss will be 
 sustained by him ; whereas if he nullify them, we shall 
 
36 A.H. 301. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 get the praise and he the blame.—People approved this 
 action of Khaqani, and ‘Ali b. ‘Isa made himself disliked 
 by the courtiers, the public and the retinue by with¬ 
 drawing those additions which had come to be regarded 
 by those who enjoyed them as their proper stipends, 
 and by abolishing that expenditure which meant useless 
 waste of money. His rule was thus found oppressive 
 and was disliked and endeavours were made to vilify 
 him, and set Muqtadir against him. Certain persons 
 intrigued to restore the vizierate to Abu’l-Hasan Ibn 
 al-Furat. 
 
 This year saw Husain b. Mansur Hallaj arrested 
 at Sus, and brought to Baghdad exposed on a camel; 
 he had first been brought to ‘Ali b. Ahmad Rasibi, who 
 brought him to the metropolis, where he was crucified 
 alive, 1 with his follower, his wife's brother. The exe¬ 
 cutions took place simultaneously on the two sides of 
 the river. For a time Hallaj was imprisoned by himself 
 in the Palace. It was ascertained both in Ahwaz and 
 in Baghdad that he had claimed divinity, and asserted 
 that the deity took up his abode in the nobles. 2 
 
 In the same year the vizier restored Abu ‘Ali Kha¬ 
 qani to his liberty, and took him out of custody. Also 
 ‘Ali b. A/rniad Rasibi died in the Dur al-Rasibi,3 and 
 Mu'nis the Eunuch proceeded by the advice of ‘Ali 
 b. Isa to seize his property. He wrote to Nu‘man b. 
 ‘Abdallah to come and meet him for the purpose. He 
 wrote that he had realized about a million dinars.4 
 
 1 The author is here anticipating. The execution of Hallaj is narrated in 309. 
 
 2 The family of ‘Ali is meant. 
 
 3 Name of a region in Khuzistan between Tib and Jundisabur, according to 
 Yaqut, Geogr. ii. 217, who gives this person’s kunyah as Abu’l-Husain. He states 
 that this man farmed land which paid the government 1,400,000 dinars annually 
 and that he was allowed to rule his lands with little or no interference from 
 headquarters. 
 
 4 In the account given by ‘Arib it is Muqtadir who sends to seize the property. 
 
 The right of the Caliph to seize the estates of deceased persons was at this time 
 recognised, 
 
VlZIERATE OF 'ALI B. 'ISA. 
 
 37 
 
 The same year a robe of honour was bestowed upon 
 the prince AbuV Abbas Ibn Muqtadir, who was given 
 conduct of the war in Egypt and the Maghrib ; Mu'nis 
 the Eunuch was made his deputy in Egypt. The 
 prince ‘Ali b. Muqtadir was put in charge of prayer, 
 public security and war in the districts of Rayy, ( 33 ) 
 Dinawand, Qazwin, Zanjan, Abhar and Tarm. 
 
 In the same year there arrived news of the assassina¬ 
 tion of Ahmad b. Isma'il b. Ahmad, ruler of Khorasan, 
 on the bank of the river of Balkh at the hands of his 
 retainers. He was succeeded by his son AbuT-TJasan 
 Nasr, to whom a deed was sent by Muqtadir, investing 
 him with the government of Khorasan in his father's 
 stead. 
 
 In the same year news arrived of the assassination 
 of Abu Sa'id Jannabi #asan b. Bahram, who had 
 made himself master of Hajr, at the hands of a eunuch; 
 who, after assassinating his master had called one of his 
 leading associates, telling him that he was summoned 
 by the master ; when this person presented himself, 
 the eunuch proceeded to assassinate him, and continued 
 the like procedure until he had slain four chieftains : 
 when he called a fifth, this chief suspected treachery, 
 and cried out; his cries aroused the women who also 
 shouted for help, when the eunuch was arrested before 
 he could murder the fifth. The eunuch was then 
 executed ; he was a Slav. Abu Sa‘id had designated 
 his son Sa'id as his successor; he was however 
 unequal to the business, and was ousted by his younger 
 brother Abu Tahir Sulaiman b. #asan. 
 
 In the year 299 the Qarmafians had appeared at the 
 gate of Basrah, where the chief of the garrison was 
 Mohammed b. Ishaq b. Kundajiq. It was a Friday, 
 and people were at prayer, when the cry was raised : 
 The Qarmafians ! The doorkeepers went out to them 
 
38 A.H. 301. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 and found two cavaliers, one of whom had dismounted 
 and was seated leaning against the milestone with one 
 leg over the other, where he was seen by the porters, 
 while the other was in front of them. One of the 
 Khawal 1 rushed at the second, thrust at him with his 
 spear and killed him ; he then retired. The surviving 
 Qarmadan burst into tears, ( 34 ) and was told to come back 
 and drag away the corpse by the feet with the impreca¬ 
 tion of God. They then asked him who he and his com¬ 
 panion were ; he replied : Believers. He then crawled 
 on the ground until he had got hold of his companion's 
 body, whereupon the people entered the Mosque and 
 locked the door. Ibn Kundajiq then rode at the head 
 of his troops to the place, and his scouts, noticing a party 
 at the Cisterns of #ajjaj, reported that they were about 
 thirty horse. An attack was made upon this troop by 
 Utarid b. Shihab Anbari with his staff, some retainers 
 belonging to the garrison of Basrah, with some volun¬ 
 teers ; most of these were killed, only those escaping 
 who ran away before they came in sight of the enemy. 
 The corpses were stripped by the Qarmadans, who left 
 nothing upon them except their drawers whence they 
 removed the tapes * and further inflicted horrible scourg¬ 
 ing on them. Ibn Kundajiq retreated to Basrah whose 
 gates he locked, and where he remained under cover of 
 darkness. When morning broke, he saw no Qarmadans 
 left. He wrote to Ibn al-Furat, who was vizier at the 
 time, demanding help. The vizier despatched to his 
 assistance Mohammed b. ‘Abdallah Fariqi at the head 
 of a vast force, with a general taken from the ranks 
 named Qurawaihi and Ja'far of Zaranj with a company 
 of infantry to help Ibn Kundajiq. 
 
 When ‘Ali b. Tsa assumed the vizierate he was con¬ 
 sulted by Muqtadir on the subject of the Qarmadans 
 and advised that correspondence should be started with 
 
 Name lor a class of the population in Basrah, which occurs later. 
 
VIZIERATE OF 'ALI B. 'ISA. 
 
 39 
 
 Abu Sa'id #asan b. Bahrain Jannabi; the Caliph there¬ 
 upon gave the vizier instructions to write a letter to this 
 chief and despatch it by the messenger whom he deemed 
 suitable. He wrote a long letter wherein he bade the 
 
 Qarmadan remember Allah, and invited him to obey 
 the Caliph. At the end he said: The Commander of 
 the Faithful makes this offer his advocate against thee and 
 his plea against thee with God and his refutation of all thy 
 excuses ; on the other hand it is a door to protect thee if thou 
 accept the boons which he offers and the honourable investi¬ 
 ture which he is prepared to vouchsafe unto thee. 
 
 The envoys proceeded on their mission, but when they 
 reached Basrah they learned of the murder of Abu 
 Sa'id ; accordingly they went no further ( 35 ) until they 
 had communicated the intelligence to the vizier ‘Ali b. 
 Tsa and requested his further instructions. He replied 
 with an order to proceed to the children of Abu Sa id 
 or his successors. So they finished the journey, delivered 
 the letter and communicated their message. The Qar- 
 maZians sent a reply, and released the captives whose 
 cause the messengers had pleaded. The messengers 
 returned with them to Baghdad. 
 
 Year 302. 
 
 This year saw the arrest of Abu 'Abdallah H usain b. 
 'Abdallah known as Ibn al-Jassas Jauhari . 1 A band 
 of men was sent to his residence to convey him to the 
 Palace, where he was made to deliver money and jewels 
 to the value of four million dinars. He claimed to possess 
 far more than this, indeed he went far beyond 
 twenty million dinars in his assessment of his wealth. 
 
 ( 36 ) There was a rising this year headed by tf usain b. 
 'Ali the 'Alid, who got possession of Tabaristan and 
 took the title al-Dai " the Summoner.” The brother of 
 Su'luk sent an army against the insurgents, who retired ; 
 
 1 The source of this person’s wealth is explained in the Table Talk. 
 
40 A.H. 303. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 but when the army went home, the ‘Alid returned to 
 Tabaristan. 1 
 
 Year 303. 
 
 In this year there came the news that ZZusain b. 
 Z/amdan had raised the standard of revolt; Mu nis the 
 Eunuch was at this time absent from the capital, having 
 been despatched to Egypt to oppose the 'Alid ruler of 
 the Maghrib, who was invading Egypt with a force of 
 over 40,000 men. The vizier 'Ali b. Tsa accordingly 
 commissioned the elder Ra’iq to deal with ZZusain b. 
 //amdan, and gave him a robe of honour ; at the same 
 time he wrote to Mu'nis to acquaint him with the facts 
 and order him to march to Diyar Mudar so soon as he 
 could leave Egypt, and bring with him Ahmad b. 
 Kaighalagh, 'Ali b. Ahmad b. Bistam, and ‘Abbas b. 
 ‘Amr to put the affairs of the Diyar in order, stop the dis¬ 
 integration, and guard the frontiers, especially those of 
 the Jazirah, where Hisn Mansur had suffered terribly 
 from the invasion of the Byzantines, 2 who had made 
 captives of all the population of the region ; the soldiers 
 having been unable to execute the summer raid owing 
 to their being occupied with ZZusain b. Z/amdan. When 
 Ra'iq went to attack ZZusain b. H amdan, he was defeated 
 by the rebel, and fled to Mu'nis, who was urged by the 
 vizier 'Ali b. Tsa in a series of letters to hasten to repel 
 ZZusain. Mu'nis proceeded by forced marches, but when 
 he was near ZZusain, the latter sent his secretary Harun 
 to negotiate, and proceedings commenced of which an 
 account was sent by Mu’nis to 'Ali b. Tsa. In this he 
 stated that Harun had brought him an epistle from 
 ZZusain containing a lengthy discourse wherein at the 
 commencement, at the close, and in various sections, he 
 reiterated the assertion that what had driven him to 
 abandon his loyalty was the vizier's alarming change 
 
 1 In Browne’s Ibn Isfandiyar, p. 199, a different account of this matter is 
 given. 
 
 2 Saint-Martin xiii. 407 thinks the invaders were Armenians. 
 
VlZIERATE OF 'AlI B. 'ISA. 
 
 41 
 
 of attitude towards him, and his failure (37) to carry out 
 certain undertakings which he had made. He added 
 that he had now a force of 30,000 men collected from the 
 Arab tribes and the men of the ‘Ashirah. Mu'nis asked 
 the envoy what proposals Husain had committed to him 
 to deliver, and the reply was that Husain requested 
 Mu’nis to remain in Harran, where there was room for 
 his army, and write to the vizier to intercede for him, 
 with the request that he be relieved of the offices which 
 he was holding, and be allowed to remain in his own resi¬ 
 dence, while his brother was to be invested with the 
 government of Diyar Rabi'ah. Mu'nis informed the 
 envoy that these proposals were wholly inadmissible, 
 since the vizier was constantly urging him to advance ; 
 the vizier's orders could not be disobeyed, but he, 
 Mu'nis, would not fail to communicate the requests of 
 Husain to the vizier, while in no wise swerving from the 
 line which the vizier had marked out for him. If Husain 
 determined to give him battle, then he, Mu'nis, would 
 rely on the help of God against all who rebelled against 
 the Sultan, and were ungrateful for his benefits. If 
 Husain yielded to the truth and walked in its path, by 
 surrendering himself to Mu'nis, and abandoning his de¬ 
 signs, that conduct would best become him ; but if he 
 declined, and remained in his attitude of defiance and 
 mock-heroism, then Mu'nis would meet him with the 
 whole manhood of Mudar, and would spare the Sultans 
 troops the indignity of exposing themselves, overwhelm¬ 
 ing as were their numbers, to Husain's riffraff, not out 
 of reluctance to meet him on the battlefield, but out of 
 contempt for him. He added that he had put the envoy, 
 his secretary, in custody and would not give him leave 
 to return until he had heard the decision of Husain. 
 
 Then there came tidings that Mu'nis had continued 
 his march and encamped opposite the Jazirat Ibn ‘Umar, 
 while Husain had taken the direction of Armenia with 
 
A.H. 303. 
 
 Caliphate of 
 
 Muqtadir. 
 
 his baggage, his children and his goods. The army of 
 Husain then began to fall away and desert in groups to 
 Mu’nis. Presently a despatch came from Mu'nis stating 
 that seven hundred horsemen, all either commanders, 
 or retainers or counsellors or high officials in the army of 
 #usain, had deserted to him ; that he had bestowed 
 robes of honour on most of them, and in the process 
 exhausted his supplies of robes and of money , he was 
 devising expedients for obtaining the rest of what he 
 required. Then came a despatch from him announcing 
 the capture of #usain b. tfamdan with all his family 
 and most of his followers. The estates of all the Haxn- 
 danids were seized, and Mu’nis entered Baghdad with 
 i/usain and his son. 
 
 After two days #usain was conveyed from the 
 Shammasiyyah Gate to the Palace ( 38 ) attached to a 
 cross on an “ ostrich ” 1 erected on the top of the back 
 of a camel with two humps ; his son was exposed on 
 another camel; and burnooses were on their heads. In 
 front of him went the prince Abu’l-'Abbas son of Muq¬ 
 tadir, the vizier ‘Ali b. Tsa, the Commander-in-Chief 
 Mu’nis the eunuch, Abu’l-Haija ‘Abdallah b. 
 #amdan, Ibrahim b. #amdan and the other generals 
 with the troops and the elephants. When they reached 
 the Palace, Husain was made to stand in front of Muq¬ 
 tadir, who ordered him to be given to the charge of the 
 Stewardess Zaidan, who kept him confined in the 
 Palace. 
 
 After his arrival the iiujari infantry mutinied and 
 burned the stables of the vizier from whom they de¬ 
 manded an increase of pay. This was accorded ; three 
 dinars a month for each pay-month to the retainers and 
 three quarters of a dinar to the infantry. The mutiny 
 then ceased. 
 
 Apparently the name for some erection of wood. 
 
VIZIERATE OF 'Au B. ‘ISA. 
 
 43 
 
 Further arrests were made of Abu’l-Haija ‘Abdallah 
 b. Hamdan and all his brothers, and they were im¬ 
 prisoned in the Palace. A son of Husain b. Hamdan 
 had fled with a number of his followers and got as far 
 as Amid where he was assailed by al-Jazari , 1 who slew 
 him and a number of his followers. Their heads were 
 then sent to the capital and some of the followers of 
 Husain b. Hamdan were crucified. 
 
 Year 304. 
 
 In this year a retainer of ‘Ali b. Wahsudhan the 
 Dailemite (who was minister of public security in Ispa¬ 
 han) met there Ahmad b. Sayyah administrator of the 
 kharaj there, the retainer having been sent by his master 
 to him on some errand. ( 39 ) It so happened that the 
 retainer met the administrator when he was riding and 
 addressed him about his business. This offended A/raiad 
 b. SayyaA, who said to him : Do you, a hireling, talk 
 to me about business on the highway ?—The retainer 
 was vexed at this and returning to his master told him 
 what had happened. His master said the other was 
 quite right ; “If you were not a hireling you would 
 have struck his head with your sword when he talked 
 to you in that style.”—The retainer went back, and, 
 finding Ibn Sayya/^ on his way home, struck him with 
 the sword and killed him. The Sultan was offended at 
 this proceeding and dismissed ‘Ali b. Wahsudhan from 
 the government of Ispahan on account of it, replacing 
 him by Ahmad b. Masrur Balkhi. ‘Ali b. Wahsudhan 
 asked permission to return to the Dailemite country and 
 obtained it. Presently Mu’nis the eunuch interceded on 
 his account and the Sultan was reconciled. He then 
 took up his abode in the region of the Jabal. 
 
 In the same year Mohammed b. ‘Ali b. Su‘luk cousin 
 of the governor of Khorasan came to Baghdad demanding 
 protection and received a robe of honour. 
 
 1 Probably corrupt for al-Khazari, i.e., SIma , mentioned above. 
 
44 
 
 A.H. 304. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 In the summer season the common people were 
 alarmed by a creature which they call zabzab , and pro¬ 
 fessed to see at night on the rooves of their houses, and 
 which they said devoured their small children. Indeed 
 it would bite off the hand of a sleeping man or the breast 
 of a sleeping woman and devour it. They would keep 
 guard against it the whole night and take care not to 
 sleep ; and they would beat mugs, cups or mortars to 
 frighten it. Baghdad was in a state of terror in con¬ 
 sequence, until the Sultan got hold of a strange white 
 beast like a sea-hound, which he declared was the zabzab 
 and had been caught. This was suspended on an 
 “ ostrich ” upon the Upper Bridge, and left there till it 
 died. This made little impression till the moon waxed 
 and the people could see that there was no reality about 
 what they had imagined. Then they were appeased ; 
 only meanwhile the thieves had found their chance, 
 when the people were occupied with watching on their 
 rooves, and there were many burglaries. 
 
 In this year ‘Ali b. Tsa ascertained beyond a doubt 
 that there was an intrigue to restore Ibn al-Furat to the 
 vizierate ; so he offered to resign the post, only Muq¬ 
 tadir declined to accept his resignation. It was given 
 out in the ( 40 ) Palace that Ibn al-Furat was seriously 
 ill; and as it so happened that the rebel who was im¬ 
 prisoned in the Palace died 1 —it being the practice to 
 conceal the death of a captive rebel to whom his associ¬ 
 ates give the title Imam (Pontiff), since so long as he 
 remains alive they do not appoint another, whereas when 
 his death is ascertained they make a new appointment— 
 it was given out in the Palace that Ibn al-Furat was 
 dead ; thereupon the rebel was laid out, and his obse¬ 
 quies performed under the name of Ibn al-Furat, the 
 prayer being said by the vizier ‘Ali b. Tsa, who then went 
 home in great distress, declaring that the art of despatch- 
 
 1 Harun, caught by Husain b Hamdan in 283. 
 
Second Vizierate of I bn al-Furat. 45 
 
 writing had passed away that day. Then, as the days 
 passed, ‘Ali b. Tsa learned from numerous sources of the 
 success of the intrigue in favour of Ibn al-Furat and that 
 he was still alive. He told his friends that a man ought 
 not to talk about all that he hears. 
 
 At times he used to be disgusted by the misconduct 
 of the courtiers and the outrageous character of their 
 demands, and request permission from Muqtadir to 
 quit his office ; Muqtadir used to chide him for making 
 this request, until one day—at the end of Dhu’l-Qa’dah 
 304 (May 25, 917)—he received a visit from Umm Musa 
 the Stewardess, who wished to arrange with him the sum 
 to be distributed at the Feast of the Sacrifice among the 
 hareem and the attendants of the court. 'Ali b. Tsa 
 was not receiving visitors and his chamberlain Salamah 
 did not venture to announce her, so he dismissed her 
 courteously instead. This made her very angry ; when 
 'Ali b. Tsa learned of her arrival and dismissal, he 
 ordered some one to find her and make his excuses, 
 hoping that she might come back ; she declined, and 
 going to Muqtadir and the Queen-mother set them 
 against him with false tales. In consequence Muqtadir 
 removed him from office and arrested him on Monday 
 morning 8 Dhu’l-Hijjah, 304 (June 2, 917) when he was 
 riding to the Palace. His property and estates and those 
 of his dependents were not touched ; nor was anything 
 done to any of his children. He was placed in the 
 custody of Zaidan the Stewardess, ( 41 ) having held office 
 this time for three years, ten months and twenty-eight 
 davs. 
 
 Second vizierate of Abu’l-Hasan 'Ali b. Mohammed b. 
 
 al-Furat. 
 
 On 8 Dhu’l-iftjjah of this year Abud-#asan was 
 invested with the vizierate and the headship of the 
 bureaux, and after receiving a robe of honour went to 
 his palace in Mukharrim which had been given him in fief 
 
46 A.H. 304. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 during his first vizierate. He sent letters to the pro 
 vinces and chief cities in the name of Muqtadir an- 
 nouncing his restoration to the vizierate, ( 42 ) t e tex 
 being composed by Abu'l-Hasan Mohammed b. Ja far 
 b. Thawabah ; the following is a passage from it. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Commander of the Faithful found him 
 indispensable and necessary to the empire, and the clerks 
 of the bureaux in their different orders and ranks all 
 acknowledged his mastery., admitted his competence, re¬ 
 ferred their differences to him, regarded him as the ideal 
 of their aspirations, and were convinced that he is the 
 astute statesman, the experienced man of affairs, who knows 
 how the milk of revenue is to be drawn and its sources are 
 to be tapped, the Commander of the Faithful drew him 
 from his sheath, and the old sharpness of his blade returned, 
 so that he began steering the state as though he had never 
 been away from the helm, and managed its business as 
 though he had never left it. And the Commander of the 
 Faithful thought fit to omit to pay him no form of honour 
 which had originally been his, and to bestow on him anew 
 all kinds of recompenses and rewards which had been with¬ 
 drawn from him ; he has therefore addressed him by his 
 kunyah, &c., &c. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat proceeded to arrest the dependents of 
 ‘Ali b. 'Isa, his brothers, clerks, and all his deputies in 
 the Sawad, the East and the West; and he fined them all 
 with the exception of ABu'L-ii/usAiN and Abu'l-Hasan 
 the two sons of Abu’l-Baghl, whom he confirmed in 
 their appointments in Ispahan and Basrah, owing to 
 the interest displayed in them by Umm Musa. He 
 arrested besides Abu ‘Ali Khaqani and persecuted his 
 dependents, imposing on all a second fine which they 
 were made to pay. He inflicted fines on all the dis¬ 
 charged officials, and made them reveal their secret 
 profits and refund them. He even established a 
 “ Secret Profits' Bureau," having undertaken to pay 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 47 
 
 Muqtadir and his mother fifteen hundred dinars a day 
 from this source. The sum was entered in the accounts 
 under that head, and he was bound to furnish it without 
 fail; of the amount a thousand dinars went daily to 
 Muqtadir himself, three hundred and thirty-three and a 
 third to the Queen-mother, and a hundred and sixty-six 
 dinars and two thirds to the two princes Abu'l-'Abbas 
 and Harun. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat found himself well supplied with funds 
 owing to his predecessor's having collected some of the 
 kharaj ( 43 ) in advance, i.e. } before the commencement of 
 the new financial year, and having started doing this ten 
 days before his discharge from office ; this sum had been 
 deposited by him in the Treasury, to be expended at the 
 Feast on presents to the court-dependents, the cavalry 
 and the Turks. This sum strengthened the hands of 
 Ibn al-Furat, who had besides a vast amount which had 
 been realized from the fines, guarantees, 1 and letters of 
 credit, which had arrived from Fars, Ispahan and the 
 Eastern provinces within letters announcing the despatch 
 of goods, on the supposition that they would come into 
 the hands of ‘Ali b. Tsa. Ibn al-Furat expended the 
 whole on the cavalry, the court-attendants, the servants, 
 and important purposes. 
 
 The person who had control over the bureaux and 
 the administration in general during Ibn al-Furat's 
 second vizierate from among all the clerks was Abu 
 Bishr ‘Abdallah b. Farajawaihi. The reason of this 
 was that at the time of Ibn al-Furat's first arrest he con¬ 
 trived to escape, and remained in hiding during the 
 ministries of Khaqani and ‘Ali b. Tsa. When a year 
 of the latter's ministry had passed, he began to corre¬ 
 spond with Ibn al-Furat through the mediation of Tsa 
 the Physician, receiving replies from the ex-vizier, who 
 
 1 The reference is probably to sums which individuals had undertaken to 
 extort from deposed officials and the like, if the latter were given into their 
 power. 
 
48 
 
 A.H. 304. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 gave him drafts of letters which he was to address ashis 
 own to Muqtadir, containing criticisms of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, 
 his clerks and his deputies, and pointing out how the 
 vizier never fined any official whom he had employed, 
 on the principle that having once trusted a man, he was 
 not going to treat him as unfaithful. Further he was 
 to call attention to delays in the payment of salaries to 
 the royal children, the members of the hareem and the 
 court-attendants, he having reduced the pay-year of the 
 princes and the hareem to eight months and that of the 
 dependents and servants to six months , and having 
 diminished the 150,000 dinars paid every month to the 
 cavalry by two-thirds. Muqtadir would show these 
 letters to Ibn al-Furat, who assured the Caliph that Ibn 
 Farajawaihi was an expert in these affairs, and that all 
 his assertions were veracious. Muqtadir in consequence 
 began to think of dismissing ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, only when he 
 consulted Munis on the subject, the latter would dissuade 
 him from this step, assuring him that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa was 
 honest and trustworthy. ( 44 ) But when Mu’nis departed 
 for Egypt on his expedition against the ‘Alid of N. Africa, 
 Ibn Farajawaihi found the opportunity for a more 
 strenuous campaign against ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, whose interests 
 were defended during the absence of Mu‘nis by Gharib, 
 the Queen-mother’s brother, and Nasr the Chamberlain. 
 When Ibn Farajawaihi learned how these two persons 
 were championing ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, he wrote a letter with his 
 own hand to Muqtadir, promising that if ‘Ali b. ‘Isa were 
 dismissed and ‘Ali b. Mohammed b. al-Furat installed in 
 his place, he would restore the allowances of the princes, 
 the hareem, the attendants and the disbanded cavalry 
 resident in the metropolis to what they had been during 
 his former vizier ate,; these should be regularly paid in 
 full. Further he would undertake to provide out of the 
 fines levied on discharged officials, from secret profits 
 refunded, and from fees for continuance in office in the 
 different provinces, 45,000 dinars every lunar month, 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 49 
 
 Muqtadir communicated this letter to Ibn al-Furat, 
 who declared it to be absolutely accurate, and signed a 
 document guaranteeing all this. These letters were one 
 of the chief causes of the favour shown by Ibn al-Furat 
 to Ibn Farajawaihi in his second vizierate. 
 
 It further happened that Ibn al-Furat had deposited 
 through him vast sums with various traders and clerks, 
 and did not reveal the existence of these in the statement 
 of his assets, since he did not know the names of the de¬ 
 positories. When Ibn al-Furat again became vizier, 
 Ibn Farajawaihi recovered all these deposits without any 
 loss. 
 
 Abu 'Ali Ibn Muqlah had been without employ¬ 
 ment during the ministries of Khaqani and 'Ali b. Tsa, 
 not leaving his residence. In the former ministry he 
 was in hiding, and though he received a free pardon from 
 the latter, still he did not leave his residence. Ibn al- 
 Furat was grateful for his fidelity and favoured him on 
 this account. 
 
 Account of the proceedings of Ibn Abi’l-Saj during 
 these frequent changes in the ministry. 
 
 When Yusuf Ibn Abi’l-Saj learned of the dismissal 
 of 'Ali b. Tsa, ( 45 ) he was still in Adharbaijan, where 
 during the first vizierate of Ibn al-Furat he was minister 
 of prayer, war, public security, kharaj and the public 
 Estates as well as for Armenia; these provinces he held 
 in fief in consideration of a sum of money to be paid by 
 him annually into the treasury of Baghdad. During 
 the first vizierate of Ibn al-Furat he paid it in regularly ; 
 but when the office was successively held by Abu 'Ali 
 Khaqani and 'Ali b. Isa, his ambition was aroused and 
 he delayed payment of most of what was due for his fief; 
 thus he amassed a sum which made him powerful and 
 encouraged him to revolt. 
 
50 
 
 A.H. 304. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 The plans of Ibn Abi’l-Saj. 
 
 He declared that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa just before his dismissal 
 had sent out to him a standard with investiture by the 
 Caliph with the ministry of war in Rayy and Qazwm, 
 Abhar and Zanjan, and departed in haste for his new 
 province. When he approached it, it was quitted by 
 Mohammed b. ‘Ali Su'luk, 1 who fled to the region of 
 Khorasan. This Mohammed b. ‘Ali had originally con¬ 
 quered the province, and afterwards obtained the right 
 to farm the kharaj and the public Estates on easy terms, 
 though even these he did not keep. When Ibn al-Furat 
 learned of the proceedings of Ibn Abi'l-Saj, he com¬ 
 municated them to Muqtadir ; after some days there 
 arrived a despatch from Ibn Abi'l-Saj demanding grati¬ 
 tude for the expulsion of Mohammed b. ‘Ali Su‘luk 
 from Rayy and the neighbourhood, and congratulating 
 the Sultan on their reconquest. He stated further that 
 so soon as he had received the standard and the deed of 
 investiture from ‘Ali b. ‘Isa he had marched thither and 
 God had vouchsafed him victory. This angered Muq¬ 
 tadir, who instructed Ibn al-Furat to communicate the 
 despatch of Ibn Abi'l-Saj to ‘Ali b. ‘Isa; the latter 
 was therefore brought out of the place where he was con¬ 
 fined, and treated with consideration by the vizier who 
 said to him gently : This may have been a plan devised 
 by you against Su‘luk, and to this there would be no 
 objection. The ex-vizier however swore that he had 
 given no such appointment to Ibn Abi'l-Saj, and had sent 
 him no standard and no deed of investiture. He then 
 observed that a standard ( 46 ) and a deed of investiture 
 can only be despatched with one of the Sultan's ministers 
 or generals ; the ministers and generals were all present 
 
 and had best be asked. Further the correspondence 
 
 • 
 
 bureau had a special official charged with the composi¬ 
 tion of deeds of appointment and investiture ; he too 
 should be asked whether he had ever written such a deed. 
 
 1 Cf. above p. 39. The statements seem irreconcileable. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 51 
 
 Ibn al-Furat made his predecessor set his signature 
 to this statement, which he laid before Muqtadir, whose 
 resentment against Ibn Abi'l-Saj was increased. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat in consequence wrote both in the Caliph's 
 name and his own a severely worded and menacing 
 letter to Ibn Abi'l-Saj ; and sent an expedition from the 
 capital to fight him, under the leadership of Khaqan 
 Muflihi, afterwards reinforced by various commanders, 
 considerable sums being spent on their equipment. 
 Among them were such generals as Ahmad b. Masrur 
 of Balkh, Sima the Khazari, Nihrir the younger, and 
 others of their rank. This force was attacked by Ibn 
 Abi'l-Saj, who defeated Khaqan, and made many of his 
 followers prisoners, whom he then led in triumph into 
 Rayy. 
 
 Mu'nis at this time arriving from the frontier, was 
 commissioned with the war against Ibn Abi'l-Saj ; he 
 departed at once for this purpose and wrote to all the 
 generals on his line of march to join him ; his protection 
 was sought by Ahmad b. ‘Ali Su'luk , 1 who was well 
 received; he deprived Khaqan of the government of 
 the Jabal, giving his place to NiArir the Younger. 
 
 A series of letters now came from Ibn Abi'l-Saj, de¬ 
 siring reconciliation with the government, and offering 
 700,000 dinars for the control of the kharaj and the 
 Estates in the district of Rayy and the neighbourhood, 
 net, i.e., undertaking himself to defray the charges of 
 the officials in those regions and other permanent expendi¬ 
 ture. Muqtadir would not assent to this proposal; 
 so he next wrote asking to be allowed to remain in Rayy 
 in charge of public security and the war-office only, 
 while the ministries of prayer, of kharaj , of the Estates, 
 of justice, of the post, of intelligence, of the despatch- 
 bags 2 and of alms should be held over for officials to be 
 
 1 This person is sometimes called A/miad, sometimes Mohammed : and 
 often "the brother of Su'luk.” 
 
 2 Probably the letters and parcels intended for the Caliph. 
 
52 A.H. 304. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 sent by the Sultan to those regions. Muqtadir however 
 persisted in his refusal, informing him that however 
 much he might offer he should not be allowed to retain 
 the government of Rayy for a single day owing to his 
 having ventured to enter the province without orders. 
 So when Ibn Abil-Saj realized this, he departed from 
 Rayy and its territory, ( 47 ) after having ravaged it, 
 and collected within a short space the tax for the year 
 304. Mu’nis then appointed as governor Wasif Bek- 
 
 TIMURI. 
 
 Ibn Abil-Saj would now have been satisfied to be 
 freshly invested with his former government 1 ; and Ibn 
 al-Furat recommended that this proposal be accepted, 
 even guaranteeing that he would compel him to furnish 
 in return a respectable sum to the treasury ; but it was 
 opposed by Nasr the Chamberlain and Ibn al-i/awari, 
 who held that he ought not to be confirmed in the 
 government of Armenia and Adharbaijan until he had 
 come to the metropolis and “ trodden the Sultan s 
 carpet.” They charged Ibn al-Furat with being in 
 league with him. Muqtadir in consequence insisted 
 that the war against him must proceed unless he came 
 to the metropolis, and ordered Mu’nis to march against 
 him with all speed. 
 
 When Ibn Abil-Saj found himself in danger of his 
 life, he proceeded to engage Mu’nis in Sarat in Adhar¬ 
 baijan ; the latter was defeated and retreated to Zanjan. 
 Of the generals of the government Sima was killed in 
 this battle, and many of Mu'nis’s officers were taken 
 prisoners by Ibn Abil-Saj, among them Hilal b. Badr; 
 these were led by him in triumph into Ardabil. Mu’nis 
 stayed in Zanjan collecting forces to lead against Yusuf 
 (Ibn Abil-Saj), who continued to send him letters with 
 proposals ; Ibn Abil-Saj desired terms of peace, whereas 
 
 1 i.e. Adharbairjan and Armenia. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 53 
 
 Mu nis declined all conditions except the appearance of 
 the other at the metropolis. Ibn Abid-Saj had spared 
 the defeated Mu’nis, allowing him to escape with three 
 hundred retainers ; he might have taken him prisoner 
 had he wished, and Mu’nis was grateful for this service. 1 
 ( 48 ) In Mu^arram of the following year during the vizier¬ 
 ate of Hamid b. l'Abbas Mu’nis fought a second battle 
 with Yusuf b. Abi’l-Saj in Ardabil, when the latter 
 was wounded ( 49 ) and taken prisoner. Mu’nis brought 
 him back to Baghdad ; and in the year 307 2 Ibn ( 50 ) 
 Abi’l-Saj was brought into the city in triumph from the 
 Shammasiyyah Gate mounted on a camel with a burnouse 
 on his head, the army marching in front of him, until 
 they reached the Palace. There he was made to stand 
 before Muqtadir and he was presently imprisoned in 
 the Palace in the custody of the Stewardess Zaidan, 
 who treated him kindly. Mu’nis was decorated with a 
 robe of honour, a necklace and a bracelet. Robes of 
 honour were bestowed on many of his officers also, and 
 the infantry received an addition to their pay of half a 
 dinar a month per head. 
 
 1 Account of the same affair from the ‘Uyun. 
 
 And in the year 806 Mu'nis marched from Hamadhan to Abhar to fight Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj ; the news which reached Mu’nis described the insurgent as in a dis¬ 
 organized state, and about to evacuate his quarters, having been deserted by his 
 brothers. While Mu’nis made Abhar his objective, Ibn Abi’l-Saj made Ardabil 
 his. He was pursued by Mu’nis who presently came up with him. A pitched 
 battle was then fought, resulting in the defeat of Mu’nis ; the place where his 
 treasure was secreted was discovered and it was seized before his eyes. Yusuf 
 pursued but without vigour, and Mu’nis retreated before him till he had ascended 
 the hill; his extreme rear was overtaken by Sabuk, retainer of Ibn Abi’l-Saj, 
 who slaughtered great numbers and took some captives. Those who had 
 climbed the hill escaped ; but the camp of Mu’nis was plundered and innumer¬ 
 able mules and camels seized. Mu’nis got to Zanjan where his troops joined 
 him, and after staying there five days he proceeded to Qazwin, where he remained 
 two months. Here news reached him of the arrest of Ibn al-Furat, who was 
 suspected of encouraging Ibn Abi'l-Saj, and also supplies from Baghdad of 
 money, war material, bedding and camels, while reinforcements led by the 
 local governors continued to arrive. Then he was joined by Ibn Famdan, 
 who delivered himself up, to the gratification of Mu’nis, who gave him a robe 
 of honour. The troops collected in Zanjan presently became too numerous 
 for the place, and when a severe winter accompanied by snow set in, Mu’nis 
 distributed his forces in various places, himself remaining in Zanjan, where he 
 was joined by Mahir the eunuch bringing 100,000 dinars in coin from Baghdad, 
 which was welcome to Mu'nis. 
 
 8 Began June 3 f 919, 
 
54 A.H. 304. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 When Mu’nis had departed from Adharbaijan and 
 returned to Baghdad taking Yusuf b. Dewadadh (Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj) with him, the province was seized by Sabuk, 1 
 retainer of the latter. Against him Mu’nis despatched 
 Mohammed b. ‘Abdallah Fariqi, on whom he bestowed 
 the governorship ) he was at the time on the frontier 
 of Armenia, and at once marched against Sabuk, who 
 however defeated him, and remained in control of the 
 province, while Fariqi retreated to Baghdad. Sabuk 
 then wrote to the Sultan requesting to be allowed to 
 retain the province as a fief, and these proposals were 
 accepted; the condition being that he should pay 
 annually 220,000 dinars. Accordingly the robes of 
 honour and the deed of investiture were sent out to him ; 
 but he did not pay the money to which he had agreed. 
 
 When Mu’nis had overcome Yusuf b. Abi’l-Saj and 
 prior to his quitting Adharbaijan, he had made ‘Ali b. 
 Wahsudhan minister of war in Rayy, Dinawand, 
 Qazwin, Zanjan and Abhar, assigning the proceeds 
 of the taxes there to him and his troops ; to Ahmad b. 
 ‘Ali Su'luk he gave ( 51 ) the ministry of public security 
 in Ispahan and Qumm, assigning to him and his troops 
 the kharaj and Estates in Qumm and Sawah, amounting 
 to more than 200,000 dinars a year. 
 
 Shortly after this Ahmad b. Musafir, prince of Farm, 
 assassinated his brother’s son ‘Ali b. Wahsudhan, with 
 whom he was staying in the neighbourhood of Qazwin ; 
 the victim was in his bed at the time. The assassin then 
 fled to his own country. A/tmad b. ‘Ali brother of Su'luk 
 was at the time resident in Qumm ; after the murder 
 he went and established himself in Rayy. This act dis¬ 
 pleased the Sultan, who proceeded to invest Wasif 
 Bektimuri with the offices formerly held by ‘Ali b. 
 Wahsudhan, while giving the commander of the army 
 Mohammed b. Sulaiman control of the kharaj and the 
 
 1 Called Spkhi in the Armenian chronicle of Stephanos of Taron, p. 124. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 55 
 
 Estates. A/rniad b. ‘Ali Su‘luk was ordered to return 
 to Qumm, and obeyed ; but presently relations between 
 him and Mohammed b. Sulaiman became strained, and 
 throwing off his allegiance he dismissed the officials of 
 the kharaj and the Estates in Qumm and made prepara¬ 
 tions for the invasion of Rayy. Ni#rir the younger, 
 governor of Hamadhan, received orders to march to 
 Rayy and unite with Wasif Bektimuri and Mohammed 
 b. Sulaiman to resist A/rniad b. ‘Ali (52) Su‘luk. The 
 last advanced to the gate of Rayy, and defeated Wasif 
 and Mohammed b. Sulaiman ; the former retreated to 
 Hamadhan, and the latter was killed in the battle ; 
 Rayy came into the possession of AAmad b. ‘Ali Su‘luk, 
 who now endeavoured to make his peace with the Sultan, 
 wherein he was aided by Nasr the Chamberlain ; he 
 was to farm the kharaj of Rayy, Dinawand, Qazwin, 
 Zanjan and Abhar for 166,000 dinars to be sent annually 
 to the metropolis ; the Estates in these regions were put 
 under the control of Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani, 
 who drove A/rniad b. ‘Ali Su‘luk out of Qumm and in¬ 
 stalled his own agents there. 
 
 We now return to the story of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 When the vizier Abud-ifasan Ibn al-Furat became 
 aware of the enmity of Nasr the Chamberlain and Abu'l- 
 Qasim Ibn Al-#awari, and Shafi‘ Lu’lu'i, and how 
 they charged him with encouraging Ibn Abi’l-Saj to 
 rebel, he resolved on retaliation, and refused most of 
 their demands; he further deprived Nasr and Shah' of 
 most of their offices. Ibn al-Furat had appointed Abu 
 ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah secretary to Nasr the Chamberlain ; 
 presently Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah felt aggrieved by Ibn 
 al-Furat taking into his employ Sa‘id b. Ibrahim Tus- 
 tari ; so he communicated to Nasr the fact that Ibn 
 al-Furat had recovered from deposits which had 
 remained intact the sum of 500,000 dinars, and that 
 after he had sworn at the time of his fall that there re- 
 
56 A.H. 305. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 mained among his assets no deposit which he had not 
 acknowledged. Nasr mentioned this to Muqtadir with 
 the view of incensing him against Ibn al-Furat , and 
 he with Ibn al-#awari held out to Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah 
 the hope of the vizierate in order to make him reveal 
 secrets of Ibn al-Furat’s, calculated to arouse the ire of 
 Muqtadir. After a time this fact came out and was 
 even a matter of public notoriety ; the nephew of Ibn 
 al-Furat, AbuY-Khattab Ibn Abi l- Abbas Ibn al- 
 Furat, went to the vizier and told him what people were 
 saying : but Ibn al-Furat replied that he might as well 
 doubt his own children or his nephew (who brought the 
 information) as doubt Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah, whom he 
 had brought up and protected. Afterwards Ibn al- 
 Furat became convinced of the truth of what was 
 alleged ( 53 ) concerning Ibn Muqlah. whom he proceeded 
 to inform of some things that had reached his ears about 
 Ibn Muqlah’s discussions of his affairs ; Ibn al-Furat 
 professed surprise at such rumours, hoping to divert Ibn 
 Muqlah from the course which he was pursuing ; but 
 he only succeeded in alarming Ibn Muqlah, who, fearing 
 lest Ibn al-Furat might speedily ruin him, increased his 
 efforts to ruin Ibn al-Furat, and made Nasr the Chamber- 
 lain his protector. 
 
 Year 305. 
 
 This year Baghdad was visited by two envoys 1 
 from the Byzantine Emperor, who had come by the 
 Euphrates route, bringing splendid presents and 
 numerous marks of friendship, and soliciting a truce. 
 Their entry was on Mu/^arram 2 (June 25, 917), and 
 they were housed in the palace of Sa‘id b. Makhlad. 2 
 Ibn al-Furat gave orders that this residence should be 
 specially furnished and provided with all utensils, &c., 
 which they could require, and that they and their retinue 
 
 1 See Lebeau—Saint-Martin xii. 409 ; their names were Joannes Radecnos 
 and Michael Toxaras. 
 
 2 Vizier of Mu'tadid ; his palace is mentioned by Tabari iii. 2146, 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 57 
 
 should be liberally provided with supplies, including 
 animals for food and sweets. They solicited an audi¬ 
 ence of Muqtadir for the purpose of delivering the letter 
 which they had brought; they were told that this was a 
 matter of great difficulty, only possible after an inter¬ 
 view with his vizier, informing him of their design, 
 arranging the matter with him, and requesting him to 
 facilitate the granting of the audience and to advise the 
 Caliph to accord their petition. Abu 'Umar 'Adi b. 
 ‘Abd al-Baqi, who had escorted them from the frontier 
 requested AbuT-i7asan Ibn al-Furat to permit them to 
 visit him and he promised them an interview on a day 
 
 which he named. 1 
 
 ♦ 
 
 The vizier gave orders that the soldiers should line 
 the streets the whole way from the palace of Sa'id to 
 the palace which he (the vizier) occupied in Mukharrim, 
 and that his own retainers and troops with the vice¬ 
 chamberlains posted in his palace should form a line 
 from the doorway of the palace to the reception-room. 
 A vast saloon with gilt roof in the wing of the palace 
 called the Garden Wing was splendidly furnished and 
 hung with curtains resembling carpets ; on fresh fur¬ 
 niture, carpets and curtains a sum of ( 54 ) 30,000 dinars 
 was expended. No mode of beautifying the palace or 
 increasing the magnificence of the occasion was neglected. 
 The vizier himself sat on a splendid praying-carpet, 
 with a lofty throne behind him, with serving-men in front 
 and behind, to the right and to the left, while the saloon 
 was filled with military and civil officials ; the two 
 envoys were then introduced having witnessed on their 
 way such troops and crowds as might well fill them with 
 awe. 
 
 When they had entered the public apartments, they 
 were told to sit down in the veranda, the apartment 
 
 1 The scene is also described by Khadb Baghdadi after Hilal. See the 
 Manar 1335, pp. 633-637. 
 
58 A.H. 305. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 being filled with troops ; they were then taken down a 
 long passage behind this veranda, which brought them 
 to the quadrangle of the Garden, whence they took a 
 turning which led them to the room in which the vizier 
 was seated. The magnificence of the room and of its 
 furniture and the crowd of attendants formed an impres 
 sive spectacle. They were accompanied by Abu ‘Umar 
 Ibn ‘Abd al-Baqi as interpreter, and there was. present 
 Nizar b. Mohammed, prefect of police, with his whole 
 force. They were made to stand before the vizier 
 Abu’l-#asan Ibn al-Furat, whom they saluted, their 
 words being interpreted by the person mentioned ; and 
 the vizier made a reply which was also interpreted by 
 him. They preferred a request for the redemption of 
 the captives, and solicited the vizier's services in obtain¬ 
 ing the assent of Muqtadir to this. He informed them 
 that he would have to interview the Caliph on the sub¬ 
 ject, and would then have to act according to the in¬ 
 structions which he received. They solicited from him 
 an introduction to the Caliph, and he promised that 
 he would procure one. They were then discharged, and, 
 led out by the same route as that whereby they had 
 entered, returned to the Palace of Sa'id, the soldiers 
 still lining the road in full dress and perfect equipment. 
 The uniform consisted of royal satin tunics, with close- 
 fitting caps over which were satin hoods pointed at the 
 top. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat then applied to Muqtadir for leave to 
 introduce the envoys and instructed him in the answer 
 which he was to give them ; he then commanded all 
 the officials, civil and military, and all ranks of the army 
 to ride in the direction of the imperial Palace, and to 
 line the streets on horseback from the palace of Sa'id 
 thither. These orders were carried out and the cavalry 
 stationed themselves as directed in full dress and com¬ 
 plete armour. The vizier further ordered that the open 
 courts, the vestibules and the passages of the Palace 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 59 
 
 should be filled with armed men, and that ( 55 ) the whole 
 castle should be furnished magnificently. After finish¬ 
 ing these preparations and seeing that every detail was 
 carried out he bade the envoys present themselves. 
 They rode to the Palace and were greatly impressed by 
 the spectacle through which they passed ; the numbers 
 of soldiers, their splendid uniforms and their perfect 
 equipment. When they reached the Palace they were 
 taken into a corridor which led into one of the quad¬ 
 rangles, thence they turned into another corridor which 
 led to a quadrangle wider than the first, and the chamber¬ 
 lains kept conducting them through corridors and 
 quadrangles until they were weary with tramping and 
 bewildered. These corridors and quadrangles were all 
 crowded with retainers and servants. Finally they 
 approached the saloon in which Muqtadir was to 
 be found, where the officers of state were standing 
 according to their different ranks, while Muqtadir was 
 seated on his imperial throne, with Abu'l-#asan Ibn 
 al-Furat standing near him, and Mu'nis the eunuch with 
 the officers next in order to him stationed on his right 
 and left. When they entered the saloon they kissed 
 the ground and stationed themselves where they were 
 told by Nasr the Chamberlain to stand ; they then 
 delivered their master's missive, proposing a redemption 
 of captives, and preferred a request for its favourable 
 acceptance. The vizier replied for the Caliph that he 
 accepted the proposal out of compassion for the Moslems 
 and the desire to set them free, and out of his zeal to 
 obey God and deliver them. He would, he added, send 
 Mu'nis to be present when the exchange took place. 
 When the envoys left the imperial presence they were 
 presented with poplin cloaks adorned with gold and 
 turbans of the same material, and similar honours were 
 bestowed on the interpreter Abu ‘Umar, who rode home 
 with them, while the troops remained drawn up as before 
 for the ransoming to take place. Mu’nis at once made 
 
60 
 
 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 arrangements for this ; the Byzantine captives, on whose 
 account the envoys had come, were purchased when 
 the envoys desired to purchase them, while Mu ms and 
 the officers who were to travel with him received 170,000 
 dinars from the Baghdad treasury for their undertaking. 
 Mu’nis wrote to the governors of the lands through 
 which he was to pass, bidding them furnish what he 
 should require. To each of the envoys a private present 
 of 20,000 dirhems was given ; they then left Baghdad 
 with Mu’nis accompanied by Abu ‘Umar. The re¬ 
 demption was carried through this same year under 
 the supervision of Mu'nis. 
 
 This year Abul-Haija Abdallah b. JTamdan and his 
 brothers were released from confinement in the ( 56 ) 
 Palace, and received robes of honour indicating that the 
 Sultan was now reconciled. 
 
 This year died 'Abbas b. 'Umar Ghanawi, minister 
 of war and public security in Diyar Mmiar. He was 
 replaced by Wasif Bektimuri. He proved incompe¬ 
 tent and was replaced by Jinni Safwani, who proved 
 highly competent. 
 
 Year 306. 
 
 In this year the vizier Abul-i/asan Ibn al-Furat was 
 arrested, his second term of office having lasted a year, 
 five months and nineteen days. 
 
 Reason for his arrest. 
 
 The ostensible cause for the dismissal of the vizier 
 Ibn al-Furat on this second occasion was that he had 
 delayed payment of the stipends due to the cavalry who 
 were with the captains. 1 He alleged in excuse the finan¬ 
 cial difficulty due to the expenditure on the campaign 
 against Ibn Abi’l-Saj, and to the reduction in the revenue 
 owing to the seizure by this rebel of the money due 
 from Rayy. At the commencement of 306 the cavalry 
 
 1 Probably the reference is to the officers on duty at the palace, 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 61 
 
 mutinied, and went out to the Oratory. 1 Ibn al-Furat 
 requested of Muqtadir an advance of 200,000 dinars 
 from the Private Treasury to which he would add 200,000 
 himself to be expended on the cavalry. Muqtadir was 
 incensed by this demand, and wrote to him reminding 
 him that he (Ibn al-Furat) had undertaken to meet all 
 public expenses as he had done in his first ministry, and 
 in addition to pay a definite sum to the Caliph person¬ 
 ally ; so he never imagined that Ibn al-Furat would 
 make so audacious a demand. The vizier alleged the 
 excuses which I have recorded, but they were not 
 accepted. 
 
 (57) When 'Abdallah b. Jubair had resided in Wasit 
 during the ministry of 'Ali b. Tsa, he learned the 
 amount of the revenue collected from its districts, and 
 the surplus which remained with #amid b. 'Abbas after 
 paying what he had guaranteed to the state ; 2 after he 
 had returned to Baghdad and resumed his place as 
 chairman of the Primary Committee in the Bureau of 
 the Sawad, 3 he communicated this information to Ibn 
 al-Furat, enumerating the various sources of this surplus. 
 This impressed Ibn al-Furat; and after a time Ibn 
 Jubair solicited the permission of Ibn al-Furat to write 
 to H amid in reference to some of the facts which he had 
 communicated concerning Hamid's guarantee; and 
 leave was accorded, though hesitatingly. Ibn Jubair 
 then wrote from his Committee (the Primary Committee 
 in the Bureau of the Kharaj) to i^Tamid, who replied. 
 Correspondence on the subject continued, and presently 
 letters came from i^amid’s deputy Bishr b. 'Ali re¬ 
 monstrating with Ibn Jubair for having discussed this 
 
 1 Le Strange, Baghdad, p. 204 : Outside the Baradan Gate stretched the 
 Malikiyyah Cemetery ; it was also known as the Baradan Cemetery, and 
 near this was the Chapel especially set apart for the prayers of the Festival at 
 the close of the Ramadan Fast. 
 
 2 Compare above, p. 25. 
 
 3 This committee is mentioned by Hilal, see Glossary. Its duties were 
 apparently to determine the taxation in gross. 
 
62 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 matter in his committee. Hamid took alarm, fearing 
 that the attitude assumed by Ibn Jubair was by arrange¬ 
 ment with Ibn al-Furat, and with knowledge of the 
 latter’s intentions. So he despatched an agent who 
 should compass his being appointed vizier, and obtain 
 the good offices of Nasr for that purpose. The agent 
 intrigued for this object, dilated to Nasr on the high¬ 
 mindedness of Hamid, and undertook to extort vast 
 sums from Ibn al-Furat and his dependents. Hamid 
 also sent messages of the same purport to the Queen- 
 mother. 
 
 His intrigues and his offers were helped by Nasr's 
 distrust of Ibn al-Furat coupled with fear of him, and 
 the financial stress which had compelled Ibn al-Furat 
 to apply to the Caliph for the advance. 0 These various 
 circumstances combined to bring about what i/amid 
 designed. A message was sent to #amid bidding him 
 quit Wasit and proceed to the metropolis, giving notice 
 of his departure by carrier-pigeon. When Muqtadir 
 received the news thus brought, he sent his freedman 
 Shafi' and Nasr the Chamberlain to arrest Ibn al- 
 Furat, his son Muhassin, Musa b. Khalaf, Tsa b. 
 Jubair, 1 (58) Sa'id b. Ibrahim Tustari, and an umm wuld 
 of the vizier with a son whom she had borne him. 2 
 They were all brought to the Palace, where Ibn al-Furat 
 by himself was put in the custody of Zaidan the 
 Stewardess, while the rest were put in charge of Nasr. 
 #amid reached Baghdad, and remained for the night 
 in the Chamberlain’s apartments in the Palace. There 
 Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Al-#awari ingratiated himself with 
 him. 
 
 #amid sat talking, and displayed to the captains 
 and all the courtiers of Muqtadir his irascibility and 
 
 1 Perhaps Abu ‘Isa. Hs is likely to be the same person as was mentioned 
 above. 
 
 2 The woman’s name was Daulah and her son’s Hasan. The italicized words 
 mean a slave-girl who has acquired rights resembling those of a free woman 
 by maternity. 
 
63 
 
 VlZIERATE OF #AMID B. 'ABBAS. 
 
 ignorance of a vizier's duties. Muqtadir, being told of 
 this, summoned Abu'l-Qasim Ibn al-Z/awari and 
 remonstrated with him for nominating i/amid to 
 the office ; Ibn al-Z/awari urged in reply Z/amid's vast 
 wealth, his undertaking to extract fines, the respect 
 felt for him by his officials, his personal character, 
 and the number of his armed retainers. In the course 
 of his conversation he suggested to Muqtadir to give 
 'Ali b. 'Isa his liberty, and make him president of all 
 the bureaux, where he might act as Hamid’s deputy. 
 Muqtadir declined to do this save at Z/amid's own 
 request; so Ibn al-Z/awari had recourse to //amid, 
 advising him to make this request of Muqtadir when 
 he had his audience of the Caliph ; and set out before 
 him the quantity of the business transacted in the 
 bureaux, and the claims of the attendants, against whose 
 roughness he warned him. He further let H amid see 
 that, if he did not himself take this course, it would be 
 done in spite of his opposition, and assured //amid that 
 his advice was given in all sincerity. So when //amid 
 had his audience of Muqtadir and was invested with 
 the vizierate, after kissing the ground before the 
 Caliph, he requested that 'Ali b. 'Isa be set at liberty, 
 and that permission be accorded the vizier to appoint 
 him as his deputy over the bureaux and the provinces. 
 Muqtadir replied that he did not expect 'Ali b. 'Isa would 
 assent to this proposal, or be satisfied with the second 
 place after he had held the first, //amid answered 
 before the company : Why should he not accept ? A 
 state-secretary is like a tailor ; at one time he stitches 
 a coat worth a thousand dinars, at another time ( 59 ) 
 one that is worth ten dirhems ;—a sally which pro¬ 
 voked mirth. 
 
 When //amid had received his robe of honour as 
 vizier, he proceeded to the vizier's palace in Mukharrim, 
 where he took up his abode, and prepared to receive 
 
64 
 
 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 visits of congratulation ; that day he settled nothing 
 in the bureaux, which he left sealed. Abu Ali Ibn 
 Muqlah endeavoured with success to ingratiate himse 
 with the new vizier, who sent for Abu Abdallah Zanji 
 the clerk, and made him reside in the vizier’s palace to 
 conduct his correspondence with the provincial governors, 
 as he had done for Ibn al-Furat. Ibn al-Hawari made 
 himself familiar with all the business and became inter¬ 
 mediary between Hamid and Muqtadir. Letters were 
 written in the name of Muqtadir to all the provincial 
 governors and ministers of public security announcing 
 the elevation of Hamid to the vizierate, these being the 
 composition of Abu’l-Hasan Mohammed b. Ja'far b. 
 Thawabah. 
 
 Hamid and ‘Ali b. ‘Isa then arranged the constitution 
 of the bureaux by friendly agreement; after which the 
 latter began to make such alterations as he thought fit. 
 For two months from the commencement of the ministry 
 of Hamid b. ‘Abbas ‘Ali b. ‘Isa used to come to 
 Hamid’s house twice each day ; then once a week only ; 
 then, at the commencement of 307, 1 Hamid lost credit 
 with' Muqtadir, who came to the conclusion shared by 
 the officers of his court that it was useless to rely on 
 Hamid in any matter whatever. So Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali 
 b. ‘Isa monopolized the control of the empire, and ex¬ 
 tinguished Hamid, who could give no orders on any sub¬ 
 ject ; so there was a current rhyme 
 
 Here is a vizier without a black robe 
 
 And there a black robe without a vizier. 
 
 When Hamid found himself deprived of control and 
 that his functions were confined to wearing a black robe 
 and riding to the Palace on reception days, and that 
 when he presented himself Muqtadir allowed him no 
 share in the administration, addressing his whole con¬ 
 versation to ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, he bethought him of undertaking 
 the business of the kharaj , the public, private and new 
 
 1 Began June 3, 919. 
 
VlZIERATE OF Z/AMID B. ‘ABBAS. 65 
 
 Estates, 1 and the estates originally belonging to the 
 viziers Abbas ( 60 ) and Ibn al-Furat which had been 
 confiscated, in the Sawad, Ahwaz and Ispahan. The 
 matter was discussed by him with 'Ali b. Tsa in 
 the presence of Muqtadir, and ultimately he undertook 
 this business. He assigned the farming of Ispahan to 
 Ahmad b. Mohammed b. Rustam for an annual increase 
 of 100,000 dinars upon its produce under him and under 
 Ibn Abi'l-Baghl and Ahmad b. Sayyah. When the 
 concession given by //amid lapsed, 'Ali b. Tsa assigned 
 it to Abu 'Ali Ibn Rustam for this increased sum. Pre- 
 sently Abu’l-Z/usain Ibn Abi’l-Baghl exposed the oppres¬ 
 sion to which Abu 'Ali Ibn Rustam was subjecting the 
 people of Ispahan, and 'Ali b. Tsa on investigation found 
 his statements to be correct. 'Ali b. Tsa on consultation 
 with Ibn Abid-Baghl assigned the farming to two friends 
 of the latter who had served under him when he was 
 governor of Ispahan, named Abu Muslim Mohammed 
 b. Bahr and Abu’l-Z/usain Ahmad b. Sa‘d. The sum 
 which they were to supply was 80,000 additional in lieu 
 of 100,000, the diminution being made for the purpose 
 of giving'relief to the subjects, to whom Ibn Rustam 
 was delivered. 
 
 When //amid perceived how low he had sunk in the 
 eyes of Muqtadir and that he had no say at all in the 
 affairs of the empire, he asked permission to retire to 
 Wasit and look after his original tax-farming operations. 
 Permission being granted, he took up his abode in Wasit, 
 retaining only the title of vizier. 
 
 Account of the treatment by Hamid of Ibn al-Furat 
 
 and his dependents. 
 
 The third day of Z/amid's investiture he with 'Ali 
 b. Tsa sailed to the Palace of Muqtadir, and when the 
 
 1 i.e., lands owned by the Moslem community : and by the Caliph in virtue of 
 his office : these being all conquered territory. The " new ” were such as were 
 acquired in some other way. 
 
66 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Caliph had given permission they presented themselves, 
 //amid then requested leave to produce a certain soldier 
 whom he had discovered before his appointment to office, 
 and who had confessed to him that he was Ibn al-Furat s 
 intermediary with the rebel Yusuf Ibn Abid-Saj, and 
 handed him a letter to Ibn Abid-Saj purporting to be 
 from Ibn al-Furat. This provoked the wrath of Muq¬ 
 tadir against Ibn al-Furat, ( 61 ) and the Caliph, turning 
 to the qadi Abu ‘Umar, asked him what he thought of 
 this action of Ibn al-Furat. The qa^i replied that if 
 Ibn al-Furat had really perpetrated such an act, he 
 must have been bent on undermining the empire. The 
 Caliph then turned to the qadi Abu Ja'far Ibn al- 
 Bahlul, and asked him what he thought. He replied . 
 My notion is that God has commanded us to be circum¬ 
 spect and not to accept the word of an evil-doer. Ibn 
 al-Bahlul then proceeded to cross-examine the informer 
 in such a manner that his mendacity was apparent, and 
 the man was made to confess that his claim was 
 fictitious. He was handed over to the Chief of Police, 
 who ordered him to be punished with a hundred lashes, 
 after which he was imprisoned in the Dungeon, and pre¬ 
 sently banished to Egypt. 
 
 //amid and f Ali b. Tsa then produced Abu Ali 
 Z/usain b. Ahmad Madara'i to be confronted with 
 Ibn al-Furat in the Palace. This person declared in 
 Ibn al-Furat’s presence that he had himself transmitted 
 to Ibn al-Furat in his first vizierate 400,000 dinars as 
 secret profits from the Syrian Armies, 1 and that Abu l- 
 ' Abbas Ibn Bistam and his son Abu’l-Qasim after him 
 had transmitted 800,000 dinars as commission and secret 
 profit from the districts of Egypt ; at the rate of 200,000 
 dinars a year. The judges and clerks were present at 
 the trial, and Muqtadir was seated where he could hear 
 the proceedings without being seen. Ibn al-Furat’s 
 method of rebutting the charge was the following : 
 
 1 Name for the province, 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. ‘ABBAS. 67 
 
 This official, he said, was in charge of Egypt and Syria 
 during the vizierate of ‘Ali b. Tsa ; he has just confessed 
 that these sums were such as it was his duty to levy, 
 and he asserts that in his capacity of administrator of 
 the Armies of Syria he transmitted some of them to me, 
 and that the two sons of Bis^am transmitted to me the 
 amount which he states. Now ‘Ali b. Tsa ( 62 ) was 
 vizier during four years : either then similar sums were 
 transmitted to ‘Ali b. Tsa, in which case he is liable for 
 them ; or they were not transmitted, in which case Jiis 
 official is himself liable for them. Then he acknowledges 
 that in the time of my first vizierate he collected the sum 
 which he names, viz. 400,000 dinars, and asserts that 
 he transmitted it to me. He confesses then his own 
 guilt while bringing a charge against me ; I declare that 
 his charge against me is false, and every one knows the 
 ruling of God, his Prophet and the Jurists in such cases. 
 
 iTamid here gave vent to violent abuse and insulted 
 Ibn al-Furat coarsely ; Ibn al-Furat told him that he 
 was on the Sultan’s carpet and within the imperial 
 Palace, not in the kind of place with which he was 
 familiar, such as a barn to be divided, nor was he himself a 
 farmer whom he might abuse or an agent whom he might 
 cuff; then turning to Shafi‘ Lu’lu'i he requested him 
 to write what he was about to say to their lord the 
 Sultan : viz. that iTamid had only been induced to aspire 
 to the vizierate for which he was unfit by the fact that 
 he, Ibn al-Furat, had made him liable for more than a 
 million dinars excess due upon the districts of Wasit 
 which he farmed. I, he continued, strenuously de¬ 
 manded this sum, and he supposed that by becoming 
 vizier he would secure possession of this excess, and 
 obtain fresh profits besides. He, being vizier of the 
 Commander of the Faithful, ought now to abandon his 
 farming of the districts of Wasit, so that it might be seen 
 whether he was the loser or the gainer ; this should 
 
68 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 now be administered by Abu’l-#asan ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, since 
 no-one was in afiy doubt as to the distance between him 
 and tfamid in technical knowledge of finance and 
 economy. The fact that he while vizier retained the 
 farming was a beginning of treachery and embezzlement. 
 At this amid ordered that his beard should be plucked, 
 and as no-one ventured to obey this order, he himself 
 sprang on the ex-vizier and commenced pulling at his 
 beard. 
 
 The trial had reached a point at which Husain B. 
 AtfMAD Madara'i was ready to sign his bond for half 
 a million dinars if Ibn al-Furat were placed in his power. 
 This was before Hamid's abuse of the ex-vizier and 
 plucking at his beard. Now iTamid had summoned 
 Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah, and instructed him to confront 
 Ibn al-Furat with the statement that he had recalled 
 deposits to the value of ( 63 ) half a million dinars which 
 he had concealed during his vizierate. 1 Abu ‘Ali how¬ 
 ever declined to show his face to Ibn al-Furat, and when 
 #amid sent to him during the trial, requesting him to 
 perform his promise, and confront Ibn al-Furat, replied 
 that he was willing to sign an affidavit to that effect, 
 but declined to be confronted with Ibn al-Furat. This 
 incensed #amid, who was alienated from Ibn Muqlah 
 from that day. 
 
 ‘Ali b. ‘Isa went no further than addressing some 
 courteous observations to Ibn al-Furat at certain points 
 of his defence, while #amid was engaged in abuse and 
 insult; Ibn al-#awari pretended to Ibn al-Furat that 
 he was acting as mediator between the latter and #amid, 
 but his language showed that he was endeavouring to 
 damage Ibn al-Furat. When Muqtadir heard the insults 
 of i/amid and saw him stretch out his hand to the other's 
 beard, he sent a servant to withdraw Ibn al-Furat from 
 the court and take him back to his place of imprison- 
 
 1 i.e., concealed them when called upon to make a complete statement of 
 )iis assets. 
 
69 
 
 VlZIERATE OF #AMID B. 'ABBAS. 
 
 ment. 'Ali b. 'Isa and Ibn al-Hawari both told Hamid 
 that he had injured them by his treatment of Ibn al- 
 Furat. .Husain b. Ahmad Madara'i after his exhibi¬ 
 tion of hostility to Ibn al-Furat said to him : If the 
 trial results in your being fined, I will contribute fifty 
 thousand dinars. When he left the court Nasr the 
 Chamberlain, ‘Ali b. 'Isa and Ibn al-Hawari said to 
 him : You came here to cross-examine the man, and 
 before you have finished you take to bribing him and 
 currying favour with him. He replied : The man whom 
 you brought me to see was one of whom, as soon as I 
 came before him, one of you said to me : Consider 
 whom you will be addressing ! Another said : Mind 
 what you are about ! A third : Remember that your 
 life is at stake ! So after hearing his pleading I thought 
 the course which I took the wisest. 
 
 Among the noble acts done by Ibn al-Furat was the 
 following : when at a late date he became vizier for the 
 third time, he had to arrest the eldest son of Husain b. 
 AAmad Madara'i, and obtain his bond for 25,000 dinars 
 due from him to the Sultan's treasury. Ibn al-Furat 
 did not demand the money of him, but kept him in arrest 
 until ( 64 ) his father returned from Syria; he then re¬ 
 minded the father of the 50,000 dinars which he had 
 offered to advance on his behalf, and said to him : You 
 made a promise on that occasion and it was left to your 
 choice whether to carry it out or not; here is a bond in 
 the hand of your son for 25,000 dinars, which he actually 
 received and which he is bound to pay. Neither he nor 
 you have any claim to them. And here I return you 
 the bond to recompense you for your offer on that 
 occasion. 
 
 Abu Ahmad Ibn .Hammad also was summoned to 
 cross-examine Ibn al-Furat in the presence of Shall' 
 Lu'lu'i. He commenced his address by saying to Ibn 
 al-Furat : The vizier and the President both warn you 
 
70 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 to be faithful to your own interests. From your estates 
 and crops you have had a yearly income of twelve 
 hundred thousand dinars, and a similar sum from secret 
 profits. This is an enormous sum, so give your bond 
 for a million dinars to be paid at once and before your 
 case is considered, so that your life may be safe ; other¬ 
 wise you will be delivered over to those who will treat 
 you as those traitors should be treated who conspire 
 against the empire. For the Sultan has ascertained 
 that you have been in correspondence with Ibn Abi'l- 
 Saj, urging him to rebel.—Ibn al-Furat replied : You 
 should have enough to do in looking after your own self 
 and your own dangers without carrying such messages. 
 You were in the employ of ‘Ali b. Tsa for four years 
 during which time you embezzled a vast amount of 
 property. When I undertook the administration, you 
 went into hiding, and the person who replaced you wrote 
 to me to notify various misstatements in your accounts 
 and secret profits which you had enjoyed. These letters 
 are still preserved in the imperial archives.—Shafi‘ then 
 turned to Ibn #ammad and said to him : You are no 
 match for Ibn al-Furat, so go to his son MuAassin and 
 cross-examine him. So he rose and obtained MuAassin's 
 bond for 300,000 dinars. 
 
 Then he cross-examined Musa b. Khalaf, asking 
 him about Ibn al-Furat's deposits and wealth. Musa 
 replied ( 65 ) that he had no deposit entrusted to him by 
 Ibn al-Furat, that he knew nothing about his deposits, 
 that no money of the ex-vizier's had ever passed through 
 his hands, and that he had not held any government 
 appointment under him ; he had only looked after his 
 household expenses. This Musa b. Khalaf was nearly 
 ninety years old, and in addition afflicted with an in¬ 
 curable complaint; he could not have survived torture, 
 so Ibn tfammad merely abused him. After this Ibn 
 ffammad continued to cross-examine one after another of, 
 the friends of Ibn al-Furat, but no money was produced. 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. 'ABBAS. 71 
 
 He had MuAassin suspended by one arm from a curtain 
 rope, but got nothing from him either. When he saw 
 this, he begged to be excused from dealing with the rest 
 and was allowed to cease. Then Hamid summoned 
 Musa b. Khalaf and commanded him to reveal the 
 treasures of Ibn al-Furat ; for, he said, you know where 
 they are ; do not compel us to resort to torture which 
 will be fatal to you. The man replied that he was 
 ready to take any oath that he knew nothing about the 
 ex-vizier’s deposits. Hamid thereupon ordered him to 
 be cuffed, and this process was continued until ‘Ali b. 
 Tsa interceded for him and the slaves were told to stop. 
 Hamid however repeated the torture various times, 
 and finally one night summoned him and had him beaten 
 in his presence until he died of the strokes. He was 
 told that the man was dead, but ordered the slaves to 
 go on beating and seventeen blows were inflicted on the 
 corpse. When Hamid was convinced that Musa b. 
 Khalaf was dead, he ordered him to be dragged out by 
 the foot ; this was done, and the ear of the corpse caught 
 in the hinge of the door and was wrenched off. He was 
 carried to his house dead. The fidelity of Musa b. Khalaf 
 won great admiration ; for he knew of various treasures 
 deposited by his master with different people and let 
 himself be killed rather than divulge them. 
 
 Hamid then summoned MuAassin, and demanded 
 money of him ; but MuAassin replied that he could not 
 furnish more than 20,000 dinars. Hamid ordered him 
 to be cuffed, and after some blows observed that he had 
 thick hair on his head ; so, thinking that this deadened 
 the pain of the blows, he ordered a barber to be fetched ; 
 he was removed from his presence, to have his hair 
 shaved ; he was then brought back, and cuffed in the 
 presence of a multitude until he nearly died of the blows. 
 ‘Ali b. Tsa interceded requesting that the vizier should 
 reduce his demand to fifty thousand dinars. Hamid 
 however swore that he would be satisfied with no less 
 
72 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 than seventy thousand. MuAassin then gave his bond 
 for that amount; * but //amid had him clothed in a 
 woollen jubbah ( 66 ) and after inflicting on him various 
 torments delivered him to Abu'l-//asan Thu'bani. 
 MuAassin paid sixty thousand after soliciting people's 
 aid, and being assisted by ‘Ali b. ‘Isa with ten thousand 
 dirhems. He had to solicit help for some time before 
 he produced the sum for which he had given his bond, 
 but many people interceded for him and ultimately 
 //amid permitted him to return home. 
 
 //amid was very anxious that Ibn al-Furat should 
 be delivered into his hands ; Muqtadir was willing to 
 do this, only he said that he must put him in the charge 
 of a servant who would see that his life was preserved, 
 //amid observed that if Ibn al-Furat was sure that he 
 would be saved from torture, he would hold out. Muq¬ 
 tadir then offered to deliver him into the hands of ‘Ali 
 b. ‘Isa or Shah' Lu'lu'i, in whom he had confidence. 
 Muqtadir deliberated much about Ibn al-Furat, at times 
 craving after the money, at others disliking the thought 
 of his dying in H amid's hands. Zaidan the Stewardess, 
 having ascertained this state of Muqtadir's mind, told 
 Ibn al-Furat, who professed to have seen his brother 
 Abu'l-‘Abbas in a dream. His brother, he asserted, had 
 charged him to pay the money, as the people did not 
 want his life, and only wanted his wealth.—I replied, 
 he said, that I had already paid away all I possessed.— 
 His brother rejoined : You have not paid away a certain 
 sum.—Most of that, was the surrejoinder, belongs to 
 your heirs.—Pay it away, replied his brother ; we got it 
 together from their ancestors and have only hoarded it 
 for such an emergency as this.—He then wrote to two 
 traders, bidding them transmit the sums in their hands, 
 viz. 700,000 dinars, to the Palace of Muqtadir ; to Abu 
 Bakr Ibn Qarabah to deliver another sum, and to 
 Ibn Idris the Carrier to deliver another. Muqtadir 
 sent these notes to //amid and ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, who were 
 
VlZIERATE OF #AMID B. 'ABBAS. 73 
 
 annoyed and despaired of obtaining possession of Ibn 
 al-Furat’s person. ‘Ali b. 'Isa and Ibn al-#awari asked 
 #amid what he thought of Ibn al-Furat’s action. He 
 replied that it was like the Caliph’s luck. 'Ali b. 'Isa 
 replied : Doubtless the vizier is right, only I am sure 
 that Ibn (67) al-Furat would not have taken this step 
 unless he had first had his life guaranteed him ; nor 
 would he have parted with this immense sum for 
 nothing and without some deep design. Part of the 
 sum would have sufficed him, were it not that he means 
 to get our lives and fortunes in his power. #amid and 
 Ibn al-#awari both agreed that this must be so. 
 
 i/amid and 'Ali b. 'Isa then went about summoning 
 the drawees, to whom they presented the bills of Ibn 
 al-Furat. Their correctness was admitted by all save 
 Ibn Qarabah, who admitted that the ex-vizier had 
 deposited with him 10,000 dinars, but at the beginning 
 of the year 306 had purchased of him a quantity of 
 ambergris and musk, most of which he had presented to 
 Muqtadir, keeping only a little for himself. He pro¬ 
 duced orders signed by Ibn al-Furat with the proper 
 dates, and requested to be confronted with Ibn al-Furat. 
 He was despatched by H amid to the Palace, where he 
 was introduced by Mufli& into Ibn al-Furat’s presence. 
 When he told his story, the ex-vizier admitted its truth, 
 and begged the pardon of Ibn Qarabah for what he had 
 written ; asserting that the transaction had escaped his 
 memory, whereas he well knew that he had set the per¬ 
 fumes against the deposit. Ibn al-Furat gave a written 
 statement that Ibn Qarabah’s account of the matter was 
 correct; and so Ibn al-Furat’s money was secured to 
 him. This act of Ibn Qarabah was one of the strongest 
 reasons for his intimate association afterwards with the 
 ex-vizier. 
 
 Another sum had been deposited by Ibn al-Furat 
 with the qa^i Abu 'Umar on account of his son #asan 
 
74 A.H. 306. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 b. Daulah (umm wuld of Ibn al-Furat). Abu 'Umar 
 was greatly alarmed when he saw Hamid dealing ruth¬ 
 lessly with judges and witnesses ; so when asked by 
 Hamid whether he had any deposit belonging to Ibn al- 
 Furat, he admitted that he had ; he was ordered to 
 produce the money, which he did, paying it over. Ibn 
 al-Furat hearing of this was offended with Abu 'Umar. 
 There is a story that Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah narrated 
 as follows : When Ibn al-Furat received his robe of 
 honour for his third vizierate, I was the first person who 
 met him in the vestibule of the chamberlain’s apart¬ 
 ments, which abuts on the door of the private 
 apartments. Abu Bakr, he said, did Abu 'Umar save 
 himself with my deposit and expose me to vengeance ? 
 I replied : The vizier, God help him, ( 68 ) says truly ; 
 who told him ? Ibn al-Furat pointed in the direction 
 of Zaidan the Stewardess. The qa^i Abu 'Umar got to 
 know of the resentment harboured against him by Ibn 
 al-Furat, and when the latter reached his palace at the 
 time of the latter evening prayer, he found Abu 'Umar 
 and his son sitting in a mosque that was by the entrance. 
 The vizier was surprised at this, dismounted and 
 approached them. They adjured him to go into his 
 house, whither they entered with him ; they then said : 
 We know all about the sitting, 1 and what do you 
 design ?—He said : That you should neither excuse 
 yourselves nor argue, but refund the money.—They 
 agreed, the amount being three thousand dinars ; only 
 they asked for easy terms that they might not be 
 hurried. Next morning Ibn al-Furat received a visit 
 from Ibn Qarabah, who told him that he had been 
 visited by Abu 'Umar and his son, who were in a state of 
 alarm, and had informed him that the money was intact. 
 Two days later Abu Bakr brought the three thousand 
 dinars in the very jar which had held the original 
 deposit. When Ibn al-Furat saw it he was surprised 
 and ordered it to be taken in. 
 
 1 Probably the interview between Ibn al-Furat and Ibn Qarabah. 
 
VlZIERATE OF Z/AMID B. 'ABBAS. 75 
 
 We now return to the story of //amid and 
 his vizierate.—When Z/amid and ‘Ali b. Tsa perceived 
 the power which Ibn al-Z/awari had acquired over 
 Muqtadir, an order was issued by i/amid in the writing 
 of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, giving Ibn al-Z/awari control of the whole 
 pay department of the troops in all the Western pro¬ 
 vinces, from Hit to the furthest extremity of Egypt. 
 His stipend was fixed at the same amount as had been 
 received by all the persons who had discharged these 
 duties in the last days of Ibn al-Furat’s second vizierate. 
 His son, who was then about ten years of age, was also 
 to have a public appointment with a stipend of 150 
 dinars per month. He did in fact appoint this son 
 primary 1 head of the pay-office in the metropolis, at a 
 stipend of 180 dinars per month, nominating as his 
 deputy a man called Qatirmiz the Clerk. After this 
 the association of Ibn al-Z/awari with i/amid became 
 yet closer, and his private attendance on //amid yet 
 more frequent, H amid consulting him about all his 
 affairs ; and yet other offices were conferred by the 
 latter on the former, with stipends attached, the duties 
 being performed by deputies. He thus amassed enormous 
 wealth, but did not himself take any active part in 
 affairs, or know (69) what was going on in his depart¬ 
 ments. He further dismissed Nizar from the headship 
 of police in Baghdad, and replaced him by Nujh T uluni, 
 who employed a deputy ; and established jurists in each 
 Quarter, whose interpretation of the law was to be 
 followed by the police magistrates in the punishment 
 of criminals. This weakened the authority of the police, 
 and Nuj/? was little feared by the thieves and highway¬ 
 men, whence crime and rioting became frequent, and 
 robbery reached alarming proportions ; the highway¬ 
 men had a rhyme— 
 
 Go out and don’t be timid 
 
 So long as NujA is chief ! 
 
 1 This probably is in antithesis to the deputy. 
 
76 
 
 A.H. 307. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Year 307. 
 
 The object of Hamid in the revenue-farming of the 
 provinces which have been mentioned was this : 'Ali b. 
 Tsa having monopolized the administration of imperial 
 affairs, and extinguished Hamid, Hamid undertook these 
 provinces in order to have some say in some matters in 
 the metropolis, and exhibit on these undertakings a 
 sufficient surplus to eclipse the reputation which 'Ali b. 
 Tsa had acquired with Muqtadir for competence and 
 honesty. He did not include the districts of Fars in 
 the territory which he farmed, because it was farmed by 
 Abu'l-Qasim Ibn Bistam, and he was advised by 
 Nu'man 1 not to undertake revenue-farming at all, as 
 he held that it would lessen his dignity in men's eyes, 
 and enable 'Ali b. Tsa to address demands for money to 
 him, and get power over him. Abu Tsa brother of Abu 
 Sakhrah on the other hand encouraged him to undertake 
 the revenue-farming, in order to make his (70) mark ; 
 and to contract according to the assessments of the 
 years when 'Ali b. Tsa had been vizier, in order that the 
 sums which he produced, being vast, should count as 
 corrections to ‘Ali b. 'Isa's estimates. Hamid inclined 
 to this latter counsel, and thus addressed 'Ali b. Tsa in 
 the presence of Muqtadir : You have monopolized the 
 administration of affairs so as to exclude me, and do 
 not see fit to ask my advice on any step that you take. 
 The truth however must be told to the Commander of 
 the Faithful; you have wasted in the Sawad, Ahwaz, 
 and Ispahan 400,000 dinars, each year. I am prepared 
 to farm the revenue of these provinces for four years on 
 the assessment of sums to be transmitted to the metro¬ 
 polis and sums to be assigned to specified objects which 
 was authorized in the years of your vizierate, and add 
 400,000 dinars to the sum every year.—'Ali b. Tsa replied 
 that he could not approve of Hamid farming the revenue 
 
 1 Ibn Abdallah Mundhiri, who had retired from office and was a friend of this 
 vizier. 
 
VlZIERATE OF H AMID B. ‘ABBAS. 77 
 
 of these provinces, because he was well known to be in 
 the habit of grinding down the inhabitants, introducing 
 new customs, and anticipating the collection of the 
 revenue. A person who acted on these principles might 
 doubtless obtain a surplus for a year or two, but would 
 introduce ruin which it might take many years to re¬ 
 cover. Meanwhile he would dry up the source of revenue 
 and leave a bad name. After a long debate between 
 the two Muqtadir observed: This is a proposal on 
 Hamid's part to increase the revenue, and it may not 
 be rejected : if you are prepared to farm these provinces 
 on the terms offered by #amid, I will let you have them. 
 —‘Ali b. Tsa replied : I am a clerk, not a revenue officer ; 
 #amid is much better suited to be revenue-farmer of 
 those provinces, especially as he has offered these terms 
 willingly. And his being able to do so, O Commander 
 of the Faithful, is due to my having rendered these 
 territories prosperous by my tenderness with the in¬ 
 habitants and my having appointed such revenue officials 
 as have relieved them of undue burdens. The culti¬ 
 vation for year 307 is now at an end, and he cannot 
 profess to be undertaking the revenue-farming in order 
 to increase the cultivation of the soil; the time for that 
 has ended long ago.—Muqtadir thereupon ordered the 
 right to farm this revenue to be assigned to H amid, and 
 took his bond for the sum mentioned ; and the two left 
 the Palace. 
 
 ‘Ali b. Tsa ordered the heads of the bureaux to issue 
 the assessments from their offices in accordance with the 
 assessments made in recent years, since these had been 
 more productive ; so the assessment of moneys trans¬ 
 mitted and moneys specially assigned and moneys 
 allotted to permanent expenses in the districts of the 
 Sawad and Ahwaz, was issued for one of the three years 
 ( 71 ) 303-305, at 33,000,000 dirhems ; that of the Estates, 
 private, new, confiscated from ‘Abbas and confiscated 
 
78 A.H. 307. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 from Ibn al-Furat, consisting of moneys to be trans¬ 
 mitted and moneys specially assigned, at 8,800,000 
 dirhems ; and the assessment of the revenue of Ispahan 
 with moneys allotted to permanent expenses, being one 
 year’s share out of three, at 6,300,000 dirhems. Total : 
 48,100,000 dirhems. The extra amount promised by 
 Hamid, 400,000 dinars, was valued at 5,800,000 dirhems. 
 The whole sum then came to : 53,900,000 dirhems. 
 
 Hamid b.‘Abbas requested Muqtadir to order a number 
 of clerks to be placed at his disposal, whom he might 
 employ in the clerical work of the office of his revenue¬ 
 farming. He specially nominated ‘Ub aid allah b. 
 Mohammed Kalwadhi and A#mad b. Zuraiq with others. 
 This request was granted after ‘Ali b. Tsa had made 
 out the contract for him in the name of his friend 
 Mohammed b. Mansur, and obtained the signature of 
 Hamid to an undertaking to render himself responsible 
 for the contract made out in the name of this person. 
 Hamid b. ‘Abbas placed reliance on ‘Ubaidallah b. 
 Mohammed Kalwadhi, who used to revise the documents 
 presented by Hamid’s clerks, and interviewed persons 
 on trial in the Palace as Hamid’s agent, where he con¬ 
 ducted his cross-examination with civility and went no 
 further than argument. ‘Ali b. ‘Isa relied on Saqr b. 
 Mohammed in cross-questioning the clerks in Hamid’s 
 employ ; when Hamid was present he did little more 
 than shower abuse on ‘Ali b. Tsa, reviling both himself 
 and his ancestors. His conduct on these occasions 
 disgraced the empire, and became the talk of nobles and 
 
 commons. Presently Muqtadir reconciled the two at 
 an audience. 
 
 Ali b. Isa insisted on Hamid’s transmitting the 
 money for which he had rendered himself responsible, 
 and the latter had to request permission to take a jour¬ 
 ney to Ahwaz. This was granted ; but as Abu’l-Qasim 
 (72) Kalwadhi told him that he (Kalwadhi) was not 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. 'ABBAS. 79 
 
 strong enough to resist 'Ali b. 'Isa during Hamid’s 
 absence, Hamid appointed his son-in-law Abu'l-Husain 
 Mohammed b. Ahmad b. Bistam, to represent him in 
 the Palace when there was cross-questioning and to 
 strengthen the hands of Kalwadhi and enable him. to 
 enforce his pleading. Kalwadhi displayed during this 
 period great technical knowledge, competence and 
 correctness in detail, which led more than anything to 
 his advancement. 
 
 There was much dissension between the clerks of 
 Hamid and those of 'Ali b. Tsa ; it would be too long a 
 task to record it all. i/amid agreed to the arbitration 
 of Nu'man, who accepted the proposal that he should 
 act, and fixed the whole amount involved in all the dis¬ 
 cussions at 100,000 dinars upon the share of a single 
 year. 1 Ibn Bis^am and Kalwadhi wrote to Hamid who 
 was in Ahwaz to inform him of the sum which had been 
 fixed by arbitration ; whereupon Hamid adopted a line 
 worthy of a master of the craft. He wrote a letter to' 
 Muqtadir, which he despatched by a slave, and which 
 Nasr delivered sealed to the Caliph, who found therein 
 the statement that Hamid had not undertaken this 
 revenue-farming for the sake of personal gain or to make 
 a profit out of the Sultan, but only to exhibit his skill 
 in management of such affairs, and his strict economy, 
 while he also exposed the evil results of the operations 
 of 'Ali b. 'Isa both of old and recently. After having 
 offered an excess of 400,000 dinars yearly, he, when he 
 had come to Ahwaz, had seen the way to add a further 
 200,000 dinars for the year 7 ; this sum he had realized 
 and had written the present letter with his own hand that 
 it might be used as evidence against him of his having 
 undertaken to increase by that sum his original addition, 
 and that it might be registered in the archives. 
 
 1 This seems to mean that the amount claimed by ‘Ali b. Tsa from Hamid 
 for kharaj differed in a number of details from that which the latter was trans¬ 
 mitting ; and that the arbitrator fixed the total of these claims at the sum men¬ 
 tioned in the text. 
 
80 A.H. 307. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 This delighted Muqtadir, who commanded that the 
 hands of //amid should be strengthened, and that 'Ali 
 b. Tsa should restrict himself to looking after the needs 
 of the officers of the court, and watching what was 
 expended under various heads, as he understood this 
 better than i/amid ; while i/amid was to monopolize 
 the collection of the revenue and the administration of 
 provinces.—'Ali b. Tsa was afraid lest the hands of 
 //amid should be strengthened to such an extent that 
 he himself would be delivered into them. 
 
 It happened after this that first the common people 
 and then the court became agitated in consequence of 
 the rise in prices, and a series of riots (73) occurred in 
 the course of which the empire came near disintegration 
 and Baghdad being devastated. The clerks and depen¬ 
 dents of //amid and his partisans charged 'Ali b. Tsa 
 with encouraging the populace and most of the court to 
 riot, as prices had not risen to an extent which would 
 account for such outrages ; the highest price for 
 wheaten bread being a dirhem for eight rails. 
 
 Account of the causes which brought such disorder into the 
 affairs of Hamid b. ( Abbas that his contract for farming 
 
 the revenue was cancelled. 
 
 There was a public gathering attended by some 
 leading commoners, at which complaints were made of 
 the rise in prices ; 'Ali b. Tsa was hooted when he rode 
 in the streets, and presently the mob plundered the 
 shops of a number of cornchandlers in Baghdad. They 
 then assembled at the gate of the Palace, and made an 
 uproar. Muqtadir ordered Ibn al-Z/awari to write to 
 //amid bidding him hasten to the capital and attend to 
 the prices, and put a stop to the practice of delaying the 
 sale of the crops, so that prices might fall. This letter 
 was despatched, and //amid started from Ahwaz ; Muq¬ 
 tadir further sent Mahir the eunuch to hurry him \ the 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. ‘ABBAS. 
 
 81 
 
 heads of the bureaux and military commanders left the 
 city to meet him, and the same was done by Nasr, Ibn 
 al-Hawari, and 'Ali b. 'Isa. He was received by Muq- 
 tadir, who addressed him civilly and expressed his 
 commendation for the economy which he had effected, 
 and ordered a robe of honour to be put upon him. When 
 this was done he was mounted upon a shihri 1 and departed 
 for his residence. 
 
 The day after there was an excitement among the 
 troops in the Palace, and they clamoured at the rise in 
 prices ; the populace too rioted in the public mosques 
 of Baghdad, broke the pulpits, stopped public worship 
 after the first '' inclination/’ stripped people of their 
 clothes, and flung brickbats about. Many persons were 
 wounded. A great crowd collected in the public mosque 
 of the Palace, and attacked Nasr the Chamberlain, whom 
 they pelted with brickbats. They marched the same day 
 to the house of if amid b. 'Abbas, who sent out against 
 them his retainers, who attacked them with missiles of 
 clay and with arrows ; many of the mob were killed, and 
 were carried away on biers ; the mob violently abused 
 Hamid's retainers, some of whom he sent (74) with 
 Dewadadh b. Mohammed, brother’s son to Yusuf Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj, to enter the Public mosque on the Western 
 bank, which they did on horseback. There they killed 
 a number of people, some of the soldiers also being 
 killed. The people spent the Friday night in great 
 alarm for their lives, their property, and their families ; 
 and the chief of police was unable to resist the rioters 
 owing to the number that were gathered together. On 
 Saturday morning a number of people belonging to the 
 mob went and set fire to the bridges, opened the prisons 
 and plundered the houses of the chief of police and 
 other persons. Muqtadir sent a number of the H ujari 
 
 1 A horse used on state occasions, Tabari iii, 586 gives the price of one as 
 4,000 dirhems. 
 
82 A.H. 307. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 retainers in boats to attack the mob, and Harun, son of 
 Gharib “ the uncle/' 1 rode with a great host to the 
 Taq Gate, where he set fire to various places. The mob 
 fled before him to the public mosque at the T aq Gate ; 
 Harun stationed a guard at the door of the mosque, 
 and arrested all whom he found inside it, making no 
 distinction between devotee and highwayman. He had 
 them all conveyed to the police court, where some were 
 scourged, others caned, and the hands of certain notorious 
 malefactors were cut off. Then on the Sunday Ya'nis 
 Muwaffaqi rode about the city and endeavoured to 
 quiet the people, and made a proclamation which 
 appeased the rioters. Presently //amid sailed in his 
 launch meaning to visit the Sultan, but he was pelted 
 by the mob with brickbats, so that Muqtadir ordered 
 Shaft' his freedman to ride and pacify the mob. He did 
 so, proceeding on the Western bank, where the rioting 
 was going on ; after pacifying the people, he arrested a 
 number of the mob, scourged some and amputated the 
 
 hands of certain who were known to have used brick¬ 
 bats. 
 
 Meanwhile there was an outcry raised by the Regular 
 Infantry in the Palace at the rise in prices, so Muqtadir 
 ordered the shops and the storehouses belonging to 
 //amid, the Queen-mother, the royal princes and the chief 
 officers of the empire to be opened and the wheat to be 
 sold at a reduction of five dinars on the kuyy, and barley 
 at a proportionate reduction ; and orders were issued to 
 the merchants and retailers to sell at the same figure. 
 Then Harun b. Gharib rode out accompanied by Ibrahim 
 B ; -Batha (75) the Censor, and grain was priced at fifty 
 dinars the kuyy of average size ; orders to that effect 
 were issued to the dealers. The mob was satisfied and 
 became quiet, and the price fell. 
 
 A rescript was then issued by Muqtadir cancelling 
 the contract of //amid b. 'Abbas owing to the riots and 
 
 1 Mother’s brother of Muqtadir, 
 
VlZIERATE OF H AMID B. ‘ABBAS. 83 
 
 the clamour of the mob over the rise in prices ; a further 
 rescript charged ‘Ali b. ‘Isa himself to administer the 
 finance of the Sawad, Ahwaz and Ispahan, where he 
 was to appoint his own agents. He was also com¬ 
 manded to write a letter to the people in the Caliph’s 
 name, to be read in the bazaars and highways, and from 
 the pulpits, declaring the contract of #amid for the 
 farming of these revenues void, and forbidding all 
 ministers of state, captains and retainers to undertake 
 the farming of any of the provinces. #amid also wrote 
 dismissing his agents, and bidding them hand over their 
 functions to those of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. #amid was greatly 
 chagrined by this. 
 
 Year 308. 
 
 In this year news came from*Egypt of the movement 
 of the Fadmid ruler of the Maghrib in its direction ; 
 Mu’nis the Eunuch was despatched thither in conse¬ 
 quence. 
 
 • 
 
 In this year a robe of honour was bestowed on Abu’l- 
 Haija ‘Abdallah b. #amdan, who was put in charge 
 of the Khorasan and Dinawar Road. Robes were also 
 bestowed on his brothers Abul’-'Ala and Abu’l-Saraya. 
 
 There also arrived a messenger from the brother of 
 Su'luk 1 bringing money and gifts, and this messenger 
 received a robe of honour. 
 
 Year 309. 
 
 In this year despatches were received and read from 
 the pulpits announcing the rout of the Maghribi and the 
 pillaging (76) of his camp. Mu’nis the same year re¬ 
 ceived the title Muzaffar (the Victorious), letters being 
 sent in Muqtadir’s name to the provinces to announce 
 this. He was also given the government of Egypt and 
 Syria. 
 
 1 His seizure of Rayy and subsequent legitimation as its governor were recorded 
 in the year 304, 
 
84 A.H. 309. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 In the same year there entered Baghdad the envoy 
 of the Ruler of Khorasan bringing the head of Laila 
 b. Nu'MANthe Dailemite, who had rebelled in Tabaristan. 1 
 
 In it too i^ALLAj (whose name was #usain B. 
 Mansur) became notorious and was ultimately executed 
 and burned. 
 
 Account of Husain b. Mansur Hallaj, and his final 
 
 execution with mutilation. 
 
 #amid b. 'Abbas during his vizierate was informed 
 that this person had been duping a number of the court 
 attendants and door-keepers with various retainers and 
 dependents of Nasr, the Chamberlain, pretending that 
 he raised the dead and was served by jinn, who brought 
 him whatever he desired, and that he could perform any 
 miracle that he wished of the sort ascribed to the Pro¬ 
 phets. Some persons averred that Nasr was disposed 
 to favour his claims. One Samarri, certain clerks, and 
 a member of the Hashimite family, 2 were charged with 
 acting as #allaj's prophets, declaring that #allaj was 
 God (Oh, what blasphemy !). They were arrested and 
 cross-questioned by #amid, and they confessed that they 
 were his missionaries, being fully convinced that he was 
 a god, who raised the dead. They made these assertions 
 in the presence of i^allaj, who repudiated them and 
 declared that they lied ; God forbid, he said, that I 
 should pretend to divinity or prophecy ! I am merely 
 a man who worships God and practises prayer, fasting 
 and good works—nothing more ! #amid summoned the 
 qa^i Abu 'Umar, the qadi Abu Ja'far Ibn al-Bahlul, 
 and a number of eminent jurists and witnesses, and 
 asked their opinion on the case. They stated that they 
 would on no account sanction his execution until they 
 
 1 See Browne’s History of Tabaristan, 303-307. In the year 315 below this 
 personage is said to have been the first Dailemite who got possession of Rayy 
 after the departure of Ibn Abi’l-Saj. 
 
 2 i.e., the clan to which both the Prophet and ‘Ali belonged. 
 
VlZIERATE OF i?AMID B. 'ABBAS. 85 
 
 were convinced that he had done what deserved that 
 penalty ; and that they could not accept the evidence 
 of the persons who had made such charges against him 
 without proof and admission on his part. 
 
 (77) The first person who revealed the secrets of 
 flallaj was a man of Basrah who made a clear statement 
 of the case. He was, he said, acquainted with his 
 adherents, who were scattered about the countries acting 
 as his missionaries. He himself was one of those who 
 had accepted his claims, then discovered his fraud and 
 in consequence parted from him and quitted his society ; 
 he was now hoping to win the favour of Almighty God 
 by exposing him. This person found a supporter in 
 Abu 'Ali Harun b. 'Abd al-‘Aziz the Book-keeper, a 
 clerk from Anbar, who had written a book exposing the 
 tricks and deceits of i/allaj, which is still in people's 
 hands. i/allaj was at this time lodged in the Palace 
 where he was well treated, and allowed to receive visitors, 
 being in charge of Nasr the Chamberlain. i/allaj had 
 two names, Husain b. Mansur and Mohammed b. 
 Ahmad Farisi. He had duped Nasr who had been 
 deceived by his frauds, and had won a great name among 
 the court attendants. 
 
 Muqtadir sent him to 'Ali b. Tsa, to be examined by 
 him ; he was introduced into his saloon, and used rough 
 language to him. There is a story that when 'Ali b. 
 Tsa advanced towards him, i/allaj said to him privately : 
 Stop where you are and advance no nearer, else I will 
 overturn the earth upon you—with matter of this style. 
 'Ali b. Tsa shrank from examining him, and begged to be 
 excused. So he was taken to i/amid b. 'Abbas. The 
 daughter of Samarri, i/allaj's adherent, had been 
 admitted to i/allaj and remained with him in the Palace 
 for a time ; she was sent to //amid in order that he 
 might question her about what she knew of the affairs 
 of i/allaj or had herself witnessed. Abu'l-Qasim Zanji 
 
86 A.H. 309. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 states that he was present when this woman was brought 
 before //amid b. 'Abbas, and that her examination was 
 also attended by Abu ‘Ali A#mad b. Nasr Baziyar 
 on behalf of Abu’l-Qasim Ibn al-#awari, for the purpose 
 of hearing her statements. 
 
 #amid asked her what she knew about #allaj ; and 
 she narrated how her father Samarri had brought her to 
 him, and how on this occasion he had given her presents 
 of different sorts which she enumerated (she was, said 
 Abu'l-Qasim Zanji, (78) a woman who expressed 
 herself well, had an agreeable utterance, and made a 
 favourable impression). Among the things which she 
 recounted was that ifallaj said to her : I marry you to 
 my son Sulaiman, the dearest to me of my children, 
 who is resident in Nisabur. Now a man and his wife 
 are likely to “ have words ” or she may disapprove of 
 something which he has done. You are going to him, 
 and I have commended you to him ; if he does anything 
 which you dislike, fast the whole day, and at the end of 
 the daytime mount the roof, stand upon ashes and 
 coarse salt, and take your breakfast on them ; then turn 
 your face in my direction and inform me of what you 
 disapprove in his conduct; for I will hear and see.—Now 
 one morning I was descending from the roof into the 
 house accompanied by his daughter : he too had come 
 down, and when we had got to the stair where he could 
 see us and we him, his daughter said to me : Prostrate 
 yourself to him ! I said to her : Ought one then to 
 .prostrate oneself to any but God ?—Now he heard what 
 I said to her and said : Yes, there is a God in heaven 
 and also a god on earth.—Then he called me to him, 
 and introduced his hand into his sleeve, and brought it 
 out filled with musk, which he gave me ; this he did 
 again and then several times more, and then said : Put 
 this with your perfumes ; for a woman has need of per¬ 
 fume when she presents herself before her husband.— 
 Then he called me once when he was in a room, seated 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. ‘ABBAS. 87 
 
 on some matting, 1 and told me to lift the side of the mat 
 in a certain place and take what I wanted from under¬ 
 neath, pointing to the corner of the room. So I went 
 thither and when I raised the mat I found a flooring of 
 dinars over the whole room, a thing that amazed me.— 
 The woman was then told to rise and was kept in the 
 house of #amid until the execution of i^allaj. 
 
 i^amid exerted himself to find the adherents of #allaj 
 and set spies to hunt them down ; he succeeded (79) in 
 arresting ZZaidarah, Samarri, Mohammed b. Ali 
 Qunna’i, and the person known as Abu’l-Mughith 
 Hashimi. Ibn Hammad went into concealment and his 
 house was entered, and many documents taken thence ; 
 many too were taken from the house of Mohammed b. 
 'Ali Qunna’i; they were written on Chinese paper, some 
 of them in gold paint; the paper was lined with satin or 
 silk, and they were bound in leather of good quality. 
 Among the names of his adherents were found those of 
 Ibn Bishr and Shakir. Tilamid asked the adherents 
 whom he had arrested about these two, and they stated 
 that they were a couple of his missionaries in Khorasan. 
 So (said AbuT-Qasim Ibn Zanji) we wrote more than 
 twenty letters ordering them to be despatched to the 
 metropolis, most of which remained unanswered, whereas 
 in such answers as came it was stated that they were 
 being sought and when found would be despatched. Up 
 to the present date (he adds) they have not been sent. 
 
 Among the documents discovered in his possession 
 were wonderful sets of letters from agents despatched 
 by him to the provinces and instructions issued by him 
 concerning the doctrines which they should propagate, 
 and how they should lead the people from one state to 
 another and from one stage to another till they reached 
 the final goal : 2 and how they should address each class 
 
 1 In the Table-Talk something of the same sort is done in the mosque of 
 
 Basrah. . . ..... 
 
 * Maqrizi ascribes this method to the Isma'ilis ; see his Khna*. 
 
88 
 
 A.H. 309. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 according to the level of their intelligence, and the degree 
 to which they showed themselves amenable. There were 
 also replies from him to correspondents in enigmatic 
 phraseology only intelligible to the writer and to the 
 recipient of the communication. 
 
 Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Zanji continues : One day my father 
 and I had been in the presence of //amid, when he left 
 the room, and we went out to the public saloon, and sat 
 down in its peristyle. Presently Harun b. ‘Imran, the 
 Collector, presented himself before my father and was 
 talking with him when there appeared the slave of // ami d 
 who was in charge of Hallaj, and signalled to Harun b. 
 ‘Imran to come out to him. ( 80 ) He rose hastily, without 
 our knowing the reason, and after a short absence 
 returned, looking very pale. My father was alarmed by 
 his appearance and asked him what had happened. He 
 replied as follows :—I was summoned, he said, by the 
 slave in charge of Hallaj, and when I went out to him 
 he told me that he had been taking in to Z/allaj the tray 
 which it was his daily custom to bring him, when he 
 found that Hallaj was filling the room with his person, 
 stretching from roof to floor and from side to side, so that 
 there was no space left; this spectacle frightened him 
 so much that he dropped the tray and fled. He added 
 
 that the slave was in a fever, shaking and trembling . 1 _ 
 
 While we were marvelling at the tale, a messenger came 
 to us from Hamid, permitting us to enter his apartment. 
 We entered and began to talk about the slave. Hamid 
 summoned him, and he proved to be really feverish \ 
 being asked by his master what had occurred he told the 
 same story as he had told us. Hamid told him that he 
 was lying, and abused him, saying : You were frightened 
 by Hallaj’s conjuring-tricks (or something of the sort) 
 plague on you, get out !-The slave departed, but • 
 remained in his feverish condition for a long time. 
 
 1 In the autobiography of the medium D. D. Home there 
 tion, but not on Hallaj’s scale. 
 
 are cases 
 
 of elonga- 
 
VlZIERATE OF #AMID B. 'ABBAS. 89 
 
 Presently Uamid found a letter by Ha\\a] containing the 
 following : If a man desire to go on pilgrimage, but be 
 unable to do so, he should set apart in his house a square 
 building which should be touched by no unclean thing, and 
 to which no-one should have access. When the days of 
 the pilgrimage arrive, he should make the circuit round it, 
 and perform the same ceremonies as he would perform in 
 Meccah. Then he should collect thirty orphans and pre¬ 
 pare for them the daintiest food that he can provide, after 
 which he should bring them to the house and set that food 
 before them ; after serving them himself and washing their 
 hands, he should present each of them with a shirt, and hand 
 to each of them seven dirhems (Abu'l-Qasim Ibn Zanji was 
 not sure whether it was this or three) ; this would serve 
 instead of the pilgrimage. 
 
 My father, he continued, was reading this letter, and 
 when he had finished this section, the qa^i Abu 'Umar 
 turning to tfallaj asked him the source of this doctrine. 
 iJallaj replied : The Book of Devotion by Ha san Basri. 
 Abu 'Umar retorted : That is false ; Outlaw, we heard 
 the book of Devotion by JTasan Basri in Meccah, and it 
 contained none of these statements. Each time Abu 
 'Umar used the phrase Outlaw, Hamid ( 81 ) bade him 
 commit his statement to writing. Abu 'Umar tried to 
 attend to #allaj, but Hamid would not let him do so, 
 and insisted, in such a way as to prevent opposition, 
 that he should write down that #allaj was outlawed; 
 and the other persons present at the trial followed suit. 
 When i/allaj perceived how things were going he cried 
 out : My person is sacrosanct and my blood may not be 
 shed ; you have no right to outlaw me by a quibble. My 
 religion is Islam and my sect the Sunnah ; there are 
 books of mine at the booksellers in defence of the sunnah. 
 
 I adjure you by God not to shed my blood.—He kept 
 on repeating this while the assessors were writing their 
 names, and when the signatures of those present were 
 all on the paper, H amid forwarded it to Muqtadir. 
 
90 A.H. 309. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 The imperial rescript was as follows : Inasmuch as 
 the sentence of the judge is what you have presented to 
 us, have him taken to the police court, and scourged 
 with a thousand stripes , if he is not dead at the end, 
 then order his hands and feet to be amputated, decapi- 
 tate him, place his head on a pole and burn his body.— 
 Hamid summoned the Chief of police, bade him read the 
 rescript, and ordered him to take away Hallaj and carry 
 out the orders. This the Chief of police declined to do, 
 alleging that he was afraid the culprit would be forcibly 
 rescued. So it was agreed that the Chief of police 
 should come after dark with a number of his slaves and 
 men on mules in the capacity of sais’es , so that he might 
 be set on one of the mules and stowed in the middle of 
 the crowd. Hamid urged the Chief of police not to listen 
 to any appeal of Hallaj ; if he were to offer to transform 
 the Tigris and Euphrates into gold and silver for his 
 benefit, he must still not cease scourging him till he was 
 killed according to orders. Mohammed b. ‘Abd al-Samad, 
 the Chief of police, 1 carried these instructions out. He 
 conveyed Hallaj that night in the style described, the 
 retainers of Hamid riding with him till they brought 
 him to the Bridge. Mohammed b. 'Abd al-Samad with 
 his men passed the night round the Majlis. 2 
 
 When the morning of Tuesday—6 Dhud-Qa‘dah 
 (March 26, 922) dawned, Hallaj was led out to the area 
 of the Majlis, where an innumerable crowd of the populace 
 assembled. The executioner was ordered to administer 
 a thousand strokes of the scourge ; this was done and 
 Hallaj uttered no cry nor did he plead for pardon. Only 
 (my authority says) when he had got to the six hundredth 
 blow (82) Hallaj called out to Mohammed b. 'Abd al- 
 Samad : Summon me to your side and I will tell you some¬ 
 thing which in the eyes of the Caliph will be equal to the 
 storming of Constantinople. The Chief of police replied : 
 
 1 The date of his appointment in lieu of NujA Tuluni is not mentioned. 
 
 2 Here apparently the name of some police station or place of execution. 
 
VlZIERATE OF #AMID B. ‘ABBAS, 91 
 
 I have been told that you were likely to offer this, or 
 even more, but there is no way whereby you can be 
 relieved of the scourge, ifallaj then maintained silence 
 till the thousandth stroke had been delivered, then his 
 hand was amputated, then his foot, then he was decapi¬ 
 tated ; his trunk was then burned, and his head erected 
 on the Bridge. Afterwards the head was removed to 
 Khorasan. 
 
 #allajs adherents asserted that the victim of the blows 
 was an enemy of his on whom his likeness had been cast, 1 
 some of them pretending to have seen #allaj and heard 
 from him something of the sort, with follies not worth 
 transcribing. The booksellers were summoned and made 
 to swear that they would neither sell nor buy any of 
 //allaj's works. 
 
 Year 310. 
 
 In this year by Mu'nis's request and intercession 
 Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj was released from confinement, 
 and presently received a gift of money and clothing ; 
 then he had an audience of Muqtadir, to whom he rode 
 in black ; he kissed first the carpet, then the Caliph's 
 hand ; a robe of reconciliation was then thrown over 
 him, and he was mounted on a horse (82) with a gilt 
 saddle. After some days Muqtadir held a court in the 
 Public Saloon, at which he appointed him minister of 
 prayer, public security, kharaj and Estates in Rayy, 
 Qazwin, Abhar, Zanjan and Adharbaijan. 2 When he 
 left the Palace there rode with him Mu'nis the Mu^affar, 
 Nasr the Chamberlain, Shafi', MufliA, and indeed all the 
 officers and retainers in the metropolis ; his house was 
 filled with soldiers and arms, and there was a great 
 gathering. Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj appointed as his secre¬ 
 tary Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani ; the provinces of 
 
 1 The same is said in the Qur’an (iv. 156) to have happened in the case of 
 Jesus. 
 
 2 When we last heard of these provinces, the “ brother of Su'luk ” was in 
 possession of them. 
 
92 A.H. 310. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 which he was given charge were made his fief on condi¬ 
 tion that he should transmit to the metropolis every 
 year 500,000 dinars, while himself defraying the per¬ 
 manent expenditure and paying the army maintained 
 in these provinces. Robes of honour were also bestowed 
 on Wasif Bektimuri, and upon Tahir and Ya'qub 
 sons of Mohammed b. ‘Amr b. al-Laith. 
 
 In this year Nazuk was made Chief of police in 
 Baghdad, and received a robe of honour, Mohammed b. 
 ‘ Abd al-Samad being dismissed. A second robe of honour 
 was bestowed on Wasif Bektimuri, who was attached 
 to the service of Yusuf Ibn Abi’l-Saj, who departed to 
 his province via Mausil. When he reached Ardabil he 
 found that his retainer Sabuk was already dead. 1 
 
 This year there arrived in Baghdad a present from 
 Abu Zunbur #usain b. A#mad Madara’i sent by him 
 from Egypt; it contained a female mule with a foal 
 which followed her and which she suckled, and a lad 
 with a tongue so long that it could reach the tip of his 
 nose. 
 
 In this year there were arrested Umm Musa the 
 Stewardess, her sister and her brother. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason was that Umm Musa had married the 
 daughter of her brother Abu Bakr A#mad b. 'Abbas 
 to Abu’l-'Abbas Ibn Mohammed b. Is#aq son of 
 Mutawakkil, who was a prince of imperial blood, and 
 a man of wealth, sumptuous in his living and attire, 
 ( 84 ) his horses and his conveyances, and a friend of 'Ali 
 b. 'Isa ; so much so that the ex-vizier was supposed to 
 be training him for the Caliphate. When the alliance 
 between him and Umm Musa became a fact, the 
 stewardess spent extravagantly on distribution of 
 largesses, and entertainments to which she invited the 
 
 1 In 304 he had seized Adharbaijan. 
 
VlZIERATE OF //AMID B. ‘ABBAS. 93 
 
 officers of the empire both great and small for a period 
 of more than ten days. Her enemies got the oppor¬ 
 tunity of throwing suspicion upon her, and put it into 
 the minds of both Muqtadir and the Queen-mother 
 t ^ a i [/r her P ur Pose in allying herself with the descendant 
 of Mutawakkil was to depose Muqtadir and instal this 
 prince in his place. Thus her fall was brought about, 
 and she with her sister and her brother was handed over 
 to the Stewardess Thumal, a woman who had a reputa¬ 
 tion for cruelty, having been stewardess to Ahmad b. 
 
 Abd al- Aziz b. Dulaf , 1 who used to deliver to her 
 such of his slave-girls and slaves as had incurred his 
 displeasure ; she became notorious for her harshness 
 and the severity of her punishments. This Thumal 
 forced Umm Musa, her sister and her brother to sur¬ 
 render vast sums of money, and a marvellous amount of 
 jewellery, wearing apparel, furniture and perfume ; a 
 special bureau was established by 'Ali b. ‘Isa, to deal 
 with all this, called Bureau of the property confiscated 
 from Umm Musa and her dependents : in this their 
 estates and other property were dealt with, and he made 
 chief of it Abu Shuja' known as sister’s son to Abu 
 A yyub, father of the vizier, controlled by the clerk Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Yusufi. It is said that about a million 
 dinars were obtained from these people. 
 
 When Umm Musa had been arrested, ‘Ali b. ‘Isa 
 dismissed Ibn Abi’l-Baghl from his offices in Fars, 2 
 and appointed to them Abu ‘Abdallah Ja'far b. Qasim 
 Karkhi ; he also fined the former. When Ibn al-Furat 
 was made vizier for the third time, he wrote to Karkhi 
 
 bidding him renew Ibn Abi’l-Baghl’s fine and imprison 
 him. 
 
 In this year died Mohammed b. Jarir Tabari, about 
 ninety years old ; he was buried at night, for the populace 
 
 1 A general of Mu'tatfid, repeatedly mentioned by Tabari. 
 
 2 He had only been retained in his office (finance minister of Ispahan) out of 
 fear of Umyn Musa. 
 
94 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 assembled and prevented his being buried in the day, as 
 they charged him with rejecting the claims of the 
 Abbasids and further with heresy. 
 
 (85) In the same year Muqtadir invited Mu’nis the 
 Mmaffar to drink in his presence and put on him the 
 robes of a Messmate ( munadim ) of the Caliph ; these 
 were heavily adorned with gold. 
 
 Year 311. 
 
 In this year #amid b. 'Abbas was dismissed from the 
 vizierate and 'Ali b. 'Isa from the bureaux. 
 
 Account of the dismissal of these ministers and the 
 restoration of Ibn al-Furat to the vizierate. 
 
 For this there were numerous causes. One of them 
 was that Hamid planned guaranteeing the exaction of 
 a certain sum from 'Ali b. 'Isa if the latter were 
 surrendered to him, when the Caliph had cancelled his 
 contract for farming the revenue of the provinces which 
 we have enumerated. He further professed his readi¬ 
 ness to finance the government and carry on the 
 administration himself. 1 He was led to take this course 
 by rumours having reached him of Muqtadir's design to 
 reappoint Ibn al-Furat owing to the clamour raised by 
 the court dependents against 'Ali b. Tsa, who delayed 
 their pay and that of the Hareem and the princes, cut 
 down the earnings of the court attendants, servants and 
 cavalry, and took two months' pay off the stipends of 
 the ministers, and four months off those of the pay¬ 
 masters, secret service men, postmasters and judges. 
 The general feeling against him grew strong, and Hamid 
 b. 'Abbas was in dread of Ibn al-Furat owing to his 
 former treatment of him and to his conduct towards his 
 gson Mu/^assin and all his secretaries and dependents. 
 He was ordered by Muqtadir to write out himself a 
 
 1 This seems to be the first mention of the system which afterwards was 
 introduced by Ibn Ra’iq, the first Amir al-Umara. 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. 'ABBAS. 95 
 
 memoir stating what he guaranteed and what he offered, 
 and naming the persons whom he proposed to make 
 heads of bureaux. Hamid did this, and his memoir 
 was shown by Muqtadir to Ibn al-Furat in prison, and 
 the proposal explained to him. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat replied that were Hamid b. 'Abbas to 
 be supported by Hasan b. Makhlad , 1 Ahmad b. Isra’il , 2 
 and all other masters of administration, he would still 
 be unequal to the government of the empire and even 
 to the control of the bureaux ; and that if he were 
 appointed to these offices the dignity of the empire would 
 be impaired and all respect for it cease. 'Ali b. 'Isa, 
 whatever his vicissitudes, was more competent than 
 Hamid and more skilled in affairs and administration. 
 ( 86 ) He then added : "I guarantee five times what is 
 guaranteed by Hamid ”—meaning, if he were restored 
 to office and given plenary powers. Muqtadir then 
 promised that he would give him the chance. 
 
 Hamid was at this time resident in Baghdad, not 
 interfering with any of the state business, and merely 
 presenting himself on days of state ceremonials and 
 then returning home. He grew weary of his stay in the 
 metropolis, owing to his painful humiliation, and the 
 contemptuous treatment which he received from 'Ali 
 b. 'Isa in his orders : who used to issue them to the 
 clerks of the vizier (Hamid) and to those of the bureaux, 
 mentioning his name in a manner which he found in¬ 
 tolerable : thus he used to issue an order Let the Collector 
 of the vizier (whom God help) be required to pay what is 
 due from Wasit ; or : Let the vizier be notified that he 
 must at once transmit the barley required for the horses. 
 If any complaint were brought to him against the pro¬ 
 ceedings of Hamid or his agents, he would write on the 
 back of the note : This is a matter into which the vizier 
 
 1 A figure of the first period of anarchy. 
 
 2 Another figure of the same period. 
 
96 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 {God help him) must look. ‘Ali b. 'Isa said that he could 
 defend his style by the old practice of the viziers. 
 Hamid asked the permission of Muqtadir to quit the 
 capital for Wasit in order to oversee the revenue farming 
 which he carried on in its neighbourhood. Obtaining 
 this permission he departed. 
 
 Another cause was the proceedings of Umm Musa 
 and the story that has been told about her, with the 
 current rumours about the descendant of Mutawakkil, 
 and the supposition that the matter had been contrived 
 by Ibn al-i/awari, whom Umm Musa favoured and to 
 whom she revealed imperial secrets. 
 
 One of the partisans of Ibn al-Furat had thrown into 
 the dwelling of Muqtadir a paper containing a verse 
 
 This is to greet thee, to greet thee 
 O cock of the Caliph’s Palace 
 
 The paper contained no more than this one verse 
 which comes from an obscene set, of which this is the 
 least offensive. The man took care that it should be 
 placed on the route of the Caliph to one of his private 
 apartments. Muqtadir read the paper, and was greatly 
 disgusted with Ibn al-#awari ; he made up his mind 
 to outlaw him and shed his blood, and ruin Umm Musa. 
 It is indeed supposed that this verse was (87) one of the 
 chief causes of her fallfandlhis. 
 
 Another reason for the reappointment of Ibn al- 
 Furat was that Mufli# the Negro was high in Muq- 
 tadir’s favour, and constantly in attendance ; in time 
 he became a great man, on whom fiefs were conferred, 
 and the owner of vast estates. A dispute arose between 
 him and H amid, in whichjgthe former grossly insulted 
 the vizier ; #amid retorted : I have an idea of buying 
 a hundred black slaves , naming them all Muflih and pre¬ 
 senting them to my retainers. MufliA did not forget this 
 jibe. Muhassin got to know of it and of some similar 
 matters and got into communication with MufliA’s 
 
VlZIERATE OF HAMID B. 'AbBAS. 97 
 
 secretary, to whom he guaranteed office and fortune 
 and honours so that at last he made an arrangement 
 between MuAassin and his master. 
 
 Mu/zassin then addressed a note to Muqtadir through 
 Muffin, wherein he undertook to extract seven million 
 dinars from J^amid, ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, Nasr the Chamberlain, 
 Shafi Lu'luT, Ibn al-#awari, and Umm Musa, her 
 brother and the Madara'is, if they were put into his 
 power. Abu’l-i7asan Ibn al-Furat too from his prison 
 kept stirring up Muqtadir against these persons, and 
 exciting his cupidity. 
 
 One of his most ingenious and remarkable devices 
 was the following. One day he sent through the 
 Stewardess Zaidan a request to Muqtadir for twelve 
 thousand dinars or their value in gold, saying he required 
 this amount for a certain purpose. Muqtadir, having 
 taken so much of the property of Ibn al-Furat, felt 
 unable to refuse this request; so he sent the sum to him. 
 Presently Ibn al-Furat requested the Caliph, when he 
 was passing by his place of confinement, to look in, as 
 he wished to communicate something which could not 
 form the subject of either a letter or a message. Muq¬ 
 tadir used frequently to visit him and ask his advice. 
 So Muqtadir visited him and when Ibn al-Furat saw 
 the Caliph, he rose, and taking the sack which contained 
 the dinars, opened it and poured the coins out before 
 him. Then he said : Commander of the Faithful, I 
 have told you how your money is plundered and wasted, 
 and employed as ( 88 ) hush-money ; what do you say of 
 a single individual who every lunar month earns this 
 this sum out of your wealth, viz., twelve thousand 
 dinars ?—Muqtadir was amazed and astounded and 
 asked who the individual was. Ibn al-Furat replied : 
 ‘Ali b. Mohammed b. al-T/awari, and this in addition 
 to the perquisites which he obtains owing to his position 
 as a court-favourite, and the secret profits which he 
 
98 
 
 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 receives from the offices which he holds, &c. &c.—He 
 then returned the dinars to Muqtadir, adding : I only 
 wished you to see how you are being victimized, for seeing 
 is believing.—Muqtadir left him, indignant at what 
 went on, and fully bent on doing mischief to Ibn al- 
 #awari. 
 
 These causes coming together decided Muqtadir to 
 restore the vizierate to Ibn al-Furat ; so when Thursday 
 —9 Rabi' ii (Aug. 7, 923) arrived, on his descending the 
 river to the Palace ‘Ali b. Tsa was arrested and given in 
 charge of the Stewardess Zaidan, who confined him in 
 the chamber wherein Ibn al-Furat had been lodged. 
 The latter was removed thence to be appointed vizier. 
 
 The following is the narration of Abu Mohammed 
 ‘Ali b. Hisham : 
 
 I was present with my father at a gathering in the 
 house of Abu’l-iTasan Ibn al-Furat during his second 
 vizierate, and heard him tell the following story : I was 
 visited (he said) by Abu’l-Haitham 'Abbas b. Mohammed 
 of Anbar in my place of confinement in Muqtadir’s 
 Palace, and he demanded that I should write a bond for 
 thirteen million dinars. I told him that such an amount 
 of the Sultan’s money had not passed through my hands 
 during my whole period of office ; how then could I be 
 fined for such an amount ? He told me that he had 
 been made to swear that he would divorce his wives 
 unless I wrote out a bond for that sum. So I wrote out 
 a bond for thirteen millions, without stating what and 
 without giving any guarantee. He bade me write 
 dinars so that he might be quit of his oath. I wrote 
 the word but immediately ( 90 ) snatched the paper and 
 swallowed it, 1 saying : You are now free of your oath 
 
 and you shall get no more. He tried hard to move me, 
 
 % 
 
 1 Compare Sir J. Hall, General Pichegru’s Treason, 1915, p. 57 : Courant 
 showed that he was a man of resource;—he contrived at the first sign of danger 
 not only to swallow unperceived Conde’s letter, &c. 
 
99 
 
 Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 but I would assent to nothing. Next day he came to 
 my prison bringing with him Umm Musa. He made 
 the same demand as before, using the most violent 
 language and charging me with adultery. I swore the 
 most solemn oaths, offering to divorce my wives and 
 free my slaves if I foreswore, that I had never committed 
 any crime of that sort for more than thirty years. I 
 bade him swear a similar oath, charging him with an 
 unnatural offence. Umm Musa was shocked by the 
 turn which things had taken and covered her face out 
 of shame. 1 Ibn Thawabah said to her : His swagger 
 is due to the money that is behind him, and he is like the 
 barber in the story of Kisra or the cupper in the story 
 of #ajjaj b. Yusuf. 2 Please obtain their Highnesses’ 
 permission for the application of the torture, to make 
 him agree to pay the money. (By their Highnesses he 
 meant, said Ibn al-Furat, Muqtadir, the Queen-mother, 
 and her sister Khafif and Dastanbuyah, umm wuld of 
 Mu’ta^id, as they at this time owing to the youth of 
 Muqtadir were in control of affairs).—So (said Ibn al- 
 Furat) Umm Musa departed and presently returned, 
 and said to Ibn Thawabah : They tell you that you are 
 right and you are free to treat him as you please.— 
 Now I was confined in a narrow apartment and it was 
 
 1 It is not clear how she came to have it uncovered. 
 
 8 These allusions are explained in the work of Hilal. A barber was shaving 
 the Persian king, and in the process asked the king to give him his daughter 
 in marriage. The attendants were told to take him away from the king's chair, 
 and he was asked to repeat what he had said ; he declared that he had said 
 nothing. This was done three times. The king inferred that the barber must 
 have a treasure buried in the particular spot where he stood when he made the 
 proposal, and a vast treasure was unearthed. (This story seems to be an im¬ 
 provement on one in Kalilah wa-Dimnah, where a similar inference is drawn 
 from the jumping of a rat.) The story of Hajjaj (governor of ‘Iraq for ‘Abd 
 al-Malik and notorious for his ruthlessness) is that a cupper who was bleeding him 
 requested the governor to tell him about his experiences with Ibn al-Ash'ath 
 (‘Abd al-RaAmanb. Mohammed, a general who revolted against this governor in 
 81 a.h.), and only when he had obtained a promise that the governor would 
 do so consented to complete the operation. Hajjaj, when it was finished, 
 performed his promise,but ordered five hundred stripes to be administered 
 to the cupper while he was telling the story.—Ibn Thawabah = Ibu ’1 Haitham, 
 
100 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 very hot. Orders were given that the roof of matting 
 should be removed so that I was exposed to the sun, 
 and the rush-carpet was withdrawn from under me, 
 while the doors of the adjoining offices were locked so 
 that I could not get out of the sunshine. Then I was 
 fettered with a heavy chain and clothed in a jubbah of 
 wool that had been steeped in urine ; an iron collar was 
 put upon my neck, and the door of my apartment locked 
 behind him by Ibn Thawabah. I thought my end had 
 come. 
 
 After about four hours I heard the sound of retainers 
 passing in the corridor in which the place of my confine¬ 
 ment was, and the slaves who were in charge of me said : 
 This is Badr the Eunuch of the private apartments, 
 who is a creature of yours.—I shouted out to him implor¬ 
 ing his help : For God's sake, Abu'l-Khair, I said, ( 91 ) 
 you have influence with their Highnesses, and are under 
 obligations to me ; you see the condition in which I am, 
 to which death is preferable. Speak to their Highnesses 
 and remind them of my claims and of my services in 
 securing their throne when they were deserted by the 
 people, and how I reconquered for them territories that 
 had been seized, and recovered revenues that had been 
 withheld. If my offence deserves death, then execution 
 is easier than this.—He went and talked to them and 
 mollified them, so that all the iron was removed from me, 
 -I was allowed to be bathed and shaved, and have my 
 clothes changed ; and orders were given that I was to 
 be put in charge of Zaidan, who was to see to my 
 comfort.—Badr brought me the good news and did not 
 rest until it had all been accomplished. Then he said : 
 Their Highnesses wish me to inform you that in future 
 you shall suffer no harm. 1 
 
 This story seems out of its place here. If the author placed it here inten¬ 
 tionally, probably his design was to account for the vindictiveness displayed 
 by Ibn aJ-Furat during his third term of power. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 101 
 
 Account of the third vizierate of Abu’l-Rasan Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 So Abu’l-T/asan ( Ali b. Mohammed b. al-Furat 
 entered upon his third vizierate on the day that has 
 been mentioned ; a robe of honour was bestowed upon 
 him, and his son Muhassin was summoned by Muqtadir 
 from his house in Suq al-'A^ash and given a robe simul¬ 
 taneously with his father. On that day no audience 
 was given to Abud-Qasim Ibn al-#awari. Ibn al-Furat’s 
 sons and dependents showed themselves, whereas some 
 of i/amid's dependents went into hiding, others being 
 arrested by MuAassin on his route. 
 
 During the whole vizierate of #amid Abu 'Ali Ibn 
 Muqlah served ‘Ali b. Tsa as controller of the Sawad, 1 
 and when Ibn al-Furat entered upon his third vizierate, 
 he took courage, and instead of going into hiding visited 
 the new vizier ; who manifested his displeasure in' a 
 way which humiliated Ibn Muqlah, but did not arrest 
 him owing to the friendship that existed between him 
 and Ibn al-#awari; but when the latter was arrested, 
 Ibn Muqlah was arrested also. Ibn al-Furat removed 
 to his former dwelling in Mukharrim. Thither Ibn 
 al-i/awari rode to congratulate him, paying a lengthy 
 visit wherein he was cordially received by Ibn al-Furat, 
 who asked his counsel, giving him a private interview, 
 while Ibn al-FIawari endeavoured to ingratiate himself, 
 expressing his pleasure at Ibn al-Furat’s appointment, 
 though in fact terribly afraid of him. Now the depen¬ 
 dents of this Abu’l-Qasim (92) Ibn al-Ffawari had urged 
 him to go into hiding, telling him that Muqtadir would 
 not have admitted him 2 on the day of Ibn al-Furat’s 
 investiture, being aware of the hostility between you, 
 except with some mischievous design. Ibn al-#awari 
 replied that were that so, Muqtadir would have had him 
 
 1 i.e., supervisor of the finance. 
 
 8 This seems to be in contradiction to what preceded, p. 91. Perhaps however 
 there is a distinction between admission to the Palace and to the Caliph's 
 presence. 
 
102 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 arrested before the investiture. On the Monday (Aug. 11, 
 923) both Ibn al-Furat and Ibn al-#awari sailed to the 
 Palace, when audience was granted to the first but not 
 to the second. This alarmed Ibn al-#awari, who after¬ 
 wards explained the circumstance by the supposition 
 that Ibn al-Furat had stipulated with Muqtadir that 
 he should treat him as he had done during his second 
 vizierate, when Ibn al-#awari did not accompany him 
 on his public visits to the Palace, but only on his 
 private visits. So when Ibn al-Furat had left the 
 Caliph's presence and was by himself, he was visited by 
 Ibn al-#awari, who was favourably received and con¬ 
 sulted by the vizier about all the business. I, he said, 
 have been out of touch with affairs for five years, whereas 
 you are familiar with them. I hope therefore that 
 I shall have your help, and that you will act as our 
 friendship demands.—Ibn al-#awari expressed his 
 gratitude for this language, and made a show of cordia¬ 
 lity. Ibn al-Furat then started a long conversation, 
 but rose before he had finished ; he then descended to 
 his barge, taking with him Ibn al-#awari, his sister's 
 son A#mad b. Nasr Baziyar, his son-in-law Mohammed 
 b. Tsa, 'Ali b. Ma'mun Iskafi his secretary, and 'Ali 
 b. Khalaf, whose brother Mohammed b. Khalaf 1 was 
 related to him (Ibn al-#awari) by marriage. He pre¬ 
 tended to treat them all with respect and cordiality, 
 and kept on cracking jokes with them until he reached 
 his own palace, where he whispered an order to 'Abbas 
 Farghani his chamberlain to arrest Ibn al-FTawari and 
 all his dependents. They were arrested and imprisoned 
 by him in an inner apartment of the palace. Ibn al- 
 Furat at once sent for Shah' Lu'lu'i, and despatched 
 him to the house of Ibn al-#awari to preserve it from 
 being plundered ; giving him a number of horse and 
 foot-soldiers as escort. (93) He further ordered that Ibn 
 al-i/awari should be liberally treated in the matter of 
 
 1 At this time secretary to Ibn Abi’l-Saj. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 103 
 
 food and drink, and assigned him a spacious apartment, 
 cleanly furnished, where however he was not allowed to 
 communicate with his clerks and confidential friends. 
 Ibn al-Furat then sent to negotiate with him on the 
 subject of his fine, and the negotiations were conducted 
 by Ibn Qarabah, who was endeavouring to ingratiate 
 himself with Ibn al-Furat, and was on intimate terms 
 with Ibn al-#awari. After long discussion the fine was 
 fixed at 700,000 dinars, for himself exclusive of his clerks 
 and dependents. He stipulated that Ahmad b. Nasr 
 Baziyar should be liberated, to be employed in paying 
 the advance instalment, 250,000 dinars. He was ac¬ 
 cordingly released and the guards were withdrawn from 
 the apartments of Ibn al-#awari and his dependents, 
 who were all delivered to A/miad b. Nasr. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat further ordered raids on various places 
 where dependents or clerks of iTamid were to be found, 
 and ferreted them out; Muhassin exceeded all limit 
 in the tortures which he inflicted on those who fell into 
 his hands. Thus he summoned Ibn Fammad of Mausil, 
 and obtained his bond for 200,000 dinars, after which he 
 handed him over to his exactor, who cuffed him violently, 
 but not so as to satisfy Mu^assin, who had him brought 
 into his own presence, and cuffed him on the head so 
 that the blood spurted out of his nose and mouth and he 
 died. Muqtadir made no objection, though MuAassin 
 had been in great alarm lest he should disapprove ; after 
 a few days the Caliph sent him the robes of a 
 “ messmate ” and increased his salary by two thousand 
 dinars a month over and above his allowance as President 
 of the Bureaux. This whetted the appetite of Mu/zassin 
 for torture, and immoderate praise was bestowed by 
 Muqtadir on his conduct, to such an extent that the 
 slave-girls sang in the royal presence 
 
 Muhassin 1 has done well, done well 1 
 
 1 The name is derived from the adjective " good." 
 
104 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 //amid b. 'Abbas's son-in-law Mohammed b. Ahmad 
 b. Bis tam had gone into hiding, but was discovered by 
 MuAassin, who extorted from him 60,000 dinars and 
 obtained his bond for 200,000 after severe torture, 
 and depriving him of a eunuch named Marj to whom he 
 was well known to be attached. ( 94 ) In this style he 
 arrested many persons, seized handsome slaves and 
 eunuchs belonging to them, and inflicted torture on them¬ 
 selves. 
 
 Arrest oj Hamid b % c Abbas by the vizier Ibn al-Furat . 
 
 Muqtadir had stipulated with Ibn al-Furat, that 
 i/amid should not be ruined, but that the former should 
 examine him with reference to the surplus of the revenue 
 which he farmed, and that if anything was due from him, 
 in the opinion of the clerks and judges, Ibn al-Furat 
 should be satisfied with part of it; for, he said, //amid 
 has served me and accepted a stipend for one year only, 
 stipulating that I should not hand him over to be tortured 
 and that I should urge no claims against hirn.—So Ibn 
 al-Furat was compelled to retain him as farmer of the 
 revenue of Wasit, and addressed him in complimentary 
 phrase. Presently however he had accounts made up 
 against him, subjected his reports to the severest scrutiny, 
 and made him responsible for vast sums ; he also wrote 
 to his agents bidding them demand payment from him 
 with insistence, and ordering them, if he made any delay, 
 to place him in charge of men who would importune 
 him for the money necessary for repairs and for seeds, 
 purposes which admitted of no delay ; for the Commander 
 of the Faithful, he stated, would not consent to a fresh 
 contract being made with him.—The agent of the vizier 
 Ibn al-Furat showed this letter in his committee-room * 
 and the news reaching //amid at once, the latter 
 announced in W asit that orders had come to him from 
 Muqtadir to come to Baghdad. So he left Wasit accom¬ 
 panied by all his clerks and dependents, and his foot- 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 105 
 
 soldiers, taking with him all the furniture, utensils, and 
 wearing apparel which he habitually used, after carefully 
 depositing his treasures and valuable goods with trust¬ 
 worthy inhabitants of Wasit. He signalled his de¬ 
 parture by trumpet-blast. He then made all his 
 retainers and dependents embark in launches and barges, 
 and sent word by quick runners and carrier-pigeons to 
 Ibn al-Furat. ( 95 ) His horses and those of his attend¬ 
 ants and followers were being led on the bank. When 
 the news reached Ibn al-Furat, he consulted his son 
 MuAassin and his confidential friends about the course 
 which he had best take. They advised him to hasten 
 to Muqtadir and read him Hamid’s letter. Muqtadir 
 declared that he had no knowledge of Hamid’s pro¬ 
 ceedings and had written him no letter of the sort which 
 he asserted he had received.—Ibn al-Furat said that if 
 this were so, the best plan would be to send Nazuk 1 
 with a company of H ujari retainers and regular horse 
 and foot, some by water and some on land, to arrest 
 #amid and his party.—Ibn al-Furat ; having obtained 
 the Caliph's leave for this, returned to his house, and 
 despatched Nazuk, urging him to use haste, so as to 
 arrest the whole party and let none of them escape. 
 Nazuk started, but made the mistake of arresting the 
 first of the party that he met, consisting of slaves with 
 the horses ; #amid, getting intelligence of this, left the 
 route and went into hiding. Nazuk's party plundered 
 some of the baggage that was with the company, and 
 Nazuk obtained possession of his papers, accounts and 
 deeds, all of which he brought to Baghdad. 
 
 Muqtadir ordered all these papers and deeds to be 
 delivered to Ibn al-Furat, while he distributed the 
 baggage over his own stores and the horses among his 
 stables. Among the papers brought to him Ibn al-Furat 
 found extraordinary letters of persons whose favour 
 
 1 At this time Chief of police. 
 
106 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Hamid had been anxious to secure ; these persons were 
 arrested by his order. When Ibn al-Furat received 
 Hamid's message announcing his journey to Baghdad, 
 the former took the precaution of placing under guard 
 his collector Ibrahim who happened to be in the metro¬ 
 polis. When Nazuk had succeeded in arresting the de¬ 
 dependents of Hamid, Ibn al-Furat instructed Hisham 1 
 to treat this collector now with leniency, now with 
 harshness, and to question him concerning Hamid's 
 deposits. Hisham carried out these instructions and 
 the collector confessed of his own accord that he himself 
 had in his keeping 100,000 dinars in gold belonging to 
 //amid, and swore that he had no other deposit belonging 
 to either Hamid or any of his dependents. Ibn al-Furat 
 guaranteed him his life and that he would not deliver 
 him to MuAassin, but did not communicate the discovery 
 of this hundred thousand dinars to Muqtadir ( 96 ) until 
 he had got Hamid into his power. 
 
 A report got about in Rajab (15 Oct.-13 Nov., 923) 
 that Hamid had gone into hiding because Muqtadir had 
 written to him complaining of his leaving Wasit in the 
 manner described, and ordering him to approach Baghdad 
 by a secret route, that he, the Caliph, might make sure 
 of him and obtain his bond for the sum which he offered to 
 guarantee upon Ibn al-Furat, MuAassin and their clerks 
 and dependents, if they were put into his power. Ibn al- 
 Furat s sons Mu/^assin, al-Fa^l, Husain and Hasan with 
 their wives and most of their clerks went into hiding ; and 
 of the clerks who attended meetings in Ibn al-Furat's 
 palace none remained except Abu'l-Qasim Ibn Zanji 
 only. However Hamid's lucky days were over. He 
 came to the Palace in the garb of a monk, attended by 
 his slave Mu nis, and mounted to the Chamberlain's 
 apartments, where the Chamberlain Nasr lived. Faris 
 b. Rundaq announced him, saying : Hamid b. ‘Abbas 
 
 1 Hisham b. 'Abdallah, Treasurer. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 107 
 
 is at the door and requests to be admitted to the ustadh} 
 Nasr replied : Bid him enter. When he entered and 
 before he had taken a seat, Nasr said to him : Where 
 are you coming to ? He replied : I have come in accord¬ 
 ance with your letter. Nasr retorted : What, did I 
 write to you to come here ?—Nasr declined to rise to greet 
 him, excusing himself on the ground that H amid was 
 under the frown of the Caliph. Nasr then sent to MufliA, 
 requesting that he would come round, MufliA being the 
 official who demanded admissions to Muqtadir when the 
 latter was in his private apartments. MufM came 
 round, and Nasr pleaded ifamid’s cause with him ; He 
 is now, he said, an object of pity, and it would be like 
 you to be merciful to him and not punish him for what 
 he did on those occasions. 2 H amid then said to MufhA : 
 Tell our lord the Commander of the Faithful that I am 
 prepared to be confined in the Palace as ‘Ali b. Tsa is 
 confined, and to be examined by the vizier, Mu/^assin, 
 and the clerks in the presence of the jurists, judges, and 
 chief captains ; if I be found to have incurred a fine, I 
 am prepared to pay it after I have had (97) full oppor¬ 
 tunity to set out my defence, and provided my life be 
 secured, and Mu/^assin be not given power over my blood, 
 so as to avenge himself for the tortures which I inflicted 
 on him 3 by the will of our lord the Commander of the 
 Faithful when he was a lad, whereas I am an old man, 
 at whose advanced age a little torture will prove fatal.— 
 MufM promised to take his message ; he then went to 
 Muqtadir and spoke to him on the subject of #amid, 
 but in a style that was the contrary of that which he 
 had promised to adopt. The Queen-Mother however 
 pleaded tfamid’s cause, saying that there would be no 
 harm in his being confined in the Palace and being 
 examined provided his life were spared.—Mufli/* how- 
 
 1 A term indicating high office at this period. 
 
 a His quarrel with MufliA was described above, p. 87. 
 
 8 Above, p. 65. 
 
108 
 
 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 ever objected that, if this course were taken, Ibn al- 
 Furat would be able to execute none of his measures ; 
 for rumour was rife (about his impending fall), the world 
 would be devastated, and the sources of revenue fail.— 
 Muqtadir agreed that Mufl ih was right, and bade him 
 go back to Nasr and order him to despatch #amid to 
 Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 MufliA brought this order to Nasr, who endeavoured 
 to allay the terror of #amid by saying to him : You 
 must proceed with one of my trusty agents to interview 
 the vizier, but after that I will bring you back to the 
 Caliphs Palace.—i7amid then begged Nasr for some 
 clothes into which he might change from his monks 
 costume, but MufM refused to give permission for this, 
 declaring that he had been ordered by their master to 
 despatch him in the clothes in which he had presented 
 himself. Nasr however pleaded so earnestly that he 
 conceded this point. #amid was then sent off in the 
 company of Ibn Rundaq the door-keeper, and MufM 
 sent his clerk in haste to Ibn al-Furat to tell him the good 
 news of the arrival of #amid, and Muqtadir’s order that 
 he should be delivered to the vizier. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat had been in a state of great alarm and 
 anxiety when he heard of the arrival of amid at the 
 Palace, and when his clerks and his sons had all gone 
 into hiding. When he received MufliA's message he 
 became somewhat calmer, performed the afternoon 
 prayer, and took his seat in the council-room where there 
 was no-one before him except Ibn Zanji. He was 
 examining state papers with very moderate attention 
 till one of the slaves mentioned that one of the Court 
 barges was approaching. Presently it came up to the 
 steps of his palace, when the porters hurried to announce 
 
 it. In came Ibn al-Rundaq accompanied by Hamid 
 b. 'Abbas ! 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 109 
 
 When Ibn al-Furat saw him, he asked him why he 
 had left his province and come.—He replied : I have 
 come in obedience to yonr letter.—If so, said Ibn al- 
 Furat, why did you not (98) come directly to my house ? 
 —God's guidance failed me, was his reply.—Throughout 
 this dialogue JTamid addressed Ibn al-Furat with a simple 
 thou y instead of in the third person as the vizier. Ibn 
 al-Rundaq then produced the letter of Nasr the Chamber- 
 lain to the vizier stating that he was sending #amid to 
 him, and it was tossed by Ibn al-Furat to Ibn Zanji 
 with the order to report his arrival. Ibn Zanji wrote to 
 that effect and handed the answer to Ibn al-Rundaq, 
 who then left the chamber. When he had departed, 
 Hamid's heart began to fail him, and he showed signs of 
 weakness ; he assumed a milder tone, and addressed 
 Ibn al-Furat as vizier. The latter bade Yahya b. 
 'Abdallah, his house-steward, allot a spacious apart¬ 
 ment in his palace to the use of #amid ; it was to be 
 well furnished, and the steward was to see that the guest 
 was supplied with food, drink, and perfume of the sort 
 with which he was served when he was vizier. He was 
 also to have splendid apparel made for H amid, and 
 appoint two black slaves, ignorant of Arabic, to wait 
 upon him when he was alone ; the steward himself was 
 to take his meals with him, at which time they were to 
 be attended by confidential servants and waiters. 
 
 Account of the treatment which Yiamid received and 
 
 of his own conduct. 
 
 On the afternoon of that day visits were paid #amid 
 by 'Abdallah b. Farajawaihi and Ahmad b.#ajjaj b. 
 Makhlad son-in-law of Musa b. Khalaf, on whom Z/amid 
 in the days of his vizierate had inflicted unheard-of 
 tortures. 1 They reproached him for his ill-treatment of 
 them.—He at first denied that he had ever seen them or 
 noticed them in his life ; but when they dilated on the 
 
 1 Above, p. 66. 
 
110 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 subject, he said to them: You have both been prolix in 
 your charges, and I will give you a concise answer: If my 
 methods which you have been describing and my treatment 
 of people have brought me any good, I advise you to do the 
 like and more ; but if they are reprehensible, and have 
 ultimately put me into your power, I advise you to avoid 
 them. “ Happy is he who takes warning by others.” 1 
 They left him and repeated what he had said to Ibn al- 
 Furat. He thought //amid had scored, (99) and said : 
 I do not deny his ability and quick-wittedness ; still he 
 is doomed to Hell-fire, as he has not recoiled from blood¬ 
 shed and torture. 
 
 Thabit writes as follows in his history : It is most 
 extraordinary that Ibn al-Furat should say this, should 
 approve and affirm the doctrine of //amid, and assert 
 that he had earned Hell-fire by his foul deeds : and that 
 he at the same time, with all his generosity, his mag¬ 
 nanimity, his personal integrity and general philanthropy, 
 should express no disapproval of the atrocious methods 
 employed by his son Mu^assin, 2 the very methods which 
 Ibn al-Furat thought so disgraceful in //amid; no, 
 though Mu/zassin was twice as barbarous as //amid, 
 his father neither forbade him nor bade him take warning 
 from Z/amid's fate, and be “ the happy man who takes 
 warning by others.” And yet a man who defies God 
 with his eyes open and after warning and remonstrance 
 is very different from one who does so thoughtlessly and 
 without his conscience being roused. 
 
 After this Ibn al-Furat sent to //amid to demand a 
 statement of his assets ; and he admitted the possession 
 of 200,000 dinars, 100,000 being the sum which he had 
 lodged with his Collector Ibrahim, he having learned that 
 it had got into Ibn al-Furat’s hands from this collector, 
 and that MuAassin had obtained another sum from his 
 eunuch Mu'nis and transmitted it to Muqtadir. 
 
 l An Arabic proverb. Frey tag 1. 628. 2 This is not borne out by the sequel, 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. Ill 
 
 Mu/zassin had written to the Caliph that he had obtained 
 this sum of the man’s own initiative without examina¬ 
 tion or torture, and held out hopes to the Caliph that 
 further vast sums might be extorted from Z/amid ; and 
 indeed he presently by applying severe torture extorted 
 a further 40,000 dinars from the same Mu’nis, while 
 various of H amid’s dependents were fined other sums. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat summoned //amid b. 'Abbas to appear 
 before the jurists, judges and secretaries of state, and 
 submitted him to a lengthy ( 100 ) examination, //amid 
 made a good case until Ibn al-Furat produced a docu¬ 
 ment which he had found in the boxes of Gharib, a 
 retainer of //amid, employed in the sale of his crops at 
 al-Furiah. 1 The vizier confronted //amid with this and 
 produced Gharib, who admitted the genuineness of the 
 paper, which he had carried off by mistake, it being 
 Z/amid’s custom every year to collect his bills and fling 
 them into the Tigris ; but when fate was bringing about 
 his downfall, he forgot to ask his assistant for this docu¬ 
 ment, which was written like any other on the back of 
 a leaf, and was with a collection of such leaves. The 
 price of the crops of one year according to this document 
 was 540,000 odd dinars, exclusive of the barley for the 
 horses which was transmitted to Baghdad. So it 
 appeared that the surplus obtained by the revenue- 
 farmer was more than double, and, besides that, the 
 prices of that year, the second of the contract, were low, 
 those which held in all the subsequent years being 
 higher. So Ibn al-Furat damaged Z/amid’s case, ( 101 ) 
 and he obtained the written declarations of the judges 
 and state-secretaries and of Shaft' Lu’lu’i that so far the 
 case had gone against //amid. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat had conducted his examination with 
 civility, using no harsh or offensive expressions, merely 
 
 1 This word means “the Dock," and figures as a place-name in Yaqut’s Geo¬ 
 graphical Dictionary, though the places which he mentions are not apparently 
 either of them identical with that mentioned here. 
 
112 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 arguing against him, and giving him full opportunity to 
 defend himself. Muhassin on the other hand publicly 
 insulted him in the vilest manner, and told him that the 
 money would be extracted from him only by use of the 
 same tortures as he had himself inflicted on others. 
 Mu^assin* undertook to obtain from him, if he were de¬ 
 livered into his power, a million dinars without delay ; 
 and was prepared to forfeit his life if he failed to do so. 
 His father tried to repress him and stop his abuse, but 
 he declined to stop. 
 
 Hamid finally addressed himself to the vizier, saying : 
 Your son has been most insulting, and I have put up 
 with it, not for his sake, but out of respect Hr the vizier's 
 court. Over and above my present plight I have nothing 
 to fear but execution ; and, had I not felt obliged to 
 treat the vizier's court with respect, I should have re¬ 
 taliated.—Ibn al-Furat then swore that if MuAassin 
 insulted Hamid any more he would request the Caliph 
 to excuse him from continuing the examination.—This 
 threat was effective in stopping MuAassin's abuse. The 
 examination was repeatedly resumed, but Hamid's final 
 statement was always the same : that he had no money, 
 and having already sold his estates and sources of income, 
 his furniture and his house, he had no means of raising 
 any. 
 
 When Ibn al-Furat found that his expedients for 
 dealing with him failed, he interviewed him by himself 
 in one of his private apartments, where no-one could 
 overhear. Using civil language, he swore to Hamid 
 that if he would tell the truth about his goods and trea¬ 
 sures, he should not be delivered to Mu/zassin nor removed 
 from the vizier s palace ; his life would be safe, and either 
 he might remain in the palace an honoured guest, or he 
 might be sent to Fars as governor, or to any place he 
 chose, accompanied by one of the Sultan's servants as 
 bodyguard. After giving the most solemn assurances 
 to this effect, he proceeded : You are aware that you 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 113 
 
 guaranteed the Commander of the Faithful to obtain a 
 certain sum from me if I were put into your power, when 
 I redeemed myself by a payment of 700,000 (102) dinars 1 
 which I declared without compulsion, thereby saving 
 myself from you. You pretend to have forgotten all the 
 benefits conferred upon you by me and by my brother. 2 
 Now the Caliph is bent on putting you into the power of 
 Mu^assin, who is a young man, who has a reckoning 
 against you for tortures inflicted by your order on him, 
 the like of which had never before been used upon a vizier 
 or one of his family. My advice is that you ransom your¬ 
 self with your wealth and so save yourself from being 
 delivered into his hands. 
 
 When Ibn al-Furat had bound himself by solemn 
 oaths, iJamid inclined to his advice, thus backed, and 
 revealed certain hoards buried by him in pits which he 
 had dug, and wherein he had personally deposited 
 the treasure, amounting to half a million dinars. He 
 also confessed to having deposited with various persons 
 of eminence and “ witnesses ” sums to the amount of 
 some 300,000 dinars. He further admitted the posses¬ 
 sion of wearing apparel and perfume deposited in Wasit. 
 Ibn al-Furat received a bond for all this, and hastened 
 to ride to Muqtadir without letting Mu//assin accompany 
 him or telling him anything of the matter. Muqtadir 
 was delighted and promised to put in his power any one 
 on whom he guaranteed a payment, such as Nasr the 
 Chamberlain, Shafi' Lu'lu'i, and others. Ibn al-Furat 
 advised that the second of these be sent to secure the 
 money in Wasit. He went thither, unearthed the buried 
 treasure, drew out the deposits, and brought all to 
 Muqtadir. 
 
 1 Above, p. 66. 
 
 2 The story is told in Tanukhi’s Faraj ba‘d al-shiddah i. 114. When Hamid 
 was imprisoned by the vizier Isma'il b. Bulbul, Abu’l-'Abbas Ibn al-Furat, who 
 was employed in the bureau, was charged with favouring him and actually did 
 so according to his account. 
 
114 
 
 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Hamid remained secure in Ibn al-Furat’s palace until 
 MuAassin, using Mufli/z as intermediary, requested Muq¬ 
 tadir to send an order to his father, to make him, 
 MuAassin, his deputy over all the bureaux and the admin¬ 
 istration of the empire in general. A series of letters 
 followed from Muqtadir to Ibn al-Furat, conveyed by 
 MufliA ; Ibn al-Furat was vexed with his son, and various 
 debates succeeded, till MuAassin received a robe of 
 honour, 1 and his father with the Captains rode with him, 2 
 after which he and his father returned to their respective 
 dwellings. Presently MuAassin rode 3 with his father to 
 the Palace, where in his father's presence he addressed 
 ( 103 ) the Caliph, stating that a vast sum still stood against 
 tfamid, being part of his fine, and that if i/amid were 
 put into his power, he would extract from him half a 
 million dinars. Muqtadir thereupon ordered Ibn al- 
 Furat to deliver Hamid to MuAassin. Ibn al-Furat 
 objected that he had given Hamid his word that he 
 should not be delivered to MuAassin. MuAassin however 
 returned to the charge until at last Muqtadir gave an 
 order which Ibn al-Furat could not resist, 4 and sur¬ 
 rendered Hamid to MuAassin, who had him conveyed 
 to his own residence. There he demanded the sum men¬ 
 tioned, and started torturing him, while Hamid main¬ 
 tained that he possessed no wealth of any sort or kind. 
 MuAassin ordered him to be cuffed, and this was done 
 fifty times, when he fell in an unconscious state ; the 
 blows however were continued until at last Hamid asked 
 what MuAassin wanted of him.—The money, he replied.— 
 Nothing remains, he said, but my estate.—Then, said 
 Mu^assin, make out a power of attorney to Ibn Mukram 
 
 for > e sale of the property A#mad b. Kamil the 
 qadi being present. He wrote as he was bidden, and the 
 
 As a sign that his appointment had been made. 
 
 2 From the Palace. 
 
 3 Or “ sailed.” 
 
 Smitt,™Aiar, r p S 1 ”39 rly P ' aCed “ Akbar ' S time - c ° mmi «ed suicide. 
 
 Vincent 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 115 
 
 deed was attested. After this Mutossin proceeded to 
 treat him with humiliating mockery, and then put him 
 in charge of one of his eunuchs who with five horsemen 
 and ten foot-soldiers was to take him down the river to 
 Wasit and there sell his lands and goods. 
 
 A story was circulated in Baghdad that on the night 
 of his departure i/amid asked for some eggs, which were 
 brought him ;* ten of these he sucked for his breakfast, 
 but the servant of MuAassin in whose charge he was had 
 poisoned them, and shortly after he had swallowed them 
 he began to cry out, being seized with violent diarrhoea. 
 When he entered Wasit he was prostrate, and was 
 delivered by the servant to Mohammed b.'Ali Bazaufari, 
 who let him remain in his house, while the servant hastily 
 went home. i/amid’s diarrhoea attacked him more than 
 a hundred times, though he took no food but barley- 
 porridge. Bazaufari in order to secure himself against 
 suspicion summoned the qa^i and the Witnesses of Wasit, 
 and wrote out an affidavit as follows : H amid reached 
 Wasit suffering from diarrhoea, which had attacked him 
 on the road between Baghdad and Wasit, and was received 
 by Bazaufari in that condition ; if then he should die ( 104 ) 
 of this complaint, his death will be a natural one, wherein 
 Bazaufari will have had no hand. He sent this affidavit 
 to //'amid, who made a show of readiness to set his name 
 to the contents. When the judge and the Witnesses 
 appeared, he said to them : The infidel, miscreant, Ibn 
 al-Furat, who makes no secret that he rejects the claims 
 of ‘Abbasids, gave me his word of honour, and swore to 
 me by the oath of allegiance and with the forfeit of 
 divorce that if I made a true statement of all my pos¬ 
 sessions he would not deliver me to his son MuAassin, 
 and would secure me from all forms of torture, and let 
 me to go my home and appoint me to some honourable 
 office. I in consequence made a true statement of all 
 I possessed ; and now he has delivered me into the hands 
 of his son MuAassin, who has tortured me in exquisite 
 
116 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 ways, and despatched me with his servant (whom he 
 named), and treacherously made me suck poisoned eggs, 
 in consequence of which I have been attacked by diar¬ 
 rhoea ; Bazaufari has no hand in my murder this time, 
 but he has done other things, among them he has taken 
 money and goods of mine and stuffed them into torn 
 cushions of brocade, which are being sold at five dirhems 
 a piece, while they contain goods worth three thousand 
 dinars ; these he buys himself. Do you attest what I 
 have set forth to you. 
 
 Bazaufari then perceived that he had blundered ; 
 and the secret service agent in Wasit sent to Ibn al-Furat 
 a complete report of Hamid’s statement. 
 
 tfamid died on the night of the 13th of Ramadan 
 311 (Dec. 25, 923). 
 
 The Proceedings in the case of’Ali b. 'Isa and his 
 
 delivery to Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 When Muqtadir arrested ‘Ali b. ‘Isa and placed him 
 m charge of the Stewardess Zaidan, he' sent a message 
 telling him to make a true statement of his wealth. The 
 ex-vizier wrote a note wherein he asserted that he could 
 produce no more than three thousand dinars. It so 
 happened that news arrived of the entry of Abu Tahir 
 ulaiman B. Hasan Jannabi into Basrah on the 
 
 TZ g /?nS diy ~ 5 Rabi<ii ( Au S- n > 923) at the head 
 ot 1700 ( 105 ) foot-soldiers, having effected his entry by 
 
 ladders which he had planted during the night against 
 
 e wall; having thus scaled the wall, he had descended 
 
 into the town, slain the keepers of the town gates, and 
 
 opened them ; he had then thrown between each pair 
 
 o eaves sand and pebbles which he had brought with 
 
 im on camels, so that the doors could not be closed 
 
 against hum It was further reported that Sabuk, freed- 
 
 nTln,,' f overnor of Basrah, had not learned 
 this till the Monday morning, and was then unaware 
 
Third VizierateIof Ibn al-Furat. 117 
 
 that the invader was the son of Abu SaTd Jannabi, 
 and supposed the people to be Bedouins ; he had there¬ 
 fore ridden incautiously to meet the invader ; a fierce 
 battle had ensued, wherein Sabuk had been killed, after 
 which Abu Tahir had instituted a massacre of the people 
 of Basrah, burned the Mirbad quarter, and in part the 
 public mosque ; and had burned besides the mosque 
 of the Tomb of Tslhah without injuring the Tomb itself. 
 The people fled to Kalla, 1 whence they fought for some 
 days, but after many had been slain, the survivors flung 
 themselves into the water and most of them were 
 drowned. Abu Tahir remained in Basrah seventeen 
 days, and then having loaded his camels with all the 
 goods, women and children that they could carry, went 
 home. So soon as Ibn al-Furat heard the news of the 
 Qarmadan raid, he despatched to Basrah Bunayy b. 
 Nafis and Ja'far of Zaranj, made Mohammed b. 'Ab¬ 
 dallah Fariqi 2 minister of public security in Basrah, 
 and gave him a robe of honour. He proceeded down 
 the river in a fleet of barges and launches. The news of 
 his arrival came after the departure of Abu Tahir Jan¬ 
 nabi. He appointed his own officers in the place, and 
 Bunayy with Ja'far departed. 
 
 Bunayy b. Nafis before leaving despatched to Baghdad 
 a number of Qarmadans who, he said, had surrendered, 
 and averred that 'Ali b. Tsa had written requesting them 
 to go to Basrah ; and that on a variety of occasions he 
 had sent them presents and arms. They reached 
 Baghdad, and Ibn al-Furat communicated this affair 
 to Muqtadir. 
 
 Account of ‘Ali b. ‘Isas examination by 
 
 Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat, having exhibited to Muqtadir the actual 
 letter of Bunayy, was ordered to fetch ‘Ali b. Tsa out of 
 
 1 Name of a quarter of Basrah. 
 
 2 In the year 304 this person had been defeated in Armenia. 
 
118 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 his place of confinement ( 106 ) to examine him and con¬ 
 front him with the Qarma/ians, who could then charge 
 him to his face. Ibn al-Furat carried out this order. 
 ‘Ali b. ‘Isa objected that when a man was in his situation, 
 i.e., under the Sultan’s frown, men would falsely charge 
 him to his face, especially if the vizier himself was 
 alienated and had a grievance against him. Ibn al- 
 Furat then began to talk to him about the provincial 
 administration ; among the matters on which he ques¬ 
 tioned him was the affair of the two Madara’i, about 
 which he said : In the days of my second vizierate Ibn 
 Bis lam obtained their bond for 2,300,000 dinars as a 
 compromise for what was due from them for the kharaj 
 of their estates in Egypt and Syria, and the secret profits 
 which they had enjoyed during their tenure of office in 
 your first vizierate. Of this sum they paid in my time 
 half a million dinars ; you, so soon as you became chief 
 of the bureaux, dismissed Ibn Bis/am, and reappointed 
 these two officials, who so openly embezzled the Sultan’s 
 property, composing a letter in the name of the Com¬ 
 mander of the Faithful (whose life God prolong !) 
 addressed to them, wherein they were excused the whole 
 of the residue. You pretend that the Commander of 
 the Faithful ordered this; but when I brought the 
 matter to his notice, he declared that he had issued no 
 such order, and could not believe that any one would 
 venture to do such a thing.—‘Ali b. ‘Isa replied that at 
 the time he was clerk and deputy to Hamid b. ‘Abbas, 
 whom the Commander of the Faithful had bidden him 
 obey //amid had asserted that the Commander of the 
 Faithful had ordered the sum to be remitted to these 
 two officials, and had given a written order to that effect; 
 he, Ali b. Isa, had merely subscribed to Z/amid’s order, 
 bidding it be carried out, as was the custom for the 
 vizier’s deputy to do when ordered by his chief.—Ibn al- 
 Furat retorted that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa had been in the habit of 
 opposing and disputing with //amid about every trifle, 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 119 
 
 and scrutinizing his assessments in the lands which he 
 farmed ; how then, he asked, could you have failed to 
 solicit the permission of the Commander of the Faithful 
 in the case of so immense a sum ? ‘Ali b. Tsa replied 
 that he had at first and ( 107 ) for the space of seven months 
 been clerk to H amid ; then (he said) the Commander of 
 the Faithful saw reasons for relying upon me, and this 
 affair of the two Madam’i took place in the early days 
 of jEfamid’s administration.—Ibn al-Furat said to him : 
 Then when the Commander of the Faithful placed his 
 reliance on you, why did you not tell him the truth 
 about ilamid’s error in this matter and set it right ?— 
 ‘Ali b. Tsa replied : I passed this over because in the 
 year 6, month Dhu’l-Qa'dah 1 I had presented Husain 
 b. A/miad Madara’i to the Caliph and obtained his bond 
 at the same audience for a million dinars annually, to be 
 transmitted to the Treasury net without deduction of 
 a single dirhem, in return for the contract assigned him 
 whereby he was to farm the kharaj and the Estates in 
 Egypt and Syria, and to pay all permanent expenses 
 and the stipend of the army in those regions. For the 
 sums to be paid under these heads in each district a 
 contract was also made out; and I made him responsible 
 to the amount of 130,000 dinars for moneys delayed or 
 withheld in these transactions. That was the utmost 
 that I could do. His bond is in the bureau of the West.— 
 Ibn al-Furat said : You have been employed in the 
 bureaux since you were a child, were president for many 
 years of the bureau of the West, have been a vizier, and 
 have managed the empire for a long space of time : do 
 you know any case of an official remitting a debt which 
 should be paid at once and taking as a set-off a sum to 
 be paid in the future and dependent on the proceeds of 
 revenue-farming ? But grant that, as you say, you 
 " passed this over,” as a measure of prudence, still did 
 you obtain the money guaranteed by this revenue-farmer 
 
 1 Began April 5, 919. 
 
120 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 during the five years of your administration ?— ‘Ali b. 
 ‘Isa’s reply to this was that a certain amount of the 
 money had been transmitted in the first year, then there 
 had come the invasion of the ‘Alid from Africa, who had 
 occupied most of the districts of Egypt; Mu’nis the 
 Muzaffar had been despatched to fight with the invader, 
 and most of the money had been diverted to the pay 
 of the troops and the expenses of the armies. What 
 remained had to be deducted owing to the contributions 
 levied by the invader ( 108 ) on the regions neighbouring 
 Egypt. 1 —Ibn al-Furat then said : The ‘Alid has been 
 routed since Safar of the year 9, 2 so that the revenue- 
 farmer is liable for two whole years since his defeat ; 
 have you obtained the two million dinars from him ?— 
 Ali b. Isa s reply to this is not recorded.—In conclusion 
 Ibn al-Furat said to him: The Commander of the 
 Faithful has now ordered me to make you refund the 
 moneys which you have amassed by dishonesty to him ; 
 you will do well to reveal them of your own accord, and 
 so save yourself from torture.—‘Ali b. ‘Isa replied that 
 he was not a rich man and the utmost which he could 
 produce was three thousand dinar s 
 
 Then Ibn al-Furat proceeded to examine him with 
 reference to the allowances of the court; You, he said, 
 in the five years of your administration, reduced the 
 allowances of the hareem, the princes, the attendants 
 and the horsemen, which were regularly paid by me 
 during my first and second vizierate, by 45,000 dinars 
 a month (including the proceeds of the private estates), 
 making a yearly total of 540,000 dinars, and for the whole 
 period six millions. 3 Either then you must have em¬ 
 bezzled this sum or have wasted it.—‘Ali b. ‘Isa replied : 
 
 The import of this is not quite clear. Hilal, p. 290, seems not to have 
 understood it. 
 
 2 Began June 11, 921. 
 
 3 ^, llal n 1S a PP arentl y staggered by this arithmetic, and substitutes “ a vast 
 sum. Perhaps for “ six ” we should read “ three.” 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 121 
 
 The revenue which I obtained from these estates and 
 saved out of the allowances of persons who did not require 
 it was used by me to cover the deficit so that a balance 
 was restored. I did not touch the private treasury of 
 the Caliph at all. As for the 45,000 dinars which you 
 used to assign to the court after obtaining them from 
 secret profits, I do not approve of your method of ob¬ 
 taining the money, nor do I permit officials to make 
 secret profits ; I forbade and abolished such practices 
 and did not put myself in the way of them, because they 
 lead to waste of the Sultan’s property, the vexation of 
 his subjects, and the devastation of his land. Your plan 
 for meeting expenditure was to transfer sums from the 
 private to the public treasury, thereby pleasing the court, 
 but emptying the treasury.—The discussion ( 109 ) con¬ 
 tinued for some time on these lines. 
 
 Then Ibn al-Furat proceeded to examine ‘Ali b. Tsa 
 on the subject of the presents and the arms transmitted 
 by him to the Qarmafians, and the correspondence and 
 amenities which had passed between him and them.— 
 'Ali b. Tsa said : My purpose was by conciliation to 
 bring them back to their allegiance. Twice during my 
 vizierate I restrained them from attacking the pilgrims 
 and from raiding the districts of Kufah and Basrah. 
 They also released a number of Moslem prisoners who 
 were in their hands.—Ibn al-Furat said : And what 
 could be worse than your attesting that Abu Sa‘id and 
 his followers, who deny the Qur’an and the mission of 
 the Prophet, plundered Oman and either slew or made 
 captive its inhabitants, are Moslems ? Than your corre¬ 
 sponding with them, and delaying payment of the 
 guardians of the wall of Basrah so that they left their 
 places, and enabled the Qarmafian to enter and slaughter 
 the inhabitants ?—The reply which he gave would take 
 too long to set forth. 
 
 Nasr the Chamberlain and Muhassin asked Ibn al- 
 Furat to let them have a private interview with 'Alib. Tsa ; 
 
122 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 this was permitted and the two advised him to submit 
 to a fine. He assented, and they fixed it at 300,000 
 dinars of which 100,000 should be paid within a month 
 to commence when he left the Palace for some place 
 where he could be sure of his life and could receive visits. 
 Ibn al-Furat obtained his bond for this, and sent it to 
 Muqtadir who countersigned it. Ibn al-Furat then wrote 
 letters to the heads of the bureaux in his own name, 
 wherein he recounted ‘Ali b. ‘Isa's dishonesty, and breach 
 of trust, the charges with which he had confronted him 
 and the fine which he had agreed to pay. 
 
 Abu’l-Faraj Ibn Hisham narrates after Ibn al- 
 Mutawwaq that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa requested Ibn al-Furat to 
 leave him the revenue of his estate for the year 311 that 
 he might pay it as part of his fine. Ibn al-Furat said to 
 him : It is 50,000 dinars. ‘Ali b. ‘Isa replied that he 
 would be satisfied with 20,000, but asserted ( 110 ) that 
 it was less than that sum. When he was banished to 
 Meccah his estate was found to produce about 50,000 
 dinars. 
 
 Abu’l-Faraj continues : I heard Humani of Wasit 
 say : I heard ‘Ali b. ‘Isa once upbraiding Abu ‘Abdallah 
 Baridi 1 and asking him whether he was not afraid of 
 God’s vengeance when he swore before an assembly in 
 the Palace that the revenue obtained b}^ him and his 
 brothers from their estate in Wasit was but 10,000 dinars, 
 when it had been shown by the accounts handed in by 
 him (Humani) to be 30,000 dinars. Baridi replied : 
 
 I have only followed the example of your excellence, 
 whom God support, when being asked by Ibn al-Furat 
 the amount of revenue brought in by his estate, he did 
 not state the facts, but concealed them. So pious a man 
 would not, I was sure, have so forsworn himself, had he 
 not known that “ suppression ” 2 was permissible before 
 
 1 A personage of importance in the period of anarchy which followed on the 
 death of Muqtadir. 
 
 2 A technical term ordinarily used of the concealment of one’s religious 
 opinions when there is danger of persecution. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 123 
 
 one from whom injury was to be feared.—It was as though 
 
 he had made ‘Ali b. Tsa swallow a stone. 
 
 % 
 
 Let us resume the report of the dealings between ‘Ali 
 b. Tsa and Ibn al-Furat. Muqtadir declined to deliver 
 ‘Ali b. Tsa to Ibn al-Furat, while ‘Ali b. Tsa maintained 
 that he would be unable to pay his fine until he had left 
 the Palace. Twice he was summoned by MuAassin, 
 who demanded payment of him, at first gently ; but the 
 ex-vizier paid no more than the price of a house which 
 he sold. He was then put in fetters by MuAassin, on 
 seeing which Nasr left the room. MuAassin repeated his 
 demands, when ‘Ali b. Tsa replied : If I could pay the 
 money here, I should have escaped the fetters.—MuAas- 
 sin had a woollen jubbah put upon him, but he held his 
 ground ; thereupon MuAassin cuffed him ten times, at 
 which Nazuk rose to leave, and when asked by MuAassin 
 whither he was going, replied that he could not endure 
 to be present at the torture of this shaikh. ‘Ali b. Tsa 
 was then sent back to his prison ; but when Ibn al-Furat 
 heard how MuAassin had treated him, he was alarmed 
 and told his son that he had seriously compromised them 
 by his action ; he ought not to have gone beyond ( 111 ) 
 the fetters. He proceeded to write to Muqtadir, inter¬ 
 ceding for ‘Ali b. Tsa, stating that when he heard of what 
 had happened to him it had grieved him more than any¬ 
 thing which he could remember, and that he had touched 
 no food since he learned of it; for ‘Ali b. Tsa was one of 
 the most distinguished of the clerks, had served the 
 Commander of the Faithful, and was an inmate of his 
 Palace, which fact should have rendered his person 
 sacred ; such a man could indeed make mistakes, but 
 it would be worthy of the Commander of the Faithful to 
 forgive. Finally he begged that the fetters and the 
 woollen jubbah might be removed.—Muqtadir replied 
 that ‘Ali b. Tsa deserved many times what he had got, 
 and that MuMssin’s treatment of him was quite right; 
 still, he accepted the intercession of Ibn al-Furat, was 
 
124 
 
 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 giving orders that the fetters should be loosed and the 
 woollen jubbah removed, and had commanded that after 
 this had been done he should be delivered to Ibn al- 
 Furat, that he might pay the advance instalment of his 
 fine.—When 'Ali b. 'Isa was brought to Ibn al-Furat's 
 palace, the latter said he was unwilling to have him in 
 his house, as he was an old man, whom a malady might 
 befall, which would then be ascribed to him ; he there¬ 
 fore requested the Caliph's permission to deliver him to 
 Shafi - 1 When this was told Muqtadir, he answered : 
 I am delivering him to you, because you are vizier, and 
 you are to preserve his life and not to deliver him to 
 Mu^assin ; but about all else consult yourself. So Ibn 
 al-Furat sent and summoned Shafi'. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat then began to upbraid 'Ali b. 'Isa and 
 complain of his conduct with regard to certain trusts 
 founded by him, which the Caliph had ordered to be 
 restored to him, whereof the money was in part devoted 
 to religious uses, in part to his children and retainers ; 
 what Ali b. Isa had done in the matter, was, he asserted, 
 illicit whether from the point of view of religion or of 
 good behaviour. 2 —'Ali b. 'Isa began to confess that in 
 this matter he had been negligent and requested that 
 his excuse might be accepted. Mu/^assin, who was 
 present, reviled him at great length, on the same subject ; 
 Ali gave him the same reply as he had given his father 
 with some additions, but said in the course of his state¬ 
 ment, Truly , (112) I find you pleasant ! Mu^assin was 
 highly indignant at this expression, and his father also was 
 annoyed by it; MuAassin proceeded to retort with coarse¬ 
 ness, when his father endeavoured to appease and mollify 
 
 1 Shafi* Lu'lu’i, as appears from p. 112. 
 
 8 The charge is explained in Hilal’s account, p. 303. Assigning property to 
 pious uses was a regular mode of endeavouring to save it in case of disaster to 
 the original owner. The Caliph could frustrate this by revoking the trust. ‘Ali 
 . Isa was charged with delaying so long when he had to deal with Ibn al-Furat’s 
 
 trusts, that little remained ; probably because the proceeds for some years had 
 already been allotted. y 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 125 
 
 him, and then said to 'Ali b. Tsa : Abu AAmad (i.e., 
 MuAassin) is the clerk of the Caliph and the recipient of 
 his favourand began to describe the relation wherein 
 MuAassin stood to the Caliph and how the latter had 
 committed affairs to him.—'Ali b. Tsa began to excuse 
 himself for having used that phrase. After that he rose 
 in company with Shafi', who gave him the seat of honour 
 in his launch and conveyed him home with him. 
 
 Abu l-Hasan Ibn Abi Hisham 1 stated that he was pre¬ 
 sent on that occasion, and how when #asan, son of Ibn 
 al-Furat and Daulah, came out at the time he saw 'Ali b. 
 Isa rise and kiss him on the head and eyes. Ibn al-Furat 
 thought that was going too far, and said to him : You 
 must not do that, Abud-i^asan ; he is your own son ! 
 Then, opening his ink-holder, he wrote an order upon his 
 collector Harun b. Tmran to pay Abul-tfasan 'Ali 
 b. Isa without any demand two thousand dinars as a 
 help towards his fine. He then told his son Mufessin 
 to give an order of the same sort himself. He made 
 one out for a thousand dinars. They then summoned 
 Bishr b. Harun, who made out a receipt in favour of 
 'Ali b. Tsa of three thousand dinars of his fine. 'Ali b. 
 Tsa then departed expressing his gratitude. 
 
 Ali b. Tsa declined to accept the aid of any of his 
 clerks towards his fine, though all offered and indeed 
 transmitted contributions according to their means * 
 except from Ibn Farajawaihi, and from Fa^l and 
 //usain, the sons of Ibn al-Furat ; from each of these 
 he accepted five hundred dinars. Abu’l-Haija Ibn 
 //amdan sent ten thousand dinars, but they were de¬ 
 clined by Ali b. Isa, who replied that if the donor were 
 governor of Fars, 2 they would have been accepted ; but 
 that, knowing they represented his whole fortune, he was 
 unwilling to ruin him.—Abu’l-Haija vowed- that the 
 
 1 Probably a brother of the person mentioned p. 109. 
 
 1 He was in charge of the Khorasan Road, supra, p. 75, probably a less 
 lucrative appointment. ¥ r ’ 
 
126 
 
 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 money should not come back to his purse, so it was dis¬ 
 tributed among the descendants of Abu Talib, and in 
 charity to the disabled.— Shafi' Lu’lu’i offered two 
 thousand dinars, but ‘Ali b. ‘Isa declined to accept them, 
 saying : I cannot impose upon you the double burden 
 of entertaining me and helping me with my fine. He 
 accepted (113) contributions from Harun b. Gharib 
 and Shafi', freedman of Muqtadir. 
 
 When ‘Ali b. ‘Isa had paid the greater part of his fine, 
 Ibn al-Furat pointed out to Muqtadir that it was unde¬ 
 sirable that he should remain in Shafi 0 s house for his 
 own sake, since rumour was already rife 1 ; and if he 
 were sent back to the Palace, rumour would be yet more 
 busy. He therefore requested permission to remove 
 him to Meccah. This was granted by Muqtadir, and 
 Ibn al-Furat assigned seven thousand dirhems to him 
 for journey-money and other needs. ‘Ali b. ‘Isa started 
 for Meccah ; but the vizier presently wrote ordering 
 him to be removed to San'a in Yemen, and this was done. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat then proceeded to exact huge sums 
 from ‘Ali b. ‘Isa's dependents, clerks and agents, by the 
 use of torture ; he gave a free hand to his son Mu/?assin, 
 and people failed to recognize in the character which he 
 displayed the generosity for which he had been famous. 
 Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah indeed wrote a letter to Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Mohammed b. Isma'il b. Zanji, with whom 
 he was on friendly terms, enclosing some verses of his 
 own which I have not reproduced because I do not admire 
 them, and further enclosing a letter to Ibn al-Furat, 
 reminding him of his claims and his former services, 
 which he asked Zanji to convey to Ibn al-Furat; when 
 the vizier read it, he ordered that his fetters should be 
 loosed, and that his fine should be fixed at a sum which 
 he could bear. Afterwards he reduced even this and 
 released him. 
 
 * Probably that he was to be made vizier again. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 127 
 
 Ibn al-#awari was delivered by Ibn al-Furat to his 
 son MuAassin, who repeatedly cuffed and scourged him, 
 and finally dismissed him to Ahwaz accompanied by an 
 agent who was to exact his fine ; when they reached 
 Ahwaz, this agent put him to death. 
 
 ( 114 ) The two MadaraT were ordered to be despatched 
 to the metropolis, and Husainb. Ahmad (Abu Zunbur) 
 was conveyed thither, and confined by Ibn al-Furat in 
 his palace ; thither the judges and heads of bureaux were 
 summoned, and MuAassin too was present. They pro¬ 
 duced assessments that they had drawn up for Abu 
 Zunbur, who was examined by Ibn al-Furat about them, 
 and on the ground of certain matters which had formed 
 the subject of his questions, was made to give a bond 
 for 2,400,000 dinars. Presently Ibn al-Furat thought 
 this sum too large, and fixed his fine at 1,700,000. He 
 showed Muqtadir Abu Zunbur's bond for the amount, 
 and the Caliph approved his action. Ibn al-Furat pro¬ 
 ceeded to treat him with the utmost kindness, expressing 
 admiration for his ability and eulogizing his intellect. 
 He had never spoken, he said, to any official who was 
 more intelligent or courageous. He desired Abu Zunbur 
 to state in the presence of 'Ali b. Tsa that the latter had 
 received secret profits from him during his presidency 
 of the Bureau of the West and during his vizierate. He 
 begged to be excused. Ibn al-Furat asked why he re¬ 
 refused in the case of ‘Ali b. Tsa what he had done in his 
 own (Ibn al-Furat's). 1 He replied that he was not proud 
 of what he had then done, and that it had won no-one's 
 approval, in spite of the evident unfriendliness of the 
 vizier in delivering him to Ibn Bistam, and giving that 
 official power over him in his second vizierate ; how then 
 would they approve of his doing the same in the case 
 of ‘Ali b. Tsa, who had befriended him both of old and 
 recently ? So Ibn al-Furat did not insist. 
 
 1 ^\bove, p. 61. 
 
128 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Then Mohammed b. ‘Ali Madara’i was brought. He 
 had held no office during the vizierate of JTamid ( 115 ) b. 
 ‘Abbas, so he was questioned by Ibn al-Furat with refer¬ 
 ence to the arrears due from him and #usain b. A/rniad 
 (his cousin) on the revenues of. the Armies of Syria and 
 Egypt, and the claims of the treasury on him as revenue- 
 farmer, he having been at the time partner of his brother 
 iTusain b. A/rniad in the contract.—He defended himself 
 on certain points, when Ibn al-Furat told him that he 
 was not a cleverer man than his brother Husain, who had 
 attempted a more elaborate defence and had been unable 
 to maintain it. So without torture or threats he ob¬ 
 tained his bond for 1,700,000 dinars, and then handed 
 him over to the care of MuAassin, in whose house he was 
 absolutely secure, but he remained there only one day ; 
 MuAassin treated him disdainfully at their interview, 
 but proceeded to release him. The reason for this was 
 that he brought MuAassin a great amount of money, 
 handsome raiment, precious jewels and beautiful slaves. 
 
 Account of Ibn al-Furat’s plot to remove Mu’nis from the 
 
 capital. 
 
 After a brilliant victory over the Byzantines Mu’nis 
 had returned from his expedition, and had been met by 
 Muhassin, Nasr the Chamberlain, Shafi‘, Muflih, and 
 the other captains, and had been received by Muqtadir. 
 It was the common talk that Mu’nis expressed disapproval 
 of the tortures inflicted upon the clerks and officials by 
 Ibn al-Furat and Mu^assin, and of the death of #amid 
 which had been made public ; and that the disbanded 
 cavalry 1 in the capital were intriguing to join the army 
 of Mu’nis the Mu^affar in order that they might earn 
 pay. This annoyed Ibn al-Furat, so a week after the 
 arrival of Mu’nis he had a private interview with Muq¬ 
 tadir, wherein he informed him of the design of Mu’nis 
 to attach the troops to himself, and that if he succeeded 
 
 1 The guards of the Palace. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 129 
 
 in this design he would become Prince of Princes, 1 
 having control of the whole empire ; especially as the 
 captains and the retainers were prepared to obey his 
 orders. Ibn al-Furat insisted on the danger involved, 
 and endeavoured to exasperate Muqtadir against Mu’nis ; 
 so when Mu’nis rode to the Palace, Muqtadir said to him 
 in the presence of Ibn al-Furat : There is nothing I should 
 like better than that you should remain here, for besides 
 (116) the pleasure* which I find in your society and the 
 good luck which the sight of you brings, I feel the advan¬ 
 tage of your presence in all the business of the empire. 
 Only the pay demanded by the cavalry as disbanded 
 troops is immense, and it is impossible to pay it or indeed 
 half their earnings regularly; they would not obey 
 orders to go to the districts of Syria or Egypt, alleging 
 that they cannot afford to do it. You are aware that 
 Rayy, Abhar and Zanjan are closed against us by the 
 brother of Su'luk, 2 while Armenia and Adharbaijan are 
 also closed by Yusuf Ibn Abi’l-Saj. If you remain in 
 Baghdad, these men will require permission to be 
 attached to you ; if I decline, they will mutiny and cause 
 disorder ; whereas if I assent, none of the revenue of 
 Diyar Rabi'ah and Diyar Muiar, or of Syria will be avail¬ 
 able, whereas that of the Sawad, Ahwaz and Fars will 
 not cover the expenses of the metropolis and of your 
 army. The best course then is that you should proceed 
 to Raqqah, where you will be in the centre of your pro¬ 
 vince, and can despatch your agents to collect the 
 revenue, and exact payment of the vast sums for which 
 the two Madara'i have given their bonds. Further you 
 will be respected by the ministers of public security and 
 of kharaj in Egypt and Syria, and the prosperity of the 
 empire will be secured.—Muqtadir therefore ordered him 
 
 1 This seems to be the first occurrence of this title, which was first actually 
 adopted by Ibn Ra'iq. We have seen that Hamid contemplated taking the 
 position. 
 
 2 In 310 these provinces had been given to Ibn Abi’l-Saj. Apparently 
 " Su'luH’s ” rebellion must have begun in 300, 
 
130 A.H. 311. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 to proceed to Raqqah with all the H ujari and the Saji 
 retainers under his orders. 
 
 Mu'nis understood that this was a plot of Ibn al-Furat, 
 whose hostility to himself he thus perceived. He re¬ 
 quested and obtained permission to remain in Baghdad 
 for the remainder of Ramadan, and keep the feast 1 
 there ; after the feast he went to pay a farewell visit to 
 Ibn al-Furat, who rose from his seat to his full height to 
 receive him ; Mu'nis remonstrated. Ibn al-Furat ad¬ 
 jured him to seat himself on the same carpet, but he 
 refused. Mu'nis preferred a number of requests, all of 
 which were granted. When Mu'nis was about to leave 
 his presence he wished to rise again, only Mu'nis adjured 
 him by the Caliph's head not to do so. Then he went to 
 bid farewell to the Caliph and proceeded to his camp, 
 the day being rainy. 2 
 
 ( 117 ) Plans of Ibn al-Furat for dealing with the courtiers . 
 
 When Ibn al-Furat had finished fining the clerks, 
 and banished Mu'nis, he proceeded to attempt the arrest 
 of Nasr the Chamberlain, and Shafi' freedman of Muq¬ 
 tadir. He gave Muqtadir an account of the wealth and 
 estates in the possession of Nasr in particular, of the vast 
 revenue which he obtained from the offices which he held, 
 and of his various sources of secret profit. Muqtadir agreed 
 to put Nasr in the vizier's power, but when Nasr heard of 
 this, he implored the protection of the Queen-mother, 
 who spoke to her son as follows. Ibn al-Furat, she said, 
 has removed from your neighbourhood Mu'nis, your 
 sword and stay ; he now wants to ruin your Chamber- 
 lain in order to get you into his power and requite you 
 for your treatment of him, your confiscation of his goods 
 and dishonouring his women. On whom, I should like 
 to know, will you call for aid if he mean mischief, and 
 plot your dethronement ? Especially as he has displayed 
 
 1 The first day of the following month, Jan. 12, 924 
 
 * Mu nis afterwards mentioned this in his complaint against the vizier. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 131 
 
 such malice and let his son MuAassin commit every 
 atrocity.—Nasr had already gone home, had prepared 
 for emergencies by distributing his wealth in deposits, 
 and then gone into hiding, when he received a message 
 from the Queen-mother bidding him return home. He 
 trusted this sufficiently to obey it; and he humbled him¬ 
 self to the ground before Ibn al-Furat and his son. Ibn 
 al-Furat continued to instruct Muqtadir about his affairs, 
 stating that he had tampered with the allegiance of Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj and thereby lost to the empire five million 
 dinars of revenue from his provinces. He hoped thereby 
 to make Muqtadir think seriously of delivering Nasr 
 into the vizier’s power. 
 
 In Dhu’l-#ijjah of this year 1 news reached Ibn al- 
 Furat that Ibn Abi’l-Saj had defeated and killed Ahmad 
 b. ‘Ali brother of Su’luk, and having decapitated him 
 proposed sending the head to Baghdad. Mu/zassin rode 
 to the Palace, and having requested Muflih to bring 
 him to the Caliph where Nasr was not present, and ob¬ 
 tained this request, told Muqtadir the good news of the 
 victory, informing him at the same time that Nasr was 
 displeased thereat, being an enemy of Ibn Abi’l-Saj, and 
 the person who had induced him to rebel. That, he said, 
 was why he kept the news from him. 
 
 Year 312. 
 
 (118) Some days later in an apartment belonging to the 
 Queen-mother, but frequently used by the Caliph when 
 he sat with her, there appeared on the roof of one of the 
 rooms a Persian in fine apparel with a woollen shirt under 
 it and next his skin, and having in his possession an ink- 
 horn, firesteel, knife, set of reed-pens, paper, porridge, 
 and rope ; he was said to have come in with the workmen 
 and so got into that place, where having remained some 
 days he had suffered thirst, so that he came out in quest 
 of water ; being caught and asked his business, he said 
 
 1 Began March 11, 924^ 
 
132 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 he could not speak to any one but the master of the 
 house. He was brought before the vizier, Ibn al-Furat, 
 who said to him : I represent the master of the house, 
 so say what you wish.—The man said : No, I must see 
 him in person, and ask him about what I want.—The 
 vizier was at first gentle with him, but it was useless, 
 and when other means had failed, the attendants tried 
 to make him confess by blows and violence ; he then 
 changed from Arabic into Persian, saying nadanam (I 
 know not), and merely repeating this phrase in reply to 
 all that was said to him. He was then removed from the 
 apartment and tortured to death, still confining himself 
 to nadanam. He was then impaled, wrapped in hempen 
 cords and flock, smeared with naphtha, and set on fire. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat addressed Nasr the Chamberlain on the 
 subject of this person in Muqtadir's presence. I fancy, 
 he said, you would not approve of such a thing happening 
 in your own house as has happened to the Commander of 
 the Faithful, while you are his chamberlain and the 
 guardian of his residence. Such a thing as this has never 
 befallen a Caliph, in either ancient or modern times. 
 Without doubt this man was an adherent of Ahmad b. 
 ‘Ali brother of Su‘luk. This is proved by his being a 
 Persian. Either then AAmad b. ‘Ali before he was killed 
 arranged with you that you should introduce him into 
 this place, ( 119 ) or you yourself suborned him to assassi¬ 
 nate the Commander of the Faithful owing to your 
 apprehension of danger to yourself from that quarter, 
 to your enmity against Ibn Abi’l-Saj, your friendship 
 towards A/rniad b. ‘Ali and the vast sums which have 
 come to you from him.— Nasr the Chamberlain replied : 
 
 I wonder whether I am plotting against the Sultan be¬ 
 cause he confiscated my property, dishonoured my 
 women, or seized my estates or imprisoned me for ten 
 years ?—Muqtadir said : If this had happened to one 
 of the common people it would have been an outrage.— 
 Ibn al-Furat had got Nasr into his power, but the danger 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 133 
 
 was averted from him by the news which arrived of the 
 sufferings of the Pilgrims at the hands of the Qarmarian, 
 to be narrated presently, which occupied Ibn al-Furat 
 with his own affairs. Nasr’s cause was strengthened 
 thereby, and he was saved from Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 This year came the despatch concerning Ibn Abi’l- 
 Saj’s expedition from Adharbaijan to Rayy, his war 
 against A/miad b. ‘Ali, and his sending the latter’s head 
 and trunk to Baghdad. 
 
 In this year too Ibn al-Furat assigned moneys to 
 students of literature, and writers of the Tradition. The 
 reason for this was that they formed the subject of a 
 conversation in his reception-room, and some one said : 
 Very likely one of these students stints himself a silver 
 danaq 1 or less to spend it on paper and ink.—Ibn al- 
 Furat was a man of wide sympathies and amiable char¬ 
 acter, and had made a distribution of money to the poets ; 
 so when he heard about these persons, he said : I am the 
 man to assist them in their pursuits, and assigned them 
 twenty thousand dirhems for this expense. 
 
 It has been stated that Ibn al-Furat had no precedent 
 in this matter save what is recorded by Z)aba‘i 2 after his 
 authorities, how Maslamah b. ‘Abd al-Malik 3 at his 
 death bequeathed one third of the third at his disposal 4 
 to students (120) of literature, on the ground that they 
 were hardly treated. 
 
 Every day there w r as used in the kitchen of Ibn al- 
 Furat a quantity of meat and in his apartments an 
 amount of ice never used in one man’s establishment 
 before or since ; and the same is to be said of the drinks 
 which were offered to all comers, and of the wax and of 
 the paper. 5 When he became vizier the prices of wax, 
 
 1 The sixth part of a dirhem, about l£d. 
 
 •Many traditionalists are mentioned having this relative-name. 
 
 •Son of the Umayyad Caliph, often mentioned by Tabari and in the Aghani. 
 
 4 A Moslem may not bequeath more. The other two-thirds go to various 
 relations in fixed fractions. 
 
 ‘ Hilal gives statistics. 
 
134 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 ice and especially paper rose, and they fell when he was 
 cashiered. Similarly he had given to Mu'nis the Miu- 
 affar, on the occasion of his home-coming from the West, 
 and to Bushra, Yalbaq, Nazuk, and other freedmen 
 and attendants of the court when the Persian New Year's 
 Day came presents of a size to which no man's liberality 
 had risen before. His hope was thereby to mitigate 
 their hostility ; but they had not the desired effect. 
 
 Reasons for the decline of Ibn al-Furat’s power after it had 
 
 reached its zenith . 
 
 News were brought to Ibn al-Furat in Baghdad that 
 Abu Tahir Ibn Abi Sa'id Jannabi had come to Habir 
 to meet the pilgrims of the year 311 on their return ; 
 and had attacked a caravan containing numerous pilgrims 
 from Baghdad and other places. News of Abu Tahir's 
 arrival had reached the pilgrims when they were at Faid ; 
 so they waited there until the stores of the people there 
 were exhausted and the place could no longer hold them ; 
 when they continued their march. They were advised 
 by Abu l-Haija 'Abdallah b. TTamdan, guardian of the 
 Kufah and Meccah roads and protector of the pilgrims, 
 when the news of the raider from Hajar reached them, 
 to let him take them by a side road from Faid to Wadi'l- 
 Qura that they might not pass by Habir. They however 
 made an outcry at this proposal and refused. So they 
 marched and he of necessity with them (121) to Habir. 
 When they approached this place they were met and 
 attacked by Abu Tahir Ibn Abi Sa'id Jannabi, 
 who defeated them, slew a great number of them, 
 and took prisoner Abu'l-Haija ‘Abdallah b. Hamdan, 
 Ahmad b. Kashmard, Nihrir ‘Umari, Ahmad b. 
 Badr, paternal uncle of the Queen-mother (Muqtadir's 
 mother), and a number of men and women belonging 
 to the Sultans household. Abu Tahir seized the 
 pilgrims camels from all the caravans, and took 
 captive such men, women and children as he chose, 
 conveying them to Hajar. He left the rest of the pilgrims 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 135 
 
 where they were, without food or camels, so that most 
 of them died of thirst, sore feet and over-walking. Abu 
 Tahir's age was at the time seventeen. 
 
 On both sides of the river Baghdad and its streets 
 were in a ferment. Women came out barefoot, with dis¬ 
 hevelled hair, beating their faces till they were black, 
 and shrieking in the roads. They were joined by the 
 women of the ruined officials—ruined by Ibn al-Furat. 
 This was Saturday 7 Safar (May 15, 924). The spectacle 
 was of unexampled hideousness. Ibn al-Furat ordered 
 Nazuk to ride to the public mosques on both sides of the 
 river on account of the public commotion. He did 
 this taking with him all his troops, cavalry, infantry and 
 naphtha-shooters, and succeeded in quieting the mob. 
 Then there arrived the first detachment of pilgrims, who 
 explained the situation to Ibn al-Furat, and he at the 
 end of the same day rode to Muqtadir, though feeling his 
 courage fail him, and recounted the tale ; the Caliph 
 summoned Nasr the Chamberlain to take part in the 
 consultation, and he, getting the opportunity of address¬ 
 ing Ibn al-Furat in the Caliph's presence, attacked him 
 fiercely, saying : Now you are asking What is to be done ? 
 after having shaken the columns of the empire and ex¬ 
 posed it to destruction by removing Mu'nis, its champion, 
 the man who combated its foes. Who will now rescue 
 ( 122 ) the throne from this person ? Who but you has 
 betrayed the Sultan’s troops, captains, and the men and 
 women of his household to the Qarmadans ? The affair 
 of the Persian who was found in the Sultan's apartment 
 is now cleared up ; he must have been an adherent of 
 the Qarmadan.—Nasr advised Muqtadir to write at once 
 and summon Mu'nis to the capital. The Caliph ordered 
 a letter to be written to that effect. The mob assaulted 
 Ibn al-Furat, throwing brickbats at his barge. MuAassin, 
 riding from his dwelling to his barge, was also stoned. 
 The mob shouted in the streets that Ibn al-Furat was 
 the Great Qarmadan, and that nothing would satisfy 
 
136 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 him but the annihilation of the people of Mohammed. 
 The populace was violently agitated, and kept away 
 from public prayer in the mosques that day ; the dis¬ 
 order spread over all Baghdad on both sides of the river. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat advised that Yaqut be sent to guard 
 Kufah in case the raiders from Hajar should return, 
 and take with him the H ujari retainers, with the chief 
 captains. If the raider from Hajar declined to move, 
 Yaqut should take the offensive against him. Muqtadir 
 gave Yaqut the necessary order, bidding Ibn al-Furat 
 see to his equipment. The vizier undertook to furnish 
 enormous sums to him and his two sons, Muzaffar and 
 Mohammed, increasing their fiefs and table-allowances, 
 as well as to those who were attached to them. Yaqut 
 encamped at the Kunasah Gate, but news reaching 
 Ibn al-Furat that the raider from Hajar had returned to 
 his own country, the vizier ordered Yaqut back, and his 
 proposed expedition to Kufah was abandoned. 
 
 Muqtadir effected a reconciliation between Ibn al- 
 Furat and Nasr, bidding every one unite in support of 
 the empire and in resisting the raider from Hajar. 
 Mu'nis entered Baghdad and was met by the inhabitants ; 
 no-one missing the occasion. Ibn al-Furat sailed to greet 
 him, contrary to his custom and that of his predecessors. 
 When Mu'nis knew of his arrival, he came to the gate of 
 his house, to meet him, and begged him to withdraw; 
 he declined to do so, and came up out of his barge to 
 congratulate Mu’nis on his return. When Ibn al-Furat 
 left the house to depart, Mu nis accompanied him (123) 
 until he stepped down to his barge. 
 
 Muhassin’s treatment of the discharged officials when 
 adversity befell him and his father. 
 
 After the attack on the pilgrims by the raider from 
 Hajar MuAassin became anxious about the discharged 
 officials, fearing the revelation of the secret profits which 
 he had accepted, and the deductions which he had made 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 
 
 137 
 
 from their fines and pocketed himself. He therefore 
 took into his employ Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. ‘Ali 
 Shalmaghani, known by the name Ibn Abi’l-'Azaqir, a 
 man who claimed that the deity abode in him as had been 
 claimed by flallaj. He had previously favoured this person 
 and made him deputy in Baghdad to various officials. 
 He had a friend from Basrah, known to be his associate 
 and ready to shed blood. To this Basran friend of Ibn 
 Abid-'Azaqir MuAassin delivered a number of persons, 
 including Nu'man b. ‘Abdallah, 1 ‘Abd al-Wahhab b. 
 Ma Sha Allah, and Mu’nis eunuch of #amid, ostensibly 
 to exact from them the arrears of their fines. When 
 they were in his hands he slaughtered them like so many 
 sheep. A number of persons who were in hiding received 
 kindly letters from Ibn al-Furat, which induced them to 
 show themselves ; they were then fined and made to pay 
 vast sums. 
 
 Account of the arrest of Ibn al-Furat and the flight of his 
 
 son Muhassin. 
 
 Rumour became rife about the impending fall of Ibn 
 al-Furat, so that his sons and clerks went into hiding, 
 and Muqtadir sent him a message through Nasim. 
 Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Zanji states that he was present when 
 Nasim came, and was brought into his apartment, and 
 delivered the message with which he had been charged. 
 I heard Ibn al-Furat say in reply (he says) : ( 124 ) Tell 
 him : You know, O Commander of the Faithful, how I 
 in the process of securing your rights have incurred the 
 enmity of the small and the great, and have exacted 
 money for you from humble and noble ; I have done my 
 utmost to secure your dynasty ; I have considered no- 
 one so long as I retained your confidence, and so long as 
 the course followed secured me your goodwill and good 
 opinion. Do not accept the statements about me of 
 those who wish to remove me from your service, and 
 would provoke you to unprofitable measures and such as 
 
 1 Above, p. 32. 
 
138 A.tt. 312. Caliphate OF MUQTADIR. 
 
 will be detrimental in their results. Further our horo¬ 
 scopes are identical, so whatever befalls me, the like will 
 befall you. Pay no attention to what is said ; for the 
 court and the public are aware that I made greater out¬ 
 lay on the troops despatched to the Meccah Road than 
 any of my predecessors, that I selected commanders 
 and officers for the army and brave men to be the troops, 
 and that I provided all that was asked of me for their 
 equipment. God decreed that the same disaster should 
 happen to the pilgrims as happened in the days of 
 Muktafi. 1 He did not blame his vizier for it nor make 
 him endure the consequences or even think the worse 
 of him on account of it.—He said some more to the same 
 effect, and Nasim retired, accompanied by the retainers. 
 
 Rumour became yet more persistent about the im¬ 
 pending fate of Ibn al-Furat and his son Mu/^assin, until 
 Muqtadir, wishing to silence it, wrote a letter wherein he 
 swore to the continuance of his sentiments towards them 
 and his confidence in them, and told them they might 
 rely on his determination to befriend them. He further 
 commanded them to show his letter to them publicly 
 in Baghdad, and have copies sent to all ministers of war 
 and finance in the provinces. 
 
 After this in the month Rabid 2 of the year 312, when 
 Ibn al-Furat and MuAassin had sailed to the Palace and 
 had an audience of Muqtadir, as they were leaving, Nasr 
 the Chamberlain requested them to sit down, (125) for 
 the H ujari retainers had been petitioning Muqtadir for 
 their arrest, and their petition had been delivered by 
 Muflih, who however advised delay, pointing out to the 
 Caliph that to dismiss a vizier owing to the statements 
 of his enemies was dangerous and bad policy, and an 
 encouragement to the retainers to interfere in affairs of 
 state, Muqtadir therefore bade him order Nasr to 
 release them, yet to inform the retainers that the wishes 
 
 1 a.h. 294 a Qarmadan force inflicted a similar blow on the pilgrim caravan. 
 
 2 Began June 7, 924. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn al-Furat. 139 
 
 expressed in their communication should be respected. 
 MufliA came to bid the vizier depart, and Nasr gave him 
 and his son permission to do so. So Ibn al-Furat rose 
 and began to race through the passages, until he reached 
 his barge, as also did his son MuAassin, and when they had 
 had come to the vizier’s palace MuAassin had a long 
 private interview with his father ; after which he left 
 and went to his own residence whence, after staying a 
 little time and giving some orders, he departed and went 
 into hiding. His father took his place in his office with 
 an untroubled air, and attended to business, being 
 attended by the chief secretaries, who left at the end of 
 the day, feeling some doubt as to the accuracy of the 
 reports which had reached them, owing to the gaiety and 
 nonchalance displayed by the vizier, who had talked 
 and joked as usual, and given or refused orders in his 
 customary style. One of his personal friends afterwards 
 stated that late in the night he had heard Ibn al-Furat 
 repeating in his bed the verse 
 
 Prudent as he was, that morning he knew not whether it was better to 
 advance or to retire. 
 
 —a proof that he kept awake that night thinking about 
 his fortunes. Next day (says Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Zanji) 
 he went to the office to attend to business, and presently 
 there arrived a thin note sealed ; which he read. I did 
 not at the time know from whom it was, but learned 
 afterwards that it was from Muflih. Then there 
 arrived another letter from a sort of soldier attached to 
 the Palace ; when he read it, he hesitated for a moment 
 and then summoned his steward Yahya, and whispered 
 something into his ear ; the steward then departed. 
 The vizier proceeded to dismiss the clerks, promising to 
 come early the next day. He then rose from his seat 
 and went in the direction of his private apartments, 
 whilst the clerks separated. When I had got to the 
 doorway, I recollected a task (126) which he had assigned 
 me, so I went back and sat down to perform it. Sud¬ 
 denly I saw that Nazuk had entered armed with his 
 
140 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 sword, and with a stiletto in his hand, followed by 
 Yalbaq. The demeanour of the two was unlike their 
 usual cheerfulness, and each of them was accompanied 
 by some fifteen armed retainers. Not finding the vizier 
 in his office, they went into his private apartments, 
 whence they brought him out uncovered ; he was forced 
 into a barge and conveyed to the house of Nazuk; at 
 the same time his two sons Fa^l and ifusain, and such 
 clerks of his as were found, were arrested. 
 
 Nazuk and Yalbaq proceeded to inform Mu'nis the 
 Muzaffar of what had happened ; he had come out to 
 the Shammasiyyah Gate, ostensibly for an excursion, 
 accompanied by Hilal b. Badr and a number of his 
 officers. Yalbaq then proceeded to the residence of 
 Nazuk and brought out thence Ibn al-Furat with his two 
 sons and his dependents, Nazuk having taken from his 
 house a spangled silk cloak to throw over the head of the 
 vizier, who was uncovered when seized. When Ibn al- 
 Furat saw Muffiis, he made show of gratification at 
 finding himself in the latter s power. Mu'nis made Ibn 
 al-Furat sit beside him in his barge, and addressed him 
 with civility, though remonstrating with him for his 
 behaviour. Ibn al-Furat humiliated himself, and gave 
 him the title Ustadh. Mu'nis retorted : You call me 
 Ustadh now, but only yesterday you sent me into exile 
 at Raqqah, with the rain pouring on my head, and told 
 our lord the Commander of the Faithful that I was 
 plotting to ruin the empire !—The barge descended the 
 river to the Palace, whither Mu’nis ordered Ibn al- 
 Furat's two sons and his dependents also to be conveyed, 
 to be put in the custody of Nasr. 
 
 The populace were furious against Ibn al-Furat, and 
 were joined by the dependents of the cashiered officials, 
 who cursed him with loud cries. Mu'nis tried hard to 
 restrain them, but was unable to do so ; they pelted his 
 barge owing to Ibn al-Furat being there, and called out: 
 The great Qarmafian has been arrested, there only 
 
141 
 
 VlZIERATE OF Abu'L-QaSIM KhAQANI. 
 
 remains the little Qarmarian. 1 When they reached the 
 Private Gate of the Palace, a number of people came up 
 out of the boats, intending to pelt Ibn al-Furat, his two 
 sons, and his clerks with brickbats. Force had to be 
 used against them, and it was necessary to shoot them 
 with arrows, whereby some of them were wounded. 
 The assailants then retired, and Nasr took charge of the 
 prisoners. 
 
 ( 127 ) The duration of this third vizierate of Ibn al- 
 Furat was ten months and eighteen days. The chief 
 captains then assembled in the Palace, and insisted that 
 if Ibn al-Furat were to be confined in the Palace, they 
 would go in a body to the Oratory. 2 They used violent 
 threats ; so Muqtadir summoned Mu'nis and Nasr to a 
 consultation, and they advised him to mollify the 
 officers by removing Ibn al-Furat from the Palace, and 
 delivering him to ShafT Lu'luT, who was to imprison 
 him in his house. So Shafi' was summoned and given 
 custody of the prisoner. 
 
 Account of the process whereby 'Abdallah b. Mohammed 
 b/Ubaidallah Khaqani attained the vizierate. 
 
 Abu'l-Qasim 'Abdallah b. Mohammed Khaqani 
 had gone into hiding during the third vizierate of Ibn 
 al-Furat. His father, Abu ‘Ali, was very old, ill, and 
 imbecile ; when owing to the disaster which had befallen 
 the pilgrims Ibn al-Furat’s position was weakened, 
 Abu’l-Qasim Khaqani plotted against him and his son 
 MuAassin, offering an estimate of what he could make 
 them disgorge 3 ; and his efforts were aided by Nasr 
 the Chamberlain and Thumal the Stewardess, with 
 others. Mu'nis had previously suggested his name for 
 the vizierate, but had been told by Muqtadir that this 
 man's father had ruined the world, and that the son was 
 worse than the father; Husain b. Ahmad MadaraT 
 
 1 Doubtless meaning MuAassin. 2 This, as has been seen, meant mutiny. 
 
 8 This appears to be the sense, 
 
142 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 was the Caliph's own nominee, but Mu'nis objected that 
 he had departed for Egypt and it would take too long 
 to bring him to the capital. The younger Khaqani was 
 further supported by Nasr and Harun b. Gharib ; so 
 Muqtadir summoned him, and in a personal audience 
 offered him the vizierate and the presidency of the 
 bureaux. A robe of honour was then conferred upon 
 him and Mu'nis the Mu^affar with Harun b. Gharib 
 accompanied him to his residence. 
 
 Account of what happened to Ibn al-Furat and his 
 dependents after the assumption of the vizierate by 
 
 Abu’l-Qasim Khaqani. 
 
 Abu'l-iZasan (Ibn Abi Hisham) narrates how after 
 Ibn al-Furat had been delivered to Shafk in the manner 
 described, the latter sent his clerk known as al-Jamal 
 (The Camel) to negotiate with him about the amount of 
 the fine which he was prepared to pay in order to be 
 secured against his enemies, (128) and escape delivery 
 into the hands of Khaqani and Abu'l 'Abbas Ibn Ba'ud 
 Sharr his secretary.—Ibn al-Furat replied that before 
 making an offer he must receive a guarantee from Muq¬ 
 tadir that his person should not be delivered to any 
 individual of that class. Then he said to the clerk known 
 as The Camel ” : Tell your master that I have left in 
 the hands of Harun the Collector and his son 160,000 
 dinars odd which have come into their possession from 
 the fines. His purpose was that this might be known to 
 the Caliph, who would order the money to be conveyed 
 to his private Treasury forthwith, and lest the new 
 vizier might lead the Caliph to suppose that he had 
 himself obtained the sum, and proceed to expend it on 
 objects of which the cost was ordinarily defrayed from 
 the public Treasury. Shah' embarked at once and com¬ 
 municated this to Muqtadir, who sent to the two 
 collectors ; these were found in the residence of Khaqani, 
 who had been too much occupied in receiving congratula¬ 
 tions to speak to them ; being summoned they admitted 
 
VlZIERATE OF Abu'l-QaSIM KhAQANI. 143 
 
 possession of the money, which they transmitted to the 
 private Treasury, where it was duly certified. 
 
 Muqtadir then ordered Nasr to deliver Ibn al-Furat's 
 sons, clerks and dependents to Khaqani; he did so, re¬ 
 ceiving a receipt from the vizier, who delivered them to 
 Abu'l-'Abbas Ibn Ba'ud Sharr ; this person put them 
 in fetters and made them sit on the ground in the intense 
 heat; he then received the bond of each of Ibn al-Furat's 
 two sons for 100,000 dinars, and that of Sa'id b. Ibrahim 
 for 200,000 dinars ; and that of MuAassin's clerk Abu 
 Ghanim for 200,000 dinars. Criers were ordered to 
 demand the appearance of Mu/zassin, Hisham, and the 
 two sons of Farajawaihi, and to threaten all in whose 
 houses they were found after the proclamation, with 
 the plunder and burning of their dwellings and a thou¬ 
 sand stripes. Ibn al-Furat arranged ( 129 ) with Shaft' that 
 the latter should guarantee a sum to be paid by him on 
 condition that he be sent back to the Palace and be not 
 put into any one's power. Shaft/ communicated this 
 proposal to Muqtadir, who told him that Mu'nis, Nasr 
 and Harun b. Gharib were agreed that Khaqani could 
 not proceed unless Ibn al-Furat were put in his power ; 
 and that he had undertaken to obtain from him, his son, 
 and his dependents two millions of dinars. Shaft* with¬ 
 drew from the imperial presence and sent his clerk to 
 Ibn al-Furat to explain the case. This clerk (whose 
 sobriquet was " the Camel '') afterwards made the follow¬ 
 ing statement :—I was in the habit (he said) of visiting 
 Ibn al-Furat daily to enquire into his condition, and I 
 found him the stoutest-hearted of mankind, and the most 
 resigned to misfortune. He asked me who had assumed 
 the vizierate ; when I replied that Abu’l-Qasim Ibn 
 Abi 'Ali Khaqani had done so, he exclaimed : It is the 
 Sultan who has had a fall, not I.—Then he asked who 
 was president of the Bureau ( i.e . that of the Sawad) ; 
 when I replied : Mohammed b. Ja'far b. Hafs, he said : 
 The man's hit with hi$ own stone.—Then he asked whQ 
 
144 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 had become presidents of the remaining bureaux ; when 
 I replied : Yahya b. Nu'aim Maliki, Mohammed b. 
 Ya'qub Misri, and Ishaq b. 'Ali Qunna’i, he said : 
 Certainly God is helping this vizier with competent men. 
 
 Ibn al-Furat's examiner was Ibn Ba'ud Sharr, who 
 dealt gently with him and held out hopes in order to make 
 make him recollect and reveal his deposits. After a 
 course of this treatment Ibn al-Furat admitted that he 
 had lodged with certain traders 150,000 dinars. Now 
 Muqtadir had arranged that the proceeds of the fine of 
 Ibn al-Furat only should be transmitted to the private 
 Treasury, whereas those of his dependents should be 
 transmitted to the public Treasury. When the sum 
 mentioned by Ibn al-Furat had been recovered from the 
 traders, Ibn Ba'ud Sharr made a fresh demand on Ibn 
 al-Furat; the ex-vizier replied that he had no money 
 left. The examiner began to apply mild torture, but 
 Ibn ( 130 ) al-Furat was not the man to yield to torture, 
 so he firmly refused to pay anything. Harun b. Gharib 
 then went to Muqtadir and told him that Khaqani had 
 damaged the Sultan's cause by delivering Ibn al-Furat 
 to Ibn Ba'ud Sharr ; he ought to have dealt gently with 
 the ex-vizier and coaxed him, since he was not the man 
 to yield to violence. Muqtadir then ordered Khaqani to 
 have the examination of Ibn al-Furat conducted in 
 Harun b. Gharib's presence, and to deal gently with him. 
 Ibn Ba'ud Sharr had been stinting Ibn al-Furat in the 
 matter of food and drink, sending in to him bread mixed 
 with bran, cucumbers and rain-water. Khaqani now 
 sent him ample food and drink, with plenty of ice and 
 fruit, apologizing for what had been done and declaring 
 that he had not been aware of the treatment which he 
 had received. 
 
 Khaqani then sent by Khaqan b. Ahmad b. Yahya 
 a courteously worded and coaxing message, requesting 
 him to make a true statement of his assets, and not defy 
 
145 
 
 VIZIERATE OF Abu'L-QaSIM KHAQANI. 
 
 the Sultan ; for such conduct could not be commended. 
 —His reply was : Tell the vizier from me that I am 
 not an inexperienced novice, who can be cajoled in his 
 examination. I do not say I cannot provide the money ; 
 only when my life is secure, shall I pay ransom for it; 
 and I shall only feel secure when the Commander of the 
 Faithful himself writes me an amnesty, and it is attested 
 by the signatures of the vizier and the judges, and a 
 similar amnesty is written for me by the vizier. Further 
 he must put me in charge of one of two persons, either 
 Mu'nis the Muzaffar, notwithstanding that he is my 
 enemy, or Shafi‘ Lu'luT. If this be not done, then I 
 am resigned to suffer death.—Khaqani sent the follow¬ 
 ing answer : If it were in my power to obtain such a 
 guarantee for you, I would do it; but if I were even to 
 suggest it, I should incur the hostility of the leading men 
 in the empire on your account; further you would not 
 gain anything thereby, as the Caliph has already referred 
 your case to Harun b. Gharib.—A meeting was arranged 
 in the house of Khaqani, when Ibn al-Furat was sum¬ 
 moned, and examined by Ibn Ba'ud Sharr in his pres¬ 
 ence. Ibn al-Furat was immovable, and when Ibn 
 Ba'ud Sharr began to use insulting language, he was 
 reproved by Harun, who asked him whether he hoped 
 by those methods to extract money from Ibn al-Furat. 
 He then proceeded to address the ex-vizier himself, (131) 
 using the most courteous terms. You, he said, know 
 more about affairs than all who are addressing you, 
 among them that the vizier must not defy the Caliph, 
 when the latter is incensed against him.—Ibn al-Furat 
 replied: Prince, advise me; for when a man is in my 
 plight his wits desert him.—Harun continued his 
 examination until he had obtained his bond for a fine 
 of two million dinars, of which the quarter was to be paid 
 at once, that quarter to include what he had already 
 paid, and any sums that might since have been obtained 
 from deposits which he had not revealed. He stipulated 
 
146 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 further that he should be allowed to sell his properties 
 and such of his estates and chattels as found purchasers. 
 He was himself to be transferred to the house of Shafi* 
 or some other person in the confidence of the Sultan, 
 while Kalwadhani should be left in control of his entire 
 property. He was further to be allowed the use of ink 
 to correspond with whom he chose. Harun b. Gharib 
 made him put his name to all this and conveyed the 
 document to Muqtadir. 
 
 Account of a piece of ill luck which befell Muhassin, and 
 resulted in his being caught , fined and killed. 
 
 Muhassin had gone into hiding in the house of his 
 mother-in-law, #inzabah, mother of al-Fahl b. Ja'far 
 b. al-Furat , 1 who used to escort him every morning to 
 the cemetery in women’s attire, and bring him back at 
 night to some safe dwelling. One day she had taken him 
 (dressed as usual in female attire) to the Quraish Ceme¬ 
 tery, 2 but when evening came it seemed a long way to 
 Karkh ; one of the women in her company told her of a 
 house belonging to a trustworthy woman, where there 
 was no man, as the woman’s husband had been dead for 
 a year 3 ; thither then iifrnzabah went with her female 
 attendants and MuAassin, and told the mistress of the 
 house that she had with her an unmarried woman who 
 had just returned from a mourners’ gathering, which had 
 greatly depressed her ; would she let this woman have 
 a private apartment ?—The mistress of the house pro¬ 
 vided a room leading out of a corridor, into which she 
 took Muhassin ; she then closed the door after her, and 
 the women sat with Muhassin in the room. Presently 
 a black slave-girl brought a lamp (132) which she placed 
 
 1 A distinguished minister who will meet us later; he is ordinarily known 
 as Ibn Hmzabah. 
 
 Strange, p. 160. This Cemetery was " to the north of the Cemetery of 
 
 the Martyrs at the tfarb Gate," and towards the river bank, whereas Karkh 
 was south of the city. 
 
 * A slight exaggeration as appears from what follows. 
 
147 
 
 VlZIERATE OF Abu’L-QaSIM .KhAQANI. 
 
 in the corridor, while ffinzabah came bringing MuAassin 
 some porridge with sugar. MuAassin had by this time 
 removed some of his clothes, and the girl peeping into 
 the room whence neither Mutessin nor #inzabah could 
 see her noticed that it was a man. She went and in¬ 
 formed her mistress ; who after nightfall came and 
 examined the room and saw Mu/^assin. It was his ill- 
 luck, and evidence that God had forsaken him, that the 
 woman happened to be the wife of Mohammed b. Nasr, 
 a bailiff of 'Ali b. 'Isa ; this man had been summoned 
 by Mufessin and brought to his office, where he died 
 suddenly of fright at the tortures which he saw ad¬ 
 ministered in MuAassin’s presence before MuAassin had 
 said a word to him. The woman immediately proceeded 
 to the Palace, and, being admitted to see Nasr the 
 Chamberlain, told him the story. He communicated it 
 to Muqtadir, who gave orders that a message should be 
 sent to Nazuk bidding him ride to the place and arrest 
 MuAassin. This order was immediately carried out by 
 him. The arrest was notified by the beating of drums 
 in Baghdad at midnight, which alarmed the inhabitants, 
 who supposed that the Qarmadans had seized the capital. 
 
 Mu/^assin was conveyed to the vizier’s palace in Muk- 
 harrim, and taken in charge by Ibn Ba'ud Sharr, who 
 immediately had him violently tortured, and obtained 
 his bond for three million dinars. Harun b. Gharib 
 came to this palace and examined MuAassin, holding out 
 hopes in order to make him recollect his deposits and 
 reveal them. For two consecutive days the torture was 
 applied, but Mu/^assin would not yield a single dirhem, 
 declaring that he was not going to lose both his life and 
 his money. After this Harun b. Gharib brought Shafi' 
 Lu’lu’i and summoning MuAassin, the clerks and Ibn 
 Ba'ud Sharr, examined him. After administering severe 
 torture he said to him : Granting that you cannot pay 
 the whole sum for which your bond has been taken, can 
 you not produce 100,000 dinars ?—He replied : ( 133 ) 
 
148 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 I can, provided that you give me time, and that the 
 torture stops.—Harun said : We will give you time, 
 now write your bond for a hundred thousand.—He signed 
 a bond for this amount wherein he agreed to pay it within 
 thirty days.—When Harun b. Gharib read the paper, 
 he exclaimed : Do you suppose you are going to live 
 thirty days !—MuAassin humbly replied that he would 
 do whatever the prince commanded.—Harun bade him 
 write that he would pay it within seven days.—MuAassin 
 asked to have the paper returned to him that he might 
 write another instead, and when he got it, chewed and 
 swallowed it, declining to write another. He was 
 fettered and collared, a woollen jubbah was put upon him, 
 and his head was belaboured with clubs, to induce him to 
 write what he had written before, but he declined. He 
 was sent back to his prison and there exquisitely tor¬ 
 tured, but he declined to yield a dirhem. 
 
 After this the Ustadh Mu'nis, Nasr the Chamberlain, 
 the judges and clerks presented themselves in the office 
 of the vizier Khaqani, whither Ibn al-Furat was brought, 
 and where he was examined by the vizier Khaqani him¬ 
 self. Khaqani was however no match for Ibn al-Furat 
 who came near “ making mince meat of him/' Thus 
 Khaqani said to Ibn al-Furat : During eleven months 
 you have obtained from your estates a revenue of a 
 million dinars.—Ibn al-Furat replied: These same 
 estates were for ten years in the hands of ‘Ali b. Tsa, 
 during his vizierate and during that of Hamid b. ‘Abbas, 
 and he raised from them no more than 400,000 dinars. 
 You are claiming that I work miracles.—Khaqani said : 
 You attached the dues on the Sultan's lands to those on 
 your own.—Ibn al-Furat replied : The accounts in the 
 bureaux cannot be concealed ; inspect the record for the 
 revenue of the Imperial lands during the time of my 
 control and in the days of ‘Ali b. Tsa, during the vizierate 
 of Hamid b. ‘Abbas, and the vizierate of your father, 
 which you administered yourself; you will see whether 
 
VlZIERATE OF Abu'L-QaSIM KhAQANI. 149 
 
 during my ministry the revenue of the Imperial lands 
 increased or diminished. 
 
 He was then examined with reference to the persons 
 whom he had executed, 1 and reproached on their account. 
 He replied : One of ( 134 ) two things must be the case. 
 Either it is asserted that I killed them myself ;—now I 
 have not been away from the capital, so that their death 
 cannot be ascribed to me, as the persons with whose 
 death I am charged were at a distance from it. Or it 
 is asserted that I wrote to order their execution. In that 
 case I put myself in the hands of the officials, ministers 
 of public security, trusted counsellors of the Sultan, 
 officers of the kharaj, chief governors of provinces. 2 — 
 The reply to this was : Your son killed them.—He 
 answered : I am not the same as my son, and you are 
 examining me. —Ibn Ba'ud Sharr 3 retorted : If your 
 son slew these people, then you slew them.—Ibn al-Furat 
 replied : That is contrary to the ruling of God and of 
 His Apostle. God says : No bearer shall bear the burden 
 of another , 4 and the Prophet said to one of his Com¬ 
 panions : Is this your son ? The answer was in the 
 affirmative. The Prophet then said : You will not be 
 responsible for him nor he for you. 5 And besides this 
 he is in your hands, so you can ask him. If he is liable 
 to retaliation for a charge of murder committed in a 
 place whence he was at a distance, but where some one 
 else is said to have acted for him, the law on this matter 
 is well known. 6 
 
 The people were bewildered by this reply ; however 
 ‘Uthman b. Sa'id, president of the Bureau of the Army, 
 said to Nasr the Chamberlain : If the Chamberlain 
 
 1 The reference is to the persons killed by Shalmaghani's friend, above, p. 
 123. 
 
 2 i.e., to say whether I sent any such orders. 
 
 3 One would rather expect Khaqani’s name. 
 
 4 Surah vi. 164, and in four other places. 
 
 5 Apparently this tradition was invented to illustrate the text. 
 
 6 Viz., that retaliation is required in such cases. 
 
150 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 think fit, let him ask Ibn al-Furat the following question : 
 When you used to say to those from whom you demanded 
 money Either you fay, or I shall hand you over to Muh.as- 
 sin, did you mean that Mu/zassin was to feed them on 
 porridge and sugar, or that he was to torture them ? 
 Now he who permits torture permits slaughter, for a man 
 will sometimes die of a single stroke of the lash, not to 
 speak of severer punishments.—Nasr addressed this ques¬ 
 tion to Ibn al-Furat, who replied : The Caliph, whose 
 life God prolong, was Mu/zassin’s patron and I at that 
 time was confined whereas he was at large. Mu/zassin 
 guaranteed what he thought fit, and his proposals 
 passed through the hands of Mufli/i, and various of the 
 Sultan’s counsellors acted as intermediaries. After¬ 
 wards when I became minister, I wanted to deal gently 
 with people, only when I examined them and tried gentle 
 methods, they declined to pay what was due from them ; 
 when they were obstinate I handed them over to the 
 official appointed by the Sultan, and to whom I had been 
 ordered to deliver them. Mu’nis said: You would 
 throw the responsibility for these people's deaths on 
 the Caliph. The Caliph declares that he ordered the 
 death of no-one save only ( 135 ) Ibn al-tfawari. 
 
 Nasr then addressed him as follows : I have, he said, 
 a message to you from the Sultan to which you are to 
 listen and reply.—Ibn al-Furat asked what it was.— 
 Nasr said : This. I put certain persons into your power 
 because you had guaranteed certain moneys. I desire of 
 you one of two things : either pay me the moneys, or return 
 me the persons. —Ibn al-Furat said : As for the money, 
 it has been duly paid into the Treasury. With regard to 
 the people I never guaranteed their lives nor their con¬ 
 tinuance ; they have died natural deaths.—Mu’nis the 
 Muzaffar then said to him : Suppose that you have a 
 reply and an excuse for everything else ; what excuse 
 have you for exiling me to Raqqah, as though I were an 
 official who had incurred a fine, or an enemy of the 
 
151 
 
 VlZIERATE OF Abu’L-QaSIM KhAQANI. 
 
 Caliph’s house ?—Ibn al-Furat replied : I exiled you ?— 
 Then who did ? he asked.—Our master, he said, ordered 
 you to be sent away.—Our master did not order that, 
 he retorted.—Ibn al-Furat replied : I have a statement 
 in his handwriting. He wrote me a letter, which, being 
 in his own writing I have preserved, wherein he complains 
 of your conduct at various times, of the enormous ex¬ 
 penditure with which you conquer countries which you 
 proceed to un-conquer by your mismanagement and 
 misconduct.—Where is this document ? asked Mu’nis.— 
 In your hands, he replied ; it is among a number of 
 documents which I ordered to be kept in the bamboo 
 case, whereupon there is a statement in my writing that 
 important papers are to be kept there. Among them 
 is the order that you are to be sent away to Raqqah and 
 to be under surveillance until you start.—Khaqani 
 ordered the case to be brought, which was found to bear 
 the seal of Ibn al-Furat, and to contain the actual paper, 
 as well as the other autographs of Muqtadir to which 
 Ibn al-Furat had referred. Of these Khaqani took pos¬ 
 session. Mu’nis immediately demanded an audience of 
 Muqtadir, and requested him to read the letter. Muq¬ 
 tadir was furious and ordered Harun to scourge Ibn al- 
 Furat. The latter was placed in the pillory and received 
 five strokes only. Harun then said to him : Now, my 
 friend, pay up your money.—Ibn al-Furat gave him a 
 bond for 20,000 dinars saying : This is my money. 
 
 Immediately afterwards he had Mu/^assin brought 
 out of his prison and scourged almost to death ; he how¬ 
 ever refused ( 136 ) to pay anything at all. Harun then 
 went to Muqtadir and requested to be excused from 
 further examination of Ibn al-Furat and his son ; for, 
 he said, these are people who have no intention of paying 
 anything and have made up their minds to be killed.— 
 Muqtadir ordered them to be delivered to Nazuk, who 
 tortured them mercilessly. On Mutessin he inflicted a 
 variety of torments, till his body putrefied and nothing 
 
152 
 
 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 remained to torture. He whipped Ibn al-Furat three 
 times with stout ropes, but the ex-vizier would not yield 
 a dirhem. Muqtadir lost patience with Abu’l-Qasim 
 Khaqani, the vizier, and complained that he had seen 
 none of the money which the vizier had promised to ex¬ 
 tract from Ibn al-Furat and his son.—Khaqani answered 
 that it was because the case had not been left to diplo- 
 macy, when Ibn al-Furat had been withdrawn from 
 examination by men of his own profession and handed 
 over to the swordsmen, he had despaired of his life, and 
 so resolved to save his money. His son, seeing his con- 
 duct, had followed his example. 
 
 Nazuk told Muqtadir that he had gone to the utmost 
 length in administering torture to the two, so much so 
 that the body of the fastidious Mu/zassin was putrefying, 
 but even so he had endured unheard-of tortures. Now, 
 he said, for many days he has not tasted food, and only 
 
 drinks water, being unconscious most of the time._ 
 
 Muqtadir said : If that be so, the two must be conveyed 
 to my Palace.—Mu’nis and the rest declared that this 
 was the right course, and Khaqani told the Caliph that 
 God was guiding him. After this they left the imperial 
 
 While they were still in the Palace and before they 
 had parted, Khaqani whispered to them: If Ibn al- 
 Furat be conveyed to the Palace, his dependents will 
 offer money for his life and that of his son ; and if there¬ 
 by he makes sure of the Caliph and is installed in the 
 Palace, he will reveal his own wealth and obtain security 
 for himself and his son. Once sure of his life he will 
 guarantee us all, 1 and induce the Caliph to put us in his 
 power alluring him with the idea that he will save our 
 
 L iP f l dS p an i d estates - and amass an enormous sum 
 
 ■5* th m Ca iP x, S S nefit ' The ri S ht course is ( 137 ) that 
 the officers should swear a common oath that if they 
 
 ! t e " guarantee the Call P h a vast sum which he undertakes to extract from 
 
 us. 
 
V izierate OF Abu'l-Qasim Khaqani. 153 
 
 learn of Ibn al-Furat and his son having been conveyed 
 to the Palace, they will throw off their allegiance.— 
 Mu nis said : Life will not be worth living if this be not 
 done.—Harun b. Gharib and Nazuk undertood the exe¬ 
 cution of the scheme ; they assembled the officers and 
 commanders of the H ujari retainers, and Yalbaq ad¬ 
 ministered the oath to them. 
 
 The deaths of Ibn al-Fuyat and his son Muhassin. 
 
 They then presented themselves in a body before 
 Mu nis and Nasr, and revealed what was in their minds. 
 Mu nis suggested that the officers should demand the re¬ 
 moval of Ibn al-Furat and his son to Mu’nis’s palace ; 
 and that if Muhassin were to die, his father should be 
 spared.—Harun b. Gharib however remarked that if 
 Muhassin were to die, it would not be safe to spare his 
 father ; how after the slaughter of his son could he be 
 trusted to be loyal ?—They then in a body openly told 
 Muqtadir that if Ibn al-Furat and his son were not put 
 to death, all the officials would rebel. Harun b. Gharib 
 further importuned Muqtadir to put them both to death, 
 declaring that he would not answer for the officials not 
 joining together to proclaim some other member of the 
 Hashimite family Caliph, and then the mischief would 
 be incurable.—The party wanted Khaqani to urge this 
 course, but he declared that he would have no part in 
 the shedding of blood ; he had only advised that the 
 two be not conveyed to the Palace : he regarded their 
 execution as a blunder, for execution should in no case 
 be made easy for or recommended to a king ; if this is 
 done, the king thinks lightly of executing his ministers, 
 and will put them to death for the slightest error or 
 peccadillo. 
 
 On Sunday 12 Rabi‘ii (July 18, 312) when Ibn al- 
 Furat s food was brought to him, he bade them remove 
 it on the ground that he was keeping fast ; when the time 
 for breaking fast arrived he declared that he would not 
 
154 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 break it that night. Urged by some one to change his 
 mind he said : To-morrow I am to be put to death 
 without a doubt. God forbid! ( 138 ) was the rejoinder.— 
 No, he replied, yesterday I saw my brother Abu’l-'Abbas 
 in a dream, and he said to me: The Monday after to-morrow 
 you shall breakfast with us. He has never told me any¬ 
 thing in my sleep but it has come true. To-morrow is 
 a Monday, and that is the day whereon the blessed 
 Husain son of ‘Ali was slain.— 1 
 
 When the morrow came—a Monday—the people 
 descended to the Palace, but were not admitted. These 
 officials then wrote demanding that Ibn al-Furat and his 
 son be put to death. Muqtadir replied by requesting 
 time for consideration. They wrote back that if the 
 execution were delayed beyond that day, something 
 irreparable would happen to the empire. 
 
 Muqtadir then wrote to Nazuk, ordering him to de¬ 
 capitate the two, and bring their heads to the Palace. 
 Nazuk sent back word that this was a very serious 
 matter, in which he could not act upon a mere rescript. 
 Muqtadir then ordered the Ustadhs and the Eunuchs to 
 convey to him the Caliph’s order to carry out what he 
 had written. Nazuk replied that he would not act upon 
 a message, but required an oral order. Ibn al-Furat was 
 watching the proceedings, and when told that the officials 
 had departed and that Nazuk had gone home, he was 
 somewhat relieved ; but learning presently that Nazuk 
 had returned to the Palace, he was gravely alarmed. In 
 the afternoon Nazuk came to the vizier’s palace, and took 
 his seat in the apartment where Ibn al-Furat was con¬ 
 fined ; he then sent his eunuch ‘Ajib with some negroes 
 to decapitate Mu^assin, and presently brought his head 
 and laid it before his father. Ibn al-Furat was terrified 
 at the sight, and finding himself threatened with the 
 
 1 This was disputed. According to Ya'qubi ii. 291 some said Saturday, some 
 Monday, and some Friday. According to Wustenfeld’s tables 10 Muharram 
 61 (Oct. 10, 680 a.d.) would be Wednesday. 
 
VlZIERATE OF Abu'l-QaSIM KhAQANI. 155 
 
 sword, said to Nazuk : O Abu Mansur, must it be the 
 sword ? Plead for me with the Commander of the 
 Faithful, telling him that I have vast wealth, numerous 
 deposits and valuable gems.—Nazuk replied: The 
 affair has gone beyond that.—So he ordered him to be 
 beheaded and then conveyed the heads of both to Muq- 
 tadir, who ordered them to be thrown into the water. 
 The heads were thrown into the Euphrates, the trunks 
 from the Tabbanin bridge in Baghdad. ( 139 ) Ibnal-Furat's 
 age on the day of his execution was seventy-one years 
 and some months (God have mercy upon him !). His 
 son was thirty-three years old. The astrologer 'Azmi 
 had declared that in that year he apprehended disaster 
 and death by the sword for Ibn al-Furat, and mentioned 
 this in the horoscope which Ibn al-Furat had before him 1 ; 
 he also inferred from the horoscope of MuAassin that his 
 life would last thirty-three years. His forecasts came 
 true. 
 
 This year there came a despatch from Fariqi in 
 Basrah 2 stating that he had received a communication 
 from Abu'l-Haija Ibn #amdan 3 at Hajar to the effect 
 that he had spoken with Abu Tahir the Qarmaftan 
 about the pilgrims whom he had captured, soliciting 
 their release ; this had, he said, been promised. He 
 had ascertained the number of the men whom Abu Tahir 
 held in captivity to be 2,229, and that of the women 
 about 500. News presently came of their arrival in a 
 series of groups, the last to arrive being Abu’l-Haija 
 and Ahmad b. Badr, brother of the Queen-mother's 
 father. Together with Abu'l-Haija there arrived an 
 envoy from Abu Tahir the Qarmahan requesting the 
 evacuation of Basrah, Ahwaz and certain other regions. 
 He was hospitably entertained and furnished lavishly 
 
 1 Ibn al-Furat’s horoscope is given in Hilal’s work, p. 8. The same author 
 ascribes the prophecy about him to the famous Abu Ma'shar, of whom Tanukhi 
 tells some stories. 
 
 2 See above, p. 105. 
 
 • He had been taken prisoner by the yarmadans at Habir. 
 
156 A.M. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 with supplies ; he was then dismissed without having 
 obtained any of his demands. 
 
 The same year a robe of honour was bestowed on 
 Nujh Tuluni, who was then sent back to Ispahan as 
 minister of public security. 
 
 There also arrived an envoy from the Byzantine 
 Emperor, accompanied by 'Umair b. 'Abd Al-Baqi 1 ; 
 he had an audience of the Sultan to whom he brought 
 presents, and from whom he requested a truce and the 
 ransoming of the captives. These were accorded after 
 the summer raid. Both received robes of honour and the 
 envoy returned to the Byzantine country. • 
 
 The same year a robe of honour was bestowed on 
 Jinni Safwani who arrived from Diyar Mu^ar, having 
 been summoned ( 140 ) for the purpose of warring against 
 Abu Tahir the Qarmadan. 
 
 Sulaiman b. Hasan b. Makhlad and Abu ‘Ali Ibn 
 Muqlah 2 had been in banishment in Shiraz, in the cus¬ 
 tody of Abu 'Abdallah Ja'far b. Qasim Karkhi ; 
 according to Ibn Muqlah they were in one apartment 
 and well treated and protected. The news of Ibn al- 
 Furat’s arrest were brought to the governor, who also 
 had in his custody Abu'l-J^usain Ibn Abi'l-Baghl, 
 whom he had succeeded in office. Ibn Muqlah records 
 how the news were communicated to them all, and Ibn 
 Abi’l-Baghl, who had got possession of the instructions 
 sent by Ibn al-Furat and MuAassin for his case, when he 
 heard the tidings, wrote on the margin of the document: 
 This day was born Mohammed b. Ahmad b. Yahya being 
 eighty-one years old. 3 When Karkhi received the news, 
 he proceeded to release Ibn Muqlah and Sulaiman b. 
 flasan, congratulating them on their deliverance, before 
 the order to release them reached him. Presently there 
 
 1 His brother had acted as interpreter on the former occasion. 
 
 a This has to be reconciled with the statement on p. 113 ; Karkhi's appoint¬ 
 ment was in 310, p. 84. 
 
 a The name is his own. 
 
157 
 
 VIZIERATE OF Abu’L-QaSIM KhAQANI. 
 
 arrived the order from Khaqani to Misma'i 1 and Karkhi 
 that the two should be released but kept under surveil¬ 
 lance so that they should not leave Shiraz. Sulaiman 
 remained a week till he had completed his plans. Mean¬ 
 while Misma'i summoned Karkhi to a magnificent feast, 
 and kept up the merriment two consecutive days, in 
 ignorance of the fact that Sulaiman had escaped in the 
 guise of a runner-messenger. When they wrote to 
 Khaqani announcing Sulaiman’s flight, the vizier was 
 troubled, and rumours began to circulate that Sulaiman 
 had been appointed vizier. The latter entered Baghdad 
 secretly. Ibn Muqlah remained in Shiraz until his wife 
 had brought influence to bear on Khaqani’s dependents 
 and obtained the interest of Shafi‘, freedman of Muq- 
 tadir. Khaqani then permitted him to be set free to go 
 to Ahwaz, where two hundred dinars were to be allowed 
 him every month, but whence he was not to move. He 
 remained there for a time, after which owing to the inter¬ 
 cession of some persons leave was given him to come to 
 Baghdad. 
 
 ( 141 ) This year Mu’nis the Muzaffar spoke to the 
 vizier Khaqani on the subject of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, asking him 
 to write to Abu Ja'far governor of Yaman bidding him 
 permit ‘Ali b. ‘Isa to return to Meccah. He wrote as 
 requested, and Abu Ja'far gave the leave, sending him 
 besides perfume, clothing and furniture to the value of 
 50,000 dinars. ‘Ali b. ‘Isa returned to Meccah with 
 the Yamanite pilgrims. After his arrival he was by the 
 request of Mu’nis invested by Khaqani with the office 
 of Overseer of Egypt and Syria. When he reached 
 Meccah, and before he had received that appointment, 
 he wrote to Khaqani to congratulate him on his vizierate 
 and condole with him on the death of his father Abu 
 ‘Ali; further to request him to protect his wife and 
 children, and see that they remained in possession of his 
 
 1 ‘Abdallah b. Ibrahim, minister of public security of Fars above p. 20, but 
 dismissed 26 ; probably restored later, 
 
158 
 
 A.H. 312. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 estate and his pension. Khaqani returned a courteous 
 re pty> stating that he had attended to the interests of 
 his wife, his children and his dependents, but that he 
 claimed no merit nor gratitude for so doing. 
 
 Account of the circumstances which resulted in the dismissal 
 
 of Khaqani from his vizier ate. 
 
 Abu l- Abbas Ibn al-Khasibi having discovered 
 the refuge of MuAassin’s wife, daughter of #inzabah, 
 had requested to be employed in enquiring into her 
 affairs and obtaining money from her. Having received 
 the commission he compelled her to pay 700,000 dinars, 
 which he lodged in the Private Treasury ; thereby pre¬ 
 paring the road for his promotion to high office by Muq¬ 
 tadir, who began to think of him as a future vizier. 
 When Khaqani heard of this, he suggested to Ibn Ba'ud 
 Sharr to offer to make Khasibi disgorge 100,000 dinars 
 at once, being money that he had obtained from the 
 estate of Mu^assin and his wife over and above what he 
 had paid into the Treasury from that source. Khaqani 
 put this offer before the Caliph, but it was not favourably 
 received ; the story reached Khasibi, who wrote a letter 
 to Muqtadir, exposing the vices of Khaqani, his son, 
 and his clerks, their waste (142) of the revenue, and mis¬ 
 management of affairs. This letter he delivered to an 
 agent who communicated it to Muqtadir and the Queen- 
 mother. Khaqani heard of this, and rumour became rife 
 on the subject; he lost courage and an illness of which 
 he was suffering became so serious that for months he 
 could eat neither lamb nor fowl, but only forty drachms 
 of bread in the day, afterwards reduced to twenty ; 
 tumours appeared on his body, his feet and his face ; 
 for all that, he held up, and continued to sail once or 
 twice a month to the Palace, while his son represented 
 him on ceremonial days. Presently there was a mutiny 
 of the cavalry, who demanded their pay and went out 
 to the Oratory 1 ; they were promised it, but payment 
 
 1 See above, p. 127. 
 
VlZIERATE OF KHASIBI. 
 
 159 
 
 was delayed, so they mutinied again, and were inclined 
 to pillage ; Baghdad was on the verge of a serious civil 
 war. Yaqut appeared, bearing an order of Muqtadir to 
 Khaqani to pay them a complete four months' stipend, 1 
 which Yaqut himself guaranteed. Muqtadir also sent to 
 Khaqani ordering him to pay up what was due to them. 
 Khaqani replied that he could not do it, and that he was 
 ill. Muqtadir then sent a second message, bidding him 
 get together somehow a hundred thousand dinars, to 
 which the Caliph himself would add twice that amount, 
 to be spent upon them. Khaqani insisted that he could 
 not raise a hundred thousand dirhems and that he had 
 quite enough to do in providing the money for the foot- 
 guards, for the H ujari retainers, the court attendants, 
 and the deputy chamberlains. Muqtadir then ordered 
 three hundred thousand dinars to be drawn from the 
 Private Treasury, and trusted Yaqut with the distribu¬ 
 tion of that sum. 
 
 Mu'nis the Muzaffar was in Wasit at the time of 
 the mutiny of the cavalry, but being summoned by 
 Muqtadir came to the capital, where he was met by 
 Prince AbuVAbbas, the vizier Khaqani, and the other 
 Ustudhs and officers of high rank. He had an audience 
 of Muqtadir, who informed him of the financial straits, 
 and the collapse of Khaqani, and consulted him about 
 dismissing the vizier. Mu’nis suggested delaying this 
 measure until he had interviewed and questioned him 
 himself. Meeting Khaqani he was told by the latter 
 that he could raise no money to spend on state require¬ 
 ments, pleading that his illness left him no superfluous 
 energy for work. When Mu'nis realized Khaqani’s 
 collapse, he advised that 'Ali b. Tsa be summoned and 
 be appointed ( 143 ) vizier. Muqtadir regarded this pro¬ 
 posal as absurd, and then the Queen-mother and her sister 
 suggested Abu'l-‘Abbas Khasibi. Muqtadir proceeded 
 to arrest Khaqani, whereupon his son ‘Abd al-Wahhab 
 
 1 This is the explanaiton of the razqah of the text given in the Mafatih, p. 59. 
 
160 A.H. 313. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 went into hiding. The like was done by Ishaq b. 
 ‘Ali Qunna’i, and his brother, Ibn Ba'ud Sharr, and 
 Khaqan b. Ahmad b. Yahya b. Khaqan. The rest 1 
 showed themselves. The duration of Khaqani’s vizierate 
 was a year and six months. 
 
 Reason for the appointment of Abu’l-Abbas 
 
 Khasibi. 
 
 On Thursday 11 Ramadan 313 (Nov. 30, 925) Muq¬ 
 tadir sent for Abu’l-'Abbas Kha.stbi Ahmad b. ‘Ubai- 
 dallah, invested him with the vizierate and the presidency 
 of the Bureaux, and bestowed on him a robe of honour ; 
 there rode with him Harun b. Gharib, Yaqut, Nazuk, 
 and most of the commanders. Thumal the Stewardess 
 appointed in his place as secretary of the bureau of the 
 Queen-mother’s estates Abu Yusuf ‘Abd al-Rahman b. 
 Mohammed ; this man had “ repented ” of the imperial 
 service, 2 so when he was put in charge of this important 
 office people called him The Apostate. He recovered 
 large sums which his predecessor Khasibi had neglected, 
 whence Thumal harboured a secret grievance against 
 the latter. 
 
 Throughout his tenure of office Khasibi drank wine 
 all night and slept during the day ; when he woke he 
 was fuddled, and had no energy left for work. 3 So he 
 committed to Malik b. Walid the opening and reading 
 of letters which came from the ministers of public security 
 and of kharaj , who also had to make notes on them and 
 forward them to the bureaux, and likewise to read the 
 letters which were to be despatched, and mark them. 
 He used in the case of important documents either arriv¬ 
 ing or leaving to make brief summaries, which he showed 
 to the vizier when he woke, and the vizier sometimes 
 
 1 Of Khaqani’s party. 
 
 2 i.e., abandoned it out of conscientious motives. A story of Tanukhi’s 
 illustrates this pharse. 
 
 • The later history of this vizier suggests that this is grossly overstated. 
 
VlZIERATE OF KhASIBI* 161 
 
 read them and sometimes did not; in the latter case 
 they would be read by Abu'l-Faraj Israel, who would 
 make such notes upon them as he chose. The summaries 
 were written out by Abu Sa'id Wahb b. Ibrahim b. 
 T azad, and at times would remain for days in the vizier's 
 presence ; when they accumulated, the vizier would order 
 them to be read out, and have such comments as he 
 thought proper entered under each paragraph. The 
 summary would then be handed out to Malik b. Walid, 
 with whom it would remain ( 144 ) a day or two. It would 
 then be delivered to the chief of the bureau which it con¬ 
 cerned, who would read it and enter such comments as 
 he thought fit. Then an answer would be composed in 
 the bureau which would go first to the chief of the bureau, 
 who would read it and mark it. Before the reply could 
 be despatched dykes would have burst, breaches have 
 widened, the Bedouins have carried off the crops, or some 
 other catastrophe have happened which rendered the 
 reply nugatory. 
 
 When Kalwadhani saw this, and perceived that loss 
 was increasing and the error becoming irremediable, he 
 wrote to the provincial officials, requesting them to send 
 copies to him of all the letters which they addressed to 
 the vizier. He then wrote on the back of these copies 
 the answer which should be given, and after a week or 
 more the letters supposed to be dictated by the vizier 
 were handed to him. 
 
 The vizier Khasibi instructed Abu'l-Hasan Ibn 
 Thawabah to read the appeals, and enter the decisions 
 for him on some other than Appeal day ; when that day 
 came, he was to collect them, summarize them, and the 
 vizier would, after reading the statement, decide in 
 accordance with what he had suggested. For revenue 
 he chiefly relied on the goods of the officials whom he 
 fined, the first of whom was Abu’l-Qasim Khaqani ; 
 Mu’nis however espoused his cause, informing Muqtadir 
 that the man had no strength to move, and that he had 
 
< * • r t \ -- 
 
 162 A.H. 313. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 assessed his own fine with those of his son and his clerks 
 at a quarter of a million dinars. Muqtadir ratified that 
 arrangement, and sent an autograph on the subject to 
 Khasibi; the latter then proceeded to lay his hands on 
 the holders of office and clerks, fining them at haphazard. 
 Thus he fined Ja'far b. Qasim Karkhi 150,000 dinars, 
 and arrested Maliki, Hisham, 'Ali b. #usain b. Hindi, 
 and the heirs of Abu Ahmad Karkhi ; further Hasan 
 son of Ibn al-Furat, Yahya b. 'Amrawaihi, Abu’l- 
 Hasan b. Mabandadh, Ishaq b. Isma'il Nubakhti, 
 Mohammed b. Ya'qub Misri, (145) and the heirs of Nasr 
 b. Fath, chief of the Treasury ; further Ibn 'Abd al- 
 Wahhab and 'Abdallah b. Jubair. Rumour became 
 rife that Khasibi was to be dismissed from the vizierate, 
 on the ground that he was an ass, skilful at nothing but 
 inflicting fines, and devoted to drink and play. Every¬ 
 thing was going to ruin, and business at a standstill. 
 The names of various successors were mentioned. 
 
 This year Abu Tahir Sulaiman b. #asan the 
 Qarmaiian fought in the neighbourhood of Kufah a 
 battle with the Sultan’s commanders wherein he took 
 them captive. 
 
 Ja'far b. Warqa was in charge of the districts of 
 Kufah and of the Kufah Road. When the Pilgrims 
 departed from Baghdad, he went in front for fear of Abu 
 Tahir the Qarmafian ; and he had under his command 
 a thousand men of his cousins, the Banu Shaiban. The 
 first caravan was accompanied by Thumal, admiral, 
 and " in the caravan of the umbrella ” 1 were Jinni 
 Safwani, Tarif Subkari, and Siyashir the Dailemite. 
 The escort of the caravans provided by the Sultan 
 numbered six thousand men. They were met by Abu 
 Tahir Jannabi, the first commander who came in his way 
 being Ja'far b. Warqa ; there ensued a skirmish, after 
 which Ja'far found himself attacked by a party of Abu 
 Tahir’s followers who were mounted on swift camels, 
 
 1 The umbrella was, as often, a symbol of royalty. 
 
VlZIERATE OF KHASIBI. 163 
 
 leading horses; descending from their camels, they 
 mounted the horses and proceeded to join battle with 
 Ja far b. Warqa ; the latter did not hold his ground, but 
 turned to flight with his followers of the Banu Shaiban. 
 Meeting the caravan, which had descended from the hill, 
 he bade them go back, explaining what had happened. 
 Accordingly they hurried back and entered Kufah. Abu 
 Tahir pursued the imperial troops and the caravans up 
 to the gate of Kufah ; the commanders of the imperial 
 forces who have been named went out and were defeated 
 by him, Jinni Safwani being taken captive. For six 
 days Abu Tahir remained outside Kufah, ( 146 ) entering 
 the town in the day and leaving it at night, to pass the 
 night in his camp ; and removing everything which could 
 be carried off, including four thousand embroidered robes 
 and three hundred skins containing oil. When he had 
 removed everything which could be conveyed away, he 
 went home to his own city. 
 
 Ja far b. Warqa brought his defeated troops back to 
 Baghdad, where Muqtadir proceeded to order Mu'nis to 
 march to Kufah to fight the Qarmaflan. The people 
 of Baghdad were seriously alarmed, and most of those 
 who lived on the Western bank migrated to the Eastern. 
 By the time Mu'nis reached Kufah Abu Tahir had evacu¬ 
 ated it. So Mu'nis left Yaqut there as his deputy, 
 and himself proceeded to Wasit. No-one could complete 
 his pilgrimage. 
 
 Year 313. 1 
 
 This year news arrived that 'Ali b. Tsa had gone on 
 pilgrimage to Meccah from Egypt, and his chamberlain 
 Salamah came to Baghdad bringing cheques for 147,000 
 dinars, with an account of various improvements and 
 reforms that he had effected. He had been confirmed 
 by Khasibi in his inspectorship of Egypt and Syria. 
 
 It is evident that many events of this year have already been narrated. 
 
164 A.H. 314. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Ibrahim Misma'i 1 in this year conquered the dis¬ 
 trict of Qufs 2 , taking five thousand prisoners whom he 
 brought to Fars. 
 
 Fresh dates were exceedingly abundant in Baghdad 
 this year ; indeed preserved dates were made of them 
 and these were exported to Basrah, which was regarded 
 as a highly improper proceeding. 3 
 
 The Byzantine Emperor this year sent a proclamation 
 to the people on the frontiers commanding them to pay 
 him tribute (kharaj). Unless, he wrote, you do this 
 unresistingly, I shall attack you ; for I have ascertained 
 your weakness. 
 
 ( 147 ) Year 314. 
 
 This year the Byzantines entered Malatia , 4 where 
 they remained sixteen days, laying the place waste and 
 taking the inhabitants into captivity. 
 
 In it Abu'l-Qasim 'Abdallah b. Mohammed Kha- 
 QANi died, having been released and sent to his house. 
 When the cry announcing his death was raised, his house 
 was seized in search of his son 'Abd al-Wahhab, who 
 however could not be found. 
 
 In it the people of Malada entered Baghdad to implore 
 help against the Byzantines' attacks. 
 
 In it Meccah was deserted by its inhabitants, who 
 removed their families and goods, hearing that the Qar- 
 madan was in their neighbourhood and fearing for their 
 lives and possessions. 
 
 Kalwadhani wrote to Khasibi informing him that 
 Abu Talib Zaid b. 'Ali of Nubandajan had assumed 
 the attitude of a local potentate, having seized imperial 
 
 1 He had been assigned the revenue-farming of Fars and Kirman. 
 
 2 A mountainous district in Kirman, of whose inhabitants Yaqut gives a 
 lengthy description in his Geographical Dictionary. According to one of his 
 authorities they bore no resemblance to human beings. 
 
 * Basrah itself being the place where dates ordinarily were cheapest. 
 
 4 See Lebeau-Saint Martin xiii. 444. 
 
VlZIERATE OF KHASIBI. 165 
 
 estates, and that three million dirhems were due from 
 him for the revenue which he had obtained from them. 
 In the memoir which he drew up about this he referred 
 to what had been written by Abu’l-Qasim ‘Ali b. A#mad 
 b. Bistam at the time when he was appointed to Fars. 
 The vizier wrote to Hasan b. Isma'il, who had gone to 
 settle a dispute between Misma'i and Karkhi, to fine the 
 delinquent a hundred thousand dinars ; #asan b. Isma'il 
 sent for Zaid b. ‘Ali, and took his bond for that sum. 1 
 
 Account of an unfortunate scheme of Khasibi, whereby he 
 lost control of most of the retainers , which could not 
 
 afterwards be recovered. 
 
 The vizier Abu'l-‘Abbas Khasibi arranged that Yusuf 
 b. Dewadadh 2 should be put in charge of all the Eastern 
 provinces, the whole of whose revenue should be paid 
 to him, to be devoted with the revenues of the provinces 
 which he farmed, Armenia and Adharbaijan, to paying 
 his officers, troops and retainers. The vizier wrote to 
 Yusuf bidding him come to Wasit, to be sent to Hajar 
 to fight against Abu Tahir Jannabi. He advised that 
 he should be addressed by his kunyah , and that Mu’nis 
 the Mu^affar ( 148 ) should remain in Baghdad, to 
 strengthen the imperial government by his presence and 
 inspire its enemies with fear. When Ibn Abi'l-Saj 
 approached Wasit, Mu'nis the Muzaffar, who was there, 
 departed to Baghdad, and Wasit was entered by Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj. Before entering the place the latter de¬ 
 spatched Abu ‘Ali Hasan b. Harun— a clerk of his, 
 who used to serve him in private business as deputy to 
 Abu ‘Abdallah Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani, and 
 had won his confidence and affection—to negotiate with 
 Khasibi respecting the sums to be paid to his troops, 
 the revenue of the provinces for which he had obtained 
 a contract, and the provinces whose revenues had been 
 
 1 The consequences of this will appear at the time of the rise of 
 the Buwaihid. 
 
 2 Better known as Ibn Abi'l-Saj. 
 
166 
 
 A.H. 314. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 assigned to his forces in addition to the moneys already 
 mentioned. Now Khasibi had assigned the revenues 
 coming from the kharaj and the Estates in the regions 
 of Hamadhan, Sawah, Ruzah, Qumm, Mah al-Basrah, 
 Mah al-Kufah, the two Ighar , 1 Masabadhan and 
 Mihrijan-Qudhaf, to Ibn Abi'l-Saj for his table during 
 his campaign against Jannabi. Muqtadir ratified this, 
 and ordered that he should be appointed to the ministries 
 of prayer, public security, kharaj and Estates in all the 
 districts of the Jabal. He sent him a standard, and 
 called him by his kunyah. Prior to this Yusuf used to 
 employ his kunyah in dealing with all persons except the 
 vizier and Munis the Mu^affar. His agent ffasan b. 
 Harun requested that the amount allotted to his table 
 should be five thousand dinars per month ; alleging that 
 he was not inferior to A/unad b. Su'luk, for whose table 
 there had been assigned during the vizierate of i^amid b. 
 ‘Abbas three thousand dinars a month, with ten thousand 
 every two months of the pay-months of the retainers 
 for the maintenance of retainers who did not appear. 
 The clerks demanded that #asan b. Harun should accept 
 a stipulation that the Sultan should send a paymaster 
 to expend the revenues of those regions upon the troops 
 and retainers of Ibn Abid-Saj. #asan b. Harun accepted 
 all their demands and signed the documents containing 
 them except this of the paymaster ; thinking that his 
 master would not wish to represent himself before the 
 provincial officials in the light of a man who could not be 
 trusted to be honest with his own men. 
 
 When Ibn Abid-Saj was invested with the govern¬ 
 ment of the Jabal, and sent to fight the Qarmafian, 
 ( 149 ) the governor of Khorasan was given charge of 
 Rayy, whither he proceeded, and an official was de¬ 
 spatched to speak with him about the revenue which he 
 
 1 The two Ighar were Karaj and Burj, districts assigned to ‘Isa and Ma'qil 
 sons of Abu Dulaf (ob. 225). The name applies to lands of which the tax is fixed 
 
 at the time of assignment, and which are not subject to alterations in the 
 assessment. 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 167 
 
 had arranged to transmit from Rayy. Meanwhile Ibn 
 Abi'l-Saj came to Wasit, 1 whither Muqtadir sent him 
 imperial robes, a sword and belt of gold, horses with gold 
 and silver trappings, perfume and armour. 
 
 Account of the arrest of Khasibi and appointment of ' Ali 
 
 b. ‘Isa to the vizierate. 
 
 Khasibi's financial difficulties became serious, and his 
 position untenable. Mu'nis recommended the appoint¬ 
 ment of 'Ali b. 'Isa. The hour after sunrise on Thursday 
 11 Dhu’l-Oa'dah (Jan. 18, 927) officers were sent to arrest 
 Khasibi, his son, and his clerks, who were conveyed to 
 the Palace and confined under the charge of the 
 Stewardess Zaidan. Khasibi and his son were separated, 
 and the rest of the prisoners were transferred to the 
 vizier's palace at Mukharrim. At the time of Khasibi's 
 arrest Nazuk sent to protect his former residence from 
 pillage. Muqtadir summoned Abu'l-Qasim 'Ubai- 
 dallah b. Mohammed Kalwadhani to an audience at 
 which he informed him that 'Ali b. 'Isa had been 
 appointed vizier, and that he (Kalwadhani) was to under¬ 
 take the duties of his deputy. Salamah Tuluni was 
 also summoned and ordered to proceed by the desert 
 route to Damascus and fetch 'Ali b. 'Isa. Kalwadhani 
 proceeded in the barge wherein Khasibi had been arrested 
 from the Palace to the palace of the vizier in Mukharrim, 
 attended to the business, and wrote letters to the officials 
 in the provinces and to all princes, postmasters, secret 
 service agents and judges, to the effect that 'Ali b. 'Isa 
 had been appointed vizier and he himself deputy. He 
 proceeded to discharge the functions of vizier, issuing 
 orders and prohibitions, and appointing and cashiering 
 officials. 
 
 That day Abu 'Ali Ibn Muqlah and Abu'l-Fath 
 al-Fadl b. Ja'far Ibn JTinzabah issued from conceal¬ 
 ment and went to salute Kalwadhani. 
 
 1 The text has Rayy, clearly an oversight. 
 
168 
 
 A.H. 314. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 (150) The vice-vizier ate of Kalwadhani for 1 Ali b. ‘Isa, 
 
 and his conduct of affairs. 
 
 Khasibi had got together all the bonds of the persons 
 who had incurred fines, the guarantees of those who had 
 given security for them, and the contracts of the revenue- 
 farmers in the Sawad, Ahwaz, Fars, and the West. He 
 had in his possession besides the bond of the secretary 
 of Misma i for a million dirhems to be paid at once on 
 account of the increase in the amount due from him as 
 farmer of the revenue of Fars, 1 and that of Sulaiman b. 
 i^asan for 400,000 dinars and a fraction, as rectification 
 of the accounts of the two sons of ‘Abd al-Wahhab ; 
 further the bond of the same for 500,000 dinars guar¬ 
 anteed by him from the provinces of Syria ; further those 
 of the revenue-farmers of Wasit, Basrah, the Khorasan 
 Road, the Nahrawanat, Nahr Buq, the Lower Dhi'b, 
 Jazar and “ the Ancient City,” 2 and of others. Kal¬ 
 wadhani secured all these for ‘Ali b. ‘Isa to whom he 
 delivered them on his arrival. 
 
 Nu.sair b. Ali paid him 200,000 dirhems and Ahmad 
 b. Ishaq b. Zuraiq 10,000 dinars ; and a week after the 
 dismissal of Khasibi there arrived a despatch-rider from 
 Sulaiman b. i^asan with letters containing cheques to 
 the value of 80,000 dinars. There also arrived the 
 revenue sent by land from Egypt by ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, 3 and 
 ten thousand dinars from Burjumali in Qumm, and 
 cheques for 400,000 dirhems from Abu ‘Ali Ibn Rustam 
 on account of the revenue which he farmed. This enabled 
 Kalwadhani to keep things going. He paid stipends to 
 all the pay-earners and to the cavalry before the Feast. 
 The awe of Ali b. ‘Isa which filled men's minds helped 
 Kalwadhani to administer affairs, which he continued 
 to do. Ali b. Isa proceeded from Damascus to the 
 
 1 Hitherto he has appeared as minister of public security there. 
 
 2 According to Yaqut the part of Baghdad which had been inhabited before 
 Mansur s foundation. 
 
 3 See above, p. 146. 
 
Second Vizierate of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. 
 
 169 
 
 Bridge of Manbij, whence he went down the Euphrates 
 towards Baghdad. People went out to meet him : 
 some of them as far as Raqqah. 
 
 ( 151 ) Year 315. 
 
 Account of the administration of 'Ali b . 'Isa in this 
 vizierate and what happened in his days. 
 
 Reaching Baghdad he first presented himself at the 
 Palace, which he reached after the latter evening prayer, 
 accompanied by Mu’nis ; he was courteously addressed 
 by Muqtadir, and proceeded to his residence ; the same 
 night Muqtadir sent him splendid raiment, furniture and 
 cash, it is said, to the value of 20,000 dinars. On the 
 morrow he presented him with a robe of honour ; Mu'nis 
 on this occasion accompanied him to his home in spite 
 of the protestations of 'Ali b. 'Isa. After establishing 
 himself in his official residence he went, preceded by 
 Harun b. Gharib, Shafi', Muflih, Nasim, Yaqut, 
 Nazuk, and all the commanders, to his house at the 
 Bustan Gate. 
 
 Attempts had been made to irritate the new vizier 
 against Hisham, who kept away in alarm ; the vizier 
 wrote to reassure him, and when in consequence Hisham 
 visited him, the vizier said to him : It is not my practice 
 to remember injuries, and when God delivered me from 
 San‘a and I returned to Meccah, I made a vow that I 
 would do no harm to any of those who intrigued to ruin 
 me when I was in office. I leave them all to God. You in 
 old times rendered services which give you a claim upon 
 me and me a still greater claim upon you. You may not 
 observe your duty in the matter, but I shall continue to 
 observe mine. 
 
 ‘Ali b. 'Isa gave Kalwadhani charge of the bureau of 
 the Sawad, telling him that it was the most important of 
 the bureaux ; if, he said, you were to be distracted by 
 the vice-vizierate, it would suffer, and there is no-one 
 
170 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 who can manage it as you can.—He proceeded to arrange 
 the offices and appoint officials, and put the bureaux in 
 order. He relied on Ibrahim b. Ayyub to present him 
 financial reports, and to instruct the Treasurer what to 
 disburse each day, demanding of him weekly budgets, 
 m order that he might know as quickly as possible ( 152 ) 
 how much had been spent, how much received and what 
 balance there was. Previously the practice had been 
 that when the accounts for a month had been closed, no 
 
 report was brought to the bureau until the middle of 
 the next month. 
 
 He appointed Abu'l-Fath al-Fadl b. Ja'far Ibn 
 //inzabah to the bureau of the East, and Abu Bakr 
 Mohammed b. Jinni to that of the West; Abu 'Ali Ibn 
 Muqlah to that of the private and of the New estates ; 
 Abu Mohammed #usain b. Ahmad Madara’i to that of 
 the Confiscated estates of Ibn al-Furat; Abu Mohammed 
 b. Rauh to that of the Control of the kharaj and public 
 estates in the Sawad, Ahwaz, Fars, Kirman, and other 
 places belonging to the same bureau ; Abu'l-Qasim Ibn 
 al-Naffat to that of the Control of expenditure and of 
 the Treasury ; Abu Ja'far Qummi to that of the Palace ; 
 Abu Ahmad ‘Abd al-Wahhab b. #asan to that of the 
 Charities and that of Alms : Abu’l-Fath Mohammed 
 b. Ahmad TCalansuwah to that of the Control of the 
 Army , Mohammed b. Tsa to that of the Haram 1 and 
 Abu Yusuf to that of the signet and the seal. 
 
 He further appointed competent men in the provinces 
 and reduced their pay to ten months in the year, and that 
 of the postmasters and paymasters to eight months. He 
 made reductions in the pay of the infantry on guard and 
 the cavalry, and all the clerks and tradesmen who earned 
 pay from these two institutions ; and from all those who 
 did not bear arms. He removed from the pay-list the 
 infants of the paid soldiery, &c. ; he reduced the allow¬ 
 ances of the eunuchs and court attendants, courtiers, 
 
 Probably the Sultan s domestic expenditure- 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 171 
 
 table-companions, minstrels, purveyors, and intercessors ; 
 and those of the retainers and dependents of the heads 
 of bureaux. He attended to business personally night 
 and day, and held meetings with the heads of the 
 bureaux at night, sitting' up most of the night until 
 things had been brought into order and a balance be¬ 
 tween revenue and expenditure been established. At 
 the time Abu 'Abdallah Baridi farmed the private 
 estates and the fief of the viziers, while his brother Abu 
 Yusuf Baridi managed for the vizier the kharaj (153) in 
 Ramhurmuz, both plain and mountain. 
 
 Report of the discussion between the vizier ‘Ali b. ‘Isa and 
 his predecessor Ahmad b. ‘Ubaidallah Khasibi. 
 
 Muqtadir ordered ‘Ali b. ‘Isa to examine Abu’l- 
 ‘Abbas Khasibi, who was brought out of his prison and 
 examined in the Palace in the presence of the Ustadhs, 
 the commanders, and the judges, but gently. He was 
 asked how much he had realized from the kharaj, the 
 Estates and the provinces ; he did not know. He was 
 asked how much he had disbursed from the Treasury 
 in the capital ; he could not remember. He was asked 
 how much he had realized from the assets of persons who 
 had been fined, from their bonds for fines, from money 
 guaranteed on their behalf, and what he had himself 
 guaranteed to obtain from such persons.—He replied 
 that during the fourteen months wherein he had held 
 office he had realized in fines about a million dinars.— 
 He was asked how much of this had been got from the 
 Khaqani set ; for (said the vizier) the Commander of the 
 Faithful has told me that you undertook to obtain half 
 a million dinars from them.—He replied that Khaqani 
 had been protected by Mu’nis the Mu^affar.—This was 
 denied by the company, who said to him : He was put 
 in your power, until you were charged with poisoning 
 him, when you released him.—Then ‘Ali b. ‘Isa asked 
 jiim: Why did you summon Yusuf Ibn Abi’l-Saj to 
 
172 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Wasit, and put into his power all the Eastern provinces 
 except Ispahan ? And how could you suppose that he 
 could march with people accustomed to the mountains 
 and to the life there by the main land in the direction of 
 the coast among the regions round Hajar ?—He replied 
 that he had supposed that measure to be right.—Then 
 the vizier asked : When you took that step, why did not 
 you content yourself with making him muster his troops 
 and his retainers, letting them be paid on the same prin¬ 
 ciple as the army of Mu’nis, to which certain revenues 
 are assigned, paid through paymasters appointed by the 
 Sultan, who have to render their accounts to the bureaux 
 of the Army, and not to one bureau only but to all; so 
 that there is no increase of pay ( 154 ) and no transference 
 from rate to rate except by recognized promotion, and 
 the paymasters save every month a considerable sum 
 through fines and falling out ? Why did you not leave 
 the provinces in the hands of the Sultan’s agents, assign¬ 
 ing to them the duty of providing the pay of his troops 
 as is done in the case of the troops of Abu’l-Hasan Mu’nis 
 the Muzaffar ? He said : I did not follow that course 
 because Yusuf had undertaken a tremendous task which 
 necessitated extra liberality in his treatment.—The vizier 
 asked: Why did you grant Ibrahim b. ‘Abdallah 
 Misma'i the revenue-farming of Fars and Kirman ?— 
 He replied : Because of the increase which he offered.— 
 The vizier rejoined : Do you not know that it is more 
 important to protect the principal than to seek extra 
 profit ? Grant that you were anxious to obtain this 
 increase, why did you not summon him to the capital, 
 and if after his arrival you wished to grant him the con¬ 
 tract, why not make him remain there and put deputies 
 in charge of his business, and only let him go after he 
 had given good security for the payment ?—He replied : 
 His desire to obtain the contract was conditional on his 
 working it himself.—The vizier replied : I hope that God 
 will let no harm result.—Then he went on : Why did 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 173 
 
 you pocket two thousand dinars a month as the stipend 
 of your son, who never read a letter nor attended at the 
 office nor is good for any business whatever ?—He 
 replied : I asked the Commander of the Faithful if he 
 might have the same salary as was given to Mu^assin 
 and ‘Abd al-Wahhab son of Khaqani, and he assented.— 
 The vizier replied : Mufessin was bred in the public 
 offices and did administer; wicked, unscrupulous and 
 impious as he was, he was a clerk. Khaqani's son did 
 act as his father's deputy, issuing orders and prohibitions, 
 and doing intelligent service ; whereas your son behaved 
 unlike either of these. Give your bond that you will 
 refund what he received.—He retorted : How am I to 
 refund money which he has received and spent ?—The 
 vizier asked : On what did he spend it ?—He replied : 
 On what young men ordinarily spend such sums. 
 
 Then the vizier questioned him about the goods of 
 the fined officials, and the amount that had been realized 
 from this source. He said : I do not remember the 
 figure, but it is entered in the bureau of the fined officials. 
 —The vizier : It is about that I am asking you.— 
 Khasibi: It is in the possession of Hisham, ( 155 ) and if 
 he be asked he will give you the information. He is in 
 possession of the papers of the fined officials, the guar¬ 
 antees, and the estimates.—The vizier : You are the 
 first person who has handed the bonds of the fined 
 officials to the chief of the bureau of fines ; it has been 
 the practice to retain the bonds in the archives of the 
 viziers, one vizier handing them on to the next. If your 
 idea was to increase the importance of the bureau, you 
 should have taken the bonds in duplicate, one copy for 
 the bureau, and the other to remain in your possession. 
 Suppose the head of the bureau were to sell the bonds 
 of the fined officials, the securities and the guarantees of 
 the revenue-farmers, could there have been a greater 
 disaster to the Sultan in connexion with all this property 
 than yourself ? If this be your management of the only 
 
174 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 subject which you understand, what can have been 
 your method with regard to the other business of the 
 bureaux ? Either you have been betraying your trust, 
 or you have been mismanaging every branch of the busi¬ 
 ness.—‘Ali b. ‘Isa addressed him the whole time without 
 using any offensive expression or raising his voice. 
 
 Then he said to him : You have brought dishonour 
 on the empire, by scourging women, and have violated 
 decorum by putting them in the power of men ; for what 
 purpose did you deliver the daughter 1 of Ja'far b. al- 
 Furat to Aflah, a handsome young man, who con¬ 
 trived to marry her when in your custody ? For what 
 purpose did you have Daulah and her son beaten in 
 your presence, and not content with this keep the whole 
 party in the custody of your retainers and chamberlains 
 a number of months ?—He went on to say : You have 
 taken as your stipend five thousand dinars a month • 
 in fourteen months that amounts to seventy thousand 
 dinars, in addition to the stipend which your son has 
 been receiving. From your fief you have obtained in a 
 year and two months as appears from the stamps of 
 your collector found in your office 180,000 dinars. This 
 makes a total of 250,000 dinars.—Thereupon he produced 
 a document in the writing of ‘Ali b. Mohammed b. 
 Rauh 2 showing this sum, and showing that he had 
 disbursed each month in permanent expenses 2,500 
 dinars ; total for fourteen months 35,000 dinars For 
 ( 156 ) occasional expenses, presents, maintenance of 
 establishment, with cost of perfume and wearing apparel 
 20,000 dinars. Cost of ground added to his dwelling 
 and of building thereon 40,000 dinars. Presents for the 
 Persian New Year’s Day and the Autumn to the Caliph, 
 the two Princes (his sons) Abu’l-‘Abbas and Harun, the 
 Queen-mother, her sister, Zaidan and Mufli h, 35,000 
 dinars. Cost of mules, horses, camels, eunuchs and 
 
 1 MuAassin's wife. 
 
 * His father was controller of the Bureau of the Sawad, &c. 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 175 
 
 slaves, 10,000 dinars. Money spent on officers of the 
 vizier's palace, such as deputy-chamberlains, door¬ 
 keepers, messengers, and presents to mounted men and 
 infantry, 20,000 dinars. 
 
 In reply Khasibi said : This is a correct account, 
 only I have not made notes of all my expenses; thus I 
 have had ornaments made for my women and children, 
 and spent other sums which I have concealed from my 
 secretary ; but for all that I have neither stolen nor 
 embezzled.—The vizier : No-one asserts that you did 
 either, only you have been wasteful and a bad manager, 
 and have meddled with what you did not understand. 
 Had you taken many times the amount with which we 
 have debited you, the Commander of the Faithful would 
 have asked you no questions about it, especially as these 
 sums are charged against your salary and your fief, and 
 the provision made for expenses which you necessarily 
 incurred. How shall we challenge them, when we like 
 all the clerks of the Commander of the Faithful have to 
 live by his bounty ? I myself possess estates which I 
 earned in his service and that of his ancestors, on whom 
 God have mercy. 
 
 'Ali b. Tsa continued in this courteous style and 
 ultimately obtained his bond for 40,000 dinars to be paid 
 within forty days, after he had sworn that he had no 
 means of raising more. 'Ali b. Tsa handed the paper 
 to Muffin, bidding him present it to the Commander of 
 the Faithful, and say to him: Though this man over¬ 
 estimated his own abilities, and was wasteful and 
 negligent, still respect is due to him as a servant of the 
 Commander of the Faithful, and he has sworn by his 
 oath of allegiance that this sum is the utmost which he 
 can raise. He is not to be blamed ; the fault lies with 
 those who deceived you about him, and gave you bad 
 advice in respect to his appointment.—He further wrote 
 a letter to Muqtadir stating that he had accepted ( 157 ) 
 
176 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Khasibi s offer and had put him in the custody of the 
 Stewardess Thumal until he should have paid the amount 
 on which they had ultimately agreed. 
 
 Account of ' Alt b. ‘Isa’s policy in this vizier ate. 
 
 When 'Ali b. 'Isa examined the state of affairs, he 
 found the most serious matter to be financing the Masaffi 
 infantry, whose pay in his time amounted to eighty 
 thousand dinars, and that of the troops of Mu nis the 
 Muzaffar, which came to six hundred thousand dinars a 
 year, exclusive of the infantry in attendance on him and 
 the H ujaris who were under his orders ; for that had to 
 be furnished together with the pay of similar troops * 
 the payment of Mu nis s troops was assigned to certain 
 provinces selected by Mu nis himself. After making 
 provision for the purposes mentioned, he proceeded to 
 deal with the pay of the deputy-chamberlains, court- 
 attendants, physicians, mounted men of disbanded 
 regiments, astrologers, bedmakers, cooks, grooms, and 
 other paid attendants. One day when he left the*pres¬ 
 ence of Muqtadir to embark in his barge, the eunuchs 
 
 and court-attendants used violent language towards 
 him. 
 
 News having reached 'Ali b. 'Isa that Ibrahim b. 
 al-Misma'i 1 had been taken violently ill, and had died 
 in Nubandajan, he recommended the appointment of 
 Yaqut to the ministry of war and public security in Fars, 
 and that of Abu Tahir Mohammed b. 'Abd al-Samad 
 to the ministry of public security in Kirman ; robes of 
 honour were bestowed on both and standards conferred 
 on them. The vizier further wrote to Qasim b. Dinar, 
 bidding him proceed with all haste to Fars as minister 
 of kharaj and Estates there. The similar offices which 
 he had held in Ahwaz were assigned to Abu'l-#asan 
 
 Ahmad b. Mohammed b. Mabandadh and Ibn Abi’l- 
 Salasil. 
 
 1 See index s.v. Misma’i. 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 177 
 
 ( 158 ) Abu’l-Faraj Ibn Abi Hisham narrates : When 
 Abu Abdallah Baridi learned of the investiture of 
 these persons with the financial administration of Ahwaz 
 and its neighbourhood, he said : These provinces are 
 assigned to these people, while my brother Abu Yusuf 
 has to content himself with Surraq, and I myself with 
 farming the revenue of the Private Estates ! Take, 
 Abu Hisham, this document (meaning the letter which 
 had arrived assigning him this office), and give it to your 
 son to model his writing upon. My drum is going to 
 make a noise which you shall presently hear.—Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi had sent his brother Abu’l-#usain 
 to the capital, when he heard that 'Ali b. 'Isa was getting 
 into difficulties, with instructions to endeavour to secure 
 for him the financial administration of Ahwaz should 
 the new vizier be a man who accepted secret profits ; 
 for 'Ali b. ‘Isa was too honest to do so. 
 
 When Abu 'Ali Ibn Muqlah became vizier, Abu’l- 
 #usain Baridi went to Abu Ayyub the broker, offering 
 twenty thousand dinars ; in consequence his brother 
 Abu 'Abdallah was given charge of the districts of Ahwaz 
 with exception of Sus and Junddisabur. Abu’l-Ffusain 
 himself was given charge of the Ibn al-Furat estates, 
 and the other brother Abu Yusuf of the Private 
 Estates and the low grounds ; it was stipulated that 
 the money offered should remain in the broker’s 
 possession until the promises were carried out. When 
 they were carried out Ibn Muqlah received the money. 
 He then gave an order that Ibn Abi’l-Salasil should 
 be arrested, and Abu 'Abdallah Baridi went per¬ 
 sonally to Tustar and seized him with his dependents. 
 In his coffers and in the hands of his collector ten 
 thousand dinars were found. These were taken by 
 Baridi, who instructed Ibn Abi’l-Salasil to give a cheque 
 for the sums held by the collector in payment of fictitious 
 expenditure. From his clerk Baridi took two thousand 
 dinars, from his deputy three thousand, and from his 
 
178 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 door-keeper two thousand.— Abu 'Abdallah Baridi 
 was one of the champion scoundrels of mankind. Strong 
 representations were presently made to Ibn Muqlah that 
 he had appointed Baridi to a post of which he was not 
 worthy, so that the vizier dismissed him, making Abu 
 Mohammed #usain b. Ahmad Madara'i controller, 
 and various persons managers of the preliminary business. 
 Abu Mohammed did nothing at all, ( 159 ) being accom¬ 
 panied from the metropolis by his secretary and deputy 
 ‘Ali b. Yusuf, who made a display of stupidity and 
 incompetence which rendered him a bye-word. 
 
 To begin with Abu 'Abdallah Baridi blocked the 
 roads, and intercepted all his correspondence, so that 
 from the time he entered Ahwaz until the time he was 
 cashiered not a letter of his was read. Presently there¬ 
 fore he was dismissed by Ibn Muqlah, who gave Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi his place, saying that he had been 
 deceived by the physique of the sheikh , and that not 
 every one who made a good clerk was also a successful 
 administrator. 
 
 We return to the story of ‘Ali b. 'Isa and his imperial 
 policy. When the budget of receipts was brought to 
 him, he found a surplus on the viziers' fief, after payment 
 of permanent expenses, amounting to 170,000 dinars. 
 He wrote to Muqtadir to state that he could dispense 
 with this fief, having saved money, while his own estate 
 was prosperous, as also his trust, 1 owing to his being 
 again employed by the Caliph ; he also could spare the 
 salary allotted to the vizier, which with the amount 
 given to Khasibi’s son came to seven thousand dinars a 
 month.—Muqtadir wrote to thank him, but told him 
 that he must on no account decline the customary stipend. 
 ‘Ali b. 'Isa however vowed that he would accept no 
 stipend for his service, as his practice was to avoid luxury. 
 
 1 Land nominally devoted to religious purposes : see above, p. 112. 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. ‘Isa. 
 
 179 
 
 This year there was a rising of the disbanded cavalry, 
 who went out to the Oratory, plundered the castle called 
 Thurayya, and slaughtered the game in the ffa’ir, and the 
 cattle belonging to the villagers round about; Mu'nis 
 went out to them, and promised the payment of their 
 allowances, whereupon they returned to their homes. 
 
 In this year too a robe of honour was bestowed on 
 Mu'nis in connexion with his being despatched to the 
 frontier, the Byzantine Emperor having entered SumaisaJ, 
 where the naqus 1 was beaten in the public mosque, and 
 the Byzantines held a religious service of their own. 
 
 In the same year the loyalty of Mu'nis the Muzaffar 
 showed signs of failing. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 (160) One of the eunuchs of Muqtadir informed 
 Mu'nis that the Caliph had ordered certain of his con¬ 
 fidential servants to dig a pit in the apartment of the 
 Palace known as the Tree-house, with the following 
 design. When Mu'nis came thither to bid the Caliph 
 farewell, before his departure for the frontier, other 
 people were to be excluded, and Mu'nis received by 
 himself in that court. Then on his way he should fall 
 into that covered pit, upon which the eunuchs should go 
 down and strangle him ; it should be publicly stated 
 that he had died of a fall into a cellar. So Mu'nis kept 
 away from the Palace, and was visited by all the com¬ 
 manders, retainers and courtiers, with ‘Abdallah b. 
 JTamdan and his brothers, and most of the Arabs ; and 
 the Palace was cleared of troops. ‘Abdallah b. flamdan 
 said to Mu'nis : We shall fight before thee, O Ustadh 
 until thy beard grow. 2 —Muqtadir sent Nasim the cup¬ 
 bearer to him with an autograph wherein the Caliph 
 
 1 The wooden hammer still used in some Christian communities in lieu of 
 a bell. 
 
 8 Mu’nis was a eunuch. 
 
180 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 swore that the story which had been told him was false. 
 Mu'nis then dismissed the soldiers who were gathered in 
 his house and replied to the autograph in suitable style, 
 adding that, as he had not summoned any one, it was 
 not his fault that the soldiers had gathered in his house.— 
 Ibn amdan declined to leave, and vowed that he would 
 not quit Munis's dwelling night or day until they had 
 paid a joint visit to the Palace and he was satisfied that 
 Mu nis was safe. So he remained with Mu'nis many days. 
 There was added to this the fact that the payment 
 of Mu nis and his troops had been charged on Ishaq b. 
 Isma il, and this person was unable to meet it. ‘Ali 
 b. Tsa was estranged from him owing to certain things 
 recorded as done by him during ‘Ali's absence ; as the 
 cavalry mutinied owing to the delay in the receipt of their 
 pay, Ali b. Isa pressed Is^aq b. Isma'il for it, and put 
 him into custody, making him give a bond for 50,000 
 dinars out of the revenue which he farmed ; he also put 
 in custody Ahmad b. Yahya al-Jalakht his clerk, and a 
 number of his associates, until he had made up the sum. 
 He then dismissed him from his offices. He also pressed 
 the finance officials in the Sawad so that he realized 
 within the three days the amount spent on the comrades 
 of Mu nis. Muqtadir wrote to the chief commanders 
 to the effect that he granted a pardon for (161) their 
 pillaging and burning Thurayya. The letter was read 
 out to them and they expressed their gratitude ; they 
 also requested that certain of their number who had been 
 suspected of these acts might be attached to Mu'nis the 
 Mu^affar and accompany him to the imperial presence. 
 So he went down with them and was received by Muq¬ 
 tadir, before whom he kissed the ground, while Muqtadir 
 swore to the excellence of his intentions towards Mu’nis, 
 who bade him farewell. 
 
 Ali b. Isa then read to the Caliph a letter which he 
 had received from Wasif Bektimuri to the effect that 
 the Moslems had counterattacked the Byzantines and 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 
 
 181 
 
 defeated them, and all the troops who were with them, 
 and had slain many and made large captures. Mu'nis 
 proceeded from his residence to his camp at the Sham- 
 masiyyah Gate, escorted by the prince Abu'l-'Abbas, 
 the vizier 'Ali b. 'Isa, the Chamberlain Nasr, and Harun 
 b. Gharib. 
 
 Then there arrived an envoy from the Byzantine 
 emperor bearing a letter from the emperor's vizier (the 
 logothete), to the vizier 'Ali b. Tsa, requesting a truce. 
 
 First appearance of the Dailemites. 
 
 This year saw the first appearance of the Dailemites ; 
 the first of them who obtained possession of Rayy after 
 the departure of Ibn Abi'l-Saj 1 being Laila b. Nu'man ; 
 then Makan b. Kaki, who entered the service of the 
 governor of Khorasan, 2 who had sent him a written 
 invitation, which he accepted. Rayy was then seized 
 by Asfar b. Shirawaihi, 3 one of whose captains was 
 Mardawij b. Ziyar. Now when Asfar b. Shirawaihi 
 got possession of Qazwin, he imposed on the inhabitants 
 a vast contribution of money, and treated them with 
 violence and cruelty ; he gave his Lailemites control 
 over their lives and goods, deprived them of all rights, 
 and tortured their officials to an extent which astonished 
 him, not to speak of other people. The inhabitants lost 
 heart and nerve, and '' their souls mounted their wind¬ 
 pipes." 4 They despaired of life and longed for (162) 
 death. Men, women and children made a joint proces¬ 
 sion to the Oratory to implore the help of God and his 
 aid in relief of their distress, passing a whole day in this 
 manner. 
 
 1 The reference is to the first departure of Ibn Abi’l-Saj, since the defeat 
 and death of Laila is recorded above in the year 309. In 314 Rayy was handed 
 over to the governor of Khorasan. Tanukhi records the warning against the 
 Dailemites sent in the latter year by Ibn Abi’l-Saj. 
 
 2 Mas'udi says Makan was in the service of Hasan b. Qasim. 
 
 3 According to Mas'udi sent by Nasr the Samanid to recover Rayy from 
 Hasan b. Qasim. 
 
 4 Surah xxxiii. 10, 
 
182 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 The news of this were brought to Asfar, who made 
 light of their prayers ; but the following day Mardawij 
 rebelled, attacked and put him to flight; he fled pre¬ 
 cipitately and for a whole day though pursued was not 
 caught. The day after, being hungry, he took refuge 
 at a mill in a village, and asked the miller for food ; the 
 miller produced bread and milk ; while Asfar was eating, 
 Mardawij came in sight of the place, and finding that 
 the marks of the horse's hoof went no further, he paused 
 to look about. Seeing a labourer, he caught hold of him 
 and asked him about Asfar ; the man declared he did not 
 know him, but when intimidated, said that though he 
 was not acquainted with Asfar, he had seen a mounted 
 man entering the mill. Mardawij broke into the place, 
 and finding Asfar eating bread, decapitated him. He 
 then returned to Qazwin, quieted the people, remedied 
 their grievances, put a %top to the extortion, and after 
 
 making fair promises departed. So their prayer was 
 answered. 1 
 
 Mardawij proceeded next to conquer Rayy and 
 Ispahan ; he ill-treated the people in the latter, seizing 
 goods and violating women, and playing the tyrant. He 
 seated himself on a throne of gold, below which was one 
 of silver, whereon the person whom he chose to favour 
 took his seat. In days when he received official visits 
 he arranged his army in lines at a distance from him. 
 Mardawij laid heavy burdens on his men, who were in 
 great awe of him. He used to say that he was Solomon 
 the son of David, and his men the demons. He humili¬ 
 ated the Turks, who became disaffected towards him, 
 and sought an opportunity of doing him a mischief. 
 Hatred of him took possession of the hearts of both 
 
 1 The account of this matter given here differs somewhat from that which 
 is given in the year 321, where it is stated that Makan and Mardawij agreed to 
 attack Asfar. The account given in Ibn Isfandiyar's chronicle is again different. 
 He makes Makan kill “ Mohammed b. Su'luk,’' governor of Rayy. Above 
 
 this was done by Ibn Abi’l-Saj. Mas'udi connects the incident of the mill with 
 //asan b. Qasim, 
 
183 
 
 Second Vizierate of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. 
 
 high and low, who were tired of him. The people of his 
 realm were downhearted in his days. 
 
 One day (my authority says) he was riding in a great 
 cavalcade, and had gone into the desert. He used on 
 such occasions to go between the files at a distance from 
 them, and no-one would venture to approach him. The 
 crowd was wondering at his fierceness and his pride, when 
 the ranks (163) were penetrated by an unknown sheikh 
 on horseback who cried out : This miscreant has gone 
 too far , and before this day comes to an end you shall wrap 
 him in his grave-clothes , and God shall take him. The 
 people were amazed and bewildered. I (says Abu 
 Makhlad ‘Abdallah b. Yahya) was in the cavalcade ; 
 the people gazed at each other, and no-one uttered a 
 syllable. The sheikh passed like the wind. The people 
 then said *. Why do we not follow him and make him 
 repeat what he said, and ask him whence he knows this , 
 or capture him and bring him before Mardawij, who, if 
 he hears the story, may blame us for letting him go ? 
 They galloped after him right and left down every road 
 and path, but he was not found ; it was as if the earth 
 
 had swallowed him. 
 
 Mardawij then returned, attended to nobody, entered 
 his house, and undressed ; he then entered his bath and 
 lingered long. One Kurtakin was his privileged 
 attendant who guarded and looked after him in his 
 privacy and at his bath \ but on this occasion he was 
 told not to follow and so lagged behind in a bad humour. 
 The Turks getting the opportunity attacked Mardawij 
 in his bath and murdered him after he had defended 
 himself with a silver basin which he held in his hand. 
 One of the Turks slit open his belly, and when the 
 entrails fell out, supposed that he had killed him. Wh.en 
 he came out to his associates, they asked where his head 
 was. He informed them that he had slit open the belly, 
 but that did not satisfy them, so they went back to cut 
 
184 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 °«? e head They found him standing on two chairs 
 m the bath, having put back the entrails and holding his 
 e y wit his hand ; he had also with the assistance of 
 the man who looked after the bath broken the skylight 
 and was about to climb out on the roof. When they 
 saw him m this condition they beheaded him. The 
 aftair became known between noon and the afternoon 
 
 Pra , y f r ,’, a i the Turks who had been with him went out 
 them* thCir COmrades and rode to the stables to plunder 
 
 This year too Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad became famous 
 and was favoured by ‘Alt b. ‘Isa. Account of this ’ 
 
 matter . 
 
 The reason for this was that Ibn Shirzad used to act 
 as secretary to Harun b. Gharib, (164) and look after 
 1 his affairs. Harun s cupidity was aroused with regard 
 to his possessions, and he was charged with serious 
 offences. Harun arrested him on Wednesday 8 Jumada i 
 
 Mu’iirs 11 7 ih 92 -P’ and handed him over ^ his eunuch 
 Mu nis, with orders to confine him strictly and let him 
 
 W T n °H lnk ' A ! n ° lett6r arriV6d from him t0 his brother 
 
 fh P n SAN + k AKARIYYA ' who was in the employ of 
 the Queen-mother s sister as head of the office of her 
 
 estates, he informed his mistress of his brother’s case 
 
 and she complained to the Queen-mother; the latter 
 
 sent one of her eunuchs to Harun, and rescued Ibn 
 
 Shirzad from him, bringing him to the Palace The 
 
 Queen-mother ordered his release; but Harun b 
 
 Gharib put the case before ‘Ali b. 'Isa, stating that he 
 
 had , b ? rr ? W< T d large sums from him for Khaqani for 
 which he had got allocations, which he had appropriated 
 
 My secretary Mu’ammal (he said) has drawn up an 
 
 account showing that he owes a vast sum. I shall be 
 
 satisfied if some one in whom the vizier has confidence 
 
 * ^ m ° re elaborate account of this affair is given later nn c 
 
 the details appear to be quite inconsistent. S Some of 
 
Second Vizierate of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. 185 
 
 examines that statement.—‘Ali b. ‘Isa ordered Abu 
 Yusuf, secretary to the Queen-mother, to go to Harun’s 
 house, where Mu'ammal and his clerks were present, 
 and they examined the statement. 
 
 The first charge in this statement was that in one of 
 the sets of papers in his office there was found a report 
 of his receipts on allocations 1 assigned to Ibn Shirzad 
 by Khaqani for the loans which he had received from the 
 property of Harun b. Gharib, wherein he stated that he 
 had received fifteen thousand dinars; but that he 
 (Mu ammal) had not found this sum among the receipts 
 of the collector which were entered in the bureau. Ibn 
 Shirzad's clerk in this bureau was Ibn Abi Maimun, 
 who made the following statement : The sum, he said, 
 was entered in the receipt-book of the collector, and my 
 chief has an autograph of the prince, acknowledging 
 the receipt of it, and he brought the money into the 
 presence of the prince, who expended it on the purchase 
 of the house of Mu^assin, which was bought of the 
 Caliph's agent during the vizierate of Abu’l-Qasim 
 Khaqani. The identical receipt-book was produced 
 and the receipt found there. Only the writer of 
 the receipt-book had entered the sum as though it 
 were an item in the preceding account, whereas it should 
 have been written distinct and separate from the pre¬ 
 ceding item. Abu Yusuf ( 165 ) and Mohammed b. Jinni 
 found that the matter was as the clerk of Ibn Shirzad 
 had stated ; and Ibn Shirzad produced the autograph 
 of Harun b. Gharib acknowledging the receipt of the sum 
 from the aforesaid source, and stating that it had been 
 paid to the Treasury as the price of the house ; and the 
 receipt of the Treasurer was also produced. 
 
 Under the second head it was noticed that one fourth 
 of the sum paid to the cavalry in Harun's army was paid 
 
 The word here used is ordinarily applied to revenue allocated to special 
 payments. The charge then was that certain funds having been assigned for 
 the payment of what Harun had lent, his secretary had appropriated them. 
 
186 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 in dirhems, at the rate of sixteen dirhems for a dinar ; 
 and that he had not put down the change as paid to the 
 men. More than twenty thousand dinars were due from 
 him on this account for the period of time wherein he had 
 been Harun's secretary. They produced the receipt- 
 books and found that the collector had reckoned what 
 went to the men's pay in silver only without putting 
 down anything for the change. Ibn Shirzad's clerk 
 defended him on the ground that the change was put 
 down in a part of the book which dealt with the sources 
 of the moneys and in the last paragraph of that chapter, 
 containing what had been saved from this and other 
 sources on the payments made by Harun b. Gharib. 
 And this part of the book was produced. 
 
 When these two charges had been refuted, and they 
 constituted the most important parts of the statement, 
 Abu Yusuf and Mohammed b. Jinni rose, and Ibn Shir- 
 zad with them ; Harun however turned to him and 
 said : This foolish and incompetent clerk of mine has 
 made a fool of me, plague on him ! I have injured 
 myself by dismissing you ; however, if you enter the 
 employ of any one else, I shall do all sorts of things ;— 
 threatening him. Ibn Shirzad went and recounted this 
 to ‘Ali b. Tsa, and this led to the vizier interesting himself 
 in Ibn Shirzad, whose trial became the talk of 
 the society of clerks. 
 
 In this year there came a rumour as also a despatch 
 from Fariqi from Basrah to the effect that a numerous 
 Qarmadan army, making in the direction of Kufah, had 
 passed by the gate of Basrah nearest the desert. Muq¬ 
 tadir in consequence wrote to Mu'nis the Mu^affar, 
 bidding him return to Baghdad, 1 and he returned from 
 Takrit, reaching Baghdad after the afternoon prayer, 
 having sent a detachment of his army to the frontier. 
 
 1 We last heard of him as encamping at the Shammasiyyah Gate, being 
 9 -bout to start for the frontier, 
 
187 
 
 Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 
 
 ( 166 ) Yaqut went out to his camp at Za'faraniyyah 1 
 on his way to his appointment in Fars. 
 
 In this year Yusuf Ibn Abfl-Saj arrested his secretary 
 Abu 'Abdallah Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani and 
 gave his place to Abu 'Ali #asan b. Harun. He put 
 the other into heavy fetters and took from him on the day 
 of his arrest money, furniture, clothing, and slaves to the 
 value of 100,000 dinars. He also took his bond for half 
 a million dinars, being the fine which he assessed himself. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason for this was the luxury, extravagance and 
 pomp which he had practised in Wasit; so lavish was he 
 with his expenditure that in his house at Wasit he had 
 thirty slaves to dispense drink in the public apartment 
 and twenty in the private. When he was about to leave 
 his house to go to that of his chief Yusuf, an early call 
 would be paid him by all his chiefs commanders, the 
 captains of his retainers and the chief officials, as was 
 done by the people of Baghdad to the viziers on days of 
 state ceremonies. Before this on the journey of Ibn 
 Abfl-Saj from Rayy to Wasit he had assumed the qaba ', 2 
 the belt and the sword, only he did not ride to his chiefs 
 in the black robe, in order to distinguish himself from the 
 Sultan's vizier. All this Ibn Abfl-Saj endured. During 
 his stay in Wasit however he aspired to the vizierate of 
 the Sultan, and learning that Nasr the Chamberlain was 
 ill-disposed towards Ibn Abfl-Saj, he wrote to him and 
 sent a confidential agent to request Nasr to nominate 
 him to Muqtadir for the vizierate in lieu of ‘Ali b. 'Isa, 
 guaranteeing to extract from 'Ali b. 'Isa, his brother, 
 SULAIMAN B. #ASAN, ABU ZUNBUR MaDARA'I, KALWAD- 
 hani, and their dependents a million dinars. He would 
 
 1 Village near Baghdad under Kalwadha (Yaqut). 
 
 * See Dozy’s Dictionary of names of garments. It seems to have been 
 sort of silken tunic or shirt T 
 
188 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 also defray the expenses of the Sultan and the pay of the 
 officials. 
 
 He also brought accusations against his chief, assert- 
 ing that the latter had previously concealed from him his 
 religious beliefs, but when he had come ( 167 ) to Wasit 
 had become more communicative ; and had revealed 
 to him that according to his system he owed Muqtadir 
 no allegiance, and the world in general owed the 
 'Abbasids none ; the '' Expected Sovereign ” being the 
 Alid who was in Qairawan, of whom Abu Tahir (the 
 Qarmadan) was an adherent. He (Nirmani) had ascer¬ 
 tained that his chief was a Qarmadan at heart, and 
 that this was the reason why he had made the 'Alid 1 
 prince his friend and acquainted him with all his secrets. 
 That Yusuf had no intention of moving in the direction 
 of Hajar, his promise of doing so being only a device for 
 securing money. He asserted that he had asked Yusuf 
 in Rabi ii 2 what justification they could allege for dis¬ 
 obeying the Caliph and the vizier, and when he intended 
 starting for Hajar ? The reply had been : Why do not 
 you understand facts ? Who intends starting for 
 Hajar ? He had then asked Yusuf why he had deceived 
 the Sultan with regard to his intentions, and bv pro¬ 
 mising that he would do this secured the delivery into 
 his hands of all the Eastern provinces ?—Yusuf had 
 replied that he regarded it as his duty towards God 
 Almighty to overthrow the Caliph and all the 'Abbasids 
 who had robbed the rightful claimants, and that it would 
 be more righteous to obey the Byzantine tyrant than to 
 obey the Caliph. He had then objected : Suppose you 
 do this, what assurance have you that the Qarmadan will 
 not come to Wasit and Kufah, when you will be compelled 
 to meet him and give him battle ?—Yusuf’s reply had 
 been . Fool, how can I fight a man who is an adherent of 
 the Sovereign and one of his instruments ?—His rejoinder 
 
 1 i.e the ‘Ubaidid. 2 Began June_J>, 927, 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 189 
 
 had been : But suppose he wishes to fight you, what will 
 you do then ?—Yusuf replied : There is no ground for 
 such a supposition, for he has received a letter from the 
 Sovereign at Qairawan forbidding him to tread the soil 
 whereon I am to be found or to fight with me under any 
 circumstances.—Yusuf had finished by saying : I am 
 only waiting till all my men have received their pay for 
 the year 314, and when they are thus fortified, I will 
 first withhold the revenue from Wasit, Kufah and the 
 Irrigation of the Euphrates, sending my own agents 
 thither ; the Sultan will certainly object to my action, 
 and thereupon I will reveal my intentions, pray publicly 
 for the Sovereign, and invite people to his allegiance, 
 and then march to Baghdad, where the soldiers are like 
 women, ( 168 ) accustomed to houses overlooking the 
 Tigris, with their drinks and their ice and their pankas, 
 and their singing-women. I shall take possession of 
 their goods and chattels, and not let the man of Hajar 
 get all the glory, but myself be the man to restore the 
 empire to the Sovereign. Abu Muslim the cobbler 1 was 
 a man of no family, yet he achieved what we know, 
 though when he rose he had not half the numbers that 
 are with me. He merely made his proclamation, and a 
 hundred thousand swordsmen gathered to him.—Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Khalaf added : I have told his Majesty the 
 truth about this affair, and if he appoint me vizier, Ibn 
 Abi'l-Saj will be suppressed and his scheme frustrated. 
 
 I will tamper with his troops and retainers, who will 
 either make him prisoner, or else he will fly off to Adhar- 
 baijan. If I am made vizier, I will renew the command 
 to him to start for Hajar, and if he show his hand, I will 
 counterplot him. 
 
 Nasr communicated all this to Muqtadir, assuring 
 the Caliph that Mohammed b. Khalaf had sworn that his 
 only motives for the step which he had taken were in 
 
 1 Tabari ii. 1727 records an opinion that he was a saddler. 
 
190 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 the first place religious zeal, in the second shame at the 
 thought of this Qarmadan being able to carry out his 
 plot against the Caliph, the court and the people.—Now 
 iJasan b. Harun served as deputy to Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf, before whom he regularly stood, and on whom 
 he waited as the latter waited on Ibn Abi’l-Saj. When 
 he saw the intimacy of Mohammed b. Khalaf with Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj, he became ill-disposed towards Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf, and determined to get him arrested and ruined. 
 He communicated his intentions to Abu Bakr Ibn al- 
 Muntab, whom he had attached to himself and over 
 whom he had acquired influence. It so happened that 
 Ibn al-Muntab was drinking at Wasit with some of his 
 friends, among whom was 'Abdallah b. 'Ali Jarjara'i, 
 revenue-farmer of SilA and Mabarik. This person asked 
 him to express his gratitude to i/asan b. Harun for 
 favours conferred. Then he went on to say: And 
 please put a letter of mine before our master Abu 
 'Abdallah Mohammed b. Khalaf, wherein I ask him to 
 let #asan b. Harun know my gratitude, and to bid him 
 increase the cause of it.— ( 169 ) Ibn al-Muntab said to 
 him : For God’s sake do not do that, for Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf is highly displeased with #asan b. Harun, and 
 is very likely to have him arrested and ruined.—Jar- 
 jara’i remembered this and used it as a means of currying 
 favour with #asan b. Harun. Presently a dispute arose 
 between Mohammed b. Khalaf and Jarjara’i on the 
 subject of some moneys demanded of the latter and 
 allocated to persons in whom Mohammed b. Khalaf was 
 interested. Mohammed b. Khalaf began to use violent 
 and menacing language and ordered Jarjara’i to be turned 
 out of the room in a most humiliating fashion. Jarjara’i 
 and #asan b. Harun then conspired against Mohammed 
 b. Khalaf, and employed secret service men till they 
 learned about his intrigues for obtaining the vizierate 
 from Muqtadir, and his accusation of his chief. Jar- 
 jara’i proceeded to inform Ibn Abi’l-Saj of this, winning 
 
Second Vizierate of ‘Ali b. 'Isa. 191 
 
 his favour thereby ; and Ibn Abi'l-Saj set detectives to 
 spy on Mohammed b. Khalaf till he ascertained that he 
 had repeatedly sent a confidential eunuch to Baghdad, 
 ostensibly for the purchase of clothes, furniture, horses 
 and slaves, but really to negotiate with Nasr in his plot 
 against Ibn Abi’l-Saj. Ibn Abi’l-Saj ordered Jarjara'i 
 to guard the roads through which the eunuch would 
 travel, and flasan b. Harun to note the time at which 
 the eunuch was despatched. When he started from 
 Wasit, i/asan b. Harun informed Ibn Abi'l-Saj, who sent 
 trusty agents to waylay the eunuch, arrest him on his 
 return from Baghdad, and hand him over to JarjaraTs 
 agent at Jarjaraya, Jarjara’i having been ordered to send 
 some one to await him there. The letters found on the 
 eunuch were sent to Ibn Abi’l-Saj, and they turned out 
 to be in the writing of Nasr’s secretary, and replies to 
 communications from Mohammed b. Khalaf, evidently 
 referring to hints, suggestions and innuendoes, contain¬ 
 ing designs against the life and position of Ibn Abi’l-Saj 
 and proposals for the appropriation of his goods and 
 chattels, with a warning not to put off the arrest of ‘Ali 
 b. ‘Isa.—Ibn Abi'l-Saj immediately despatched H asan 
 b. Harun to the capital (170) with the usual letters and 
 despatches to ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, together with the actual docu¬ 
 ments that had been seized ; bidding him add orally : 
 This man has been plotting against my life and yours 
 and the lives of your friends ; I wish to arrest him. His 
 chief offence in my eyes is his plot against you.—When 
 ‘Ali b. ‘Isa had read all the correspondence, he was 
 amazed, and said to //asan b. Harun : Tell my brother 
 Abu’l-Qasim 1 : If you wish to do this in order to rid 
 yourself of this unscrupulous traitor, may you have God's 
 help and favour ; but if you want to do it on my account, 
 I assure you I feel gratitude to no-one so much as I do 
 to anyone who plots to get me dismissed from the 
 
 1 i.e., Ibn Abi'l-Saj. 
 
192 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 vizierate. For prison or banishment would be light 
 compared with what I have to endure as vizier. 
 
 Jarjara’i proceeded to forge letters in the name of 
 the eunuch, ostensibly coming from Baghdad, to Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Khalaf, to the^effect that most of what 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf required was settled and that the 
 eunuch would speedily return to Wasit. This quieted 
 the apprehensions of Mohammed b. Khalaf, who pre¬ 
 sently received a visit from Jarjara’i, who endeavoured 
 to conciliate him, and offered a present of 100,000 dirhems 
 of his own money if he would banish all ill-feeling against 
 him from his mind. Mohammed b. Khalaf supposed 
 this to be sincerely meant, and invited Jarjara’i to eat 
 and drink with him. 
 
 Hasan b. Harun immediately returned from Baghdad, 
 and proceeded at once to the house of Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf, before whom he stood ; Mohammed b. Khalaf 
 said to him using a violent epithet : I have heard how you 
 have been defaming me before ‘Ali b. Tsa, telling him 
 that I am seeking to be made vizier in his place, and how 
 you have besides been setting the circle of the prince 1 
 and his retainers against me. You hound, I shall have 
 you beaten five hundred lashes and I shall take away 
 from you thirty thousand dinars which have puffed you 
 up.—All Hasan b. Harun said in reply was : God be 
 between me and the person who has provoked my master, 
 whose slave and nursling I am.—Mohammed b. Khalaf 
 continued his abuse, then presently said : Have you 
 interviewed the prince ?—(171) Not yet, he replied.— 
 Then go to God’s curse, interview him, and come back.— 
 Hasan b. Harun went to Ibn Abi’l-Saj and told him all 
 he had ascertained about Mohammed b. Khalaf’s plot 
 against him, and the reception which he had from him on his 
 return from Baghdad. 
 
 1 Ibn Abi'l-Saj. 
 
Second Vizierate of ‘Ali b. 'Isa. 
 
 193 
 
 Ibn Abi’l-Saj then said to the Treasurer who received 
 from Mohammed b. Khalaf the moneys transmitted to 
 him to be spent on his master’s troops, retainers, and 
 requirements generally : A short time ago you brought 
 me some money, half of which was out of circulation, 
 or spurious, or coinage of Khorasan, 1 stating that 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf had brought it to you to spend on 
 the officials and other purposes, and adding that the ex¬ 
 change was ruinously high. Tell me how it is now with 
 what he brings you.—The Treasurer replied : What he 
 brings now is worse than ever. Out of a hundred 
 thousand dirhems which he brought to-day I have picked 
 out fifteen hundred that are new, two thousand that are 
 good, though not firstrate, and forty thousand that are 
 bad and out of circulation.—The treasurer proceeded to 
 show how enormous was the exchange on all these coins. 
 —Ibn Abi’l-Saj said to him : When Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf comes this evening, do you present yourself, 
 bringing the money just as it is, and inform me that all 
 my retainers and troops are becoming disaffected on 
 account of this.—The Treasurer carried out these instruc¬ 
 tions, and Ibn Abi'l-Saj, addressing Mohammed b. Khalaf, 
 said : You know, Abu 'Abdallah, that no-one may take 
 money of this sort, and it would be better to make my 
 men miss a month and then give them money that was 
 good or approximately so.—Mohammed b. Khalaf flew 
 into a passion and exclaimed : This hound would never 
 have had the courage to talk to me in your presence on 
 this matter, had he not ascertained your ill-feeling towards 
 me ; and that ill-feeling has been fostered by the person 
 who calculates that he will be appointed your secretary, 
 I mean this barbarian #asan b. Harun. And little do I 
 care for him, your treasurer, and the whole lot of your 
 
 1 In 195 Amin forbade the circulation of coins struck by his brother Ma’mun 
 
 in Khorasan. Tabari iii. 795. Apparently the coinage of Khorasan got a bad 
 
 name thence. 
 
194 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 retainers and your troops ! I got you your post, and 
 by Allah from now I will attend to your affairs no longer, 
 so do what you please.—Shaking his fist in the face of 
 Ibn Abi 1-Saj, he left the room.—Ibn Abi'l-Saj adjured 
 him (172) to come back, but he vowed that he would 
 n °b After a lengthy scene, when Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf had nearly reached a vestibule, where he would 
 have got out of sight, Ibn Abi'l-Saj called out to his 
 slaves . Put your hands on the nape of this hound, this 
 miscreant, this swine, and let me hear the sound of a 
 cuff upon it !—So he was cuffed some hundred times, and 
 his sword and belt removed. Ibn Abi'l-Saj then sum¬ 
 moned Jarjara i (who instantly presented himself), and 
 despatched him to the house of Mohammed b. Khalaf 
 to secure it and arrest all his slaves and dependents and 
 seize his treasures. Jarjara'i had a reputation for honesty 
 and trustworthiness. Yusuf ordered Hasan b. Harun 
 to undertake the secretaryship in place of Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf, and made him swear that he would enter the 
 chamber where the latter was confined and load him with 
 fifty ratls’ weight of fetters, and clothe him in a shirt 
 such as weavers wear.—ffasan b. Harun carried out 
 these orders, saying to the prisoner : Tell me, Mohammed 
 b. Khalaf, were deceived by my addressing you as 
 Master ? I was mocking you. Which of us two was the 
 deeper and the craftier, you or I ?—After insulting him, 
 cuffing him and scourging him, Hasan b. Harun obtained 
 his bond for 600,000 dinars, of which he had paid 
 about fifty thousand by the time when Ibn Abi'l-Saj 
 started from Wasit for Kufah to fight against the man 
 of Hajar. Ibn Abi'l-Saj took Mohammed b. Khalaf 
 with him in fetters ; the war prevented his thinking 
 about him, and he himself was made prisoner whereas 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf escaped, 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 195 
 
 Account of the battle fought betiveen Ibn Abil-Saj and the 
 Qarmatian, the imprudence displayed by the former, 
 in making light of the enemy, resulting in his being 
 made prisoner, and his further experiences until his 
 
 execution . 
 
 Yusuf b. Dewadadh (Ibn Abi’l-Saj) wrote from Wasit 
 to the vizier 'Ali b. 'Isa, asking that money should be 
 transmitted to him to be spent on the necessary pre¬ 
 paration of provisions and forage between Wasit and 
 Kufah, pleading that the revenue of the Eastern pro¬ 
 vinces was delayed, and that the speedy approach of the 
 man of Hajar did not permit him to wait for the arrival 
 of the revenue from (173) the Jabal; and he added 
 that nothing less than 100,000 dinars would be sufficient 
 for his purpose. 'Ali b. 'Isa showed his letter to Muq- 
 tadir, who ordered 70,000 dinars to be taken from the 
 Private Treasury and transmitted to him. 
 
 News came of the departure of Abu Tahir himself from 
 Hajar on Wednesday—13 Ramadan (Nov. 14, 927) ; 
 he encamped at a place called al-Hass, two days journey 
 from al-A/^sa, where he remained till Saturday, on the 
 morning of which he started again. The Sultan wrote 
 to Ibn Abi’l-Saj giving news of Abu Tahir’s movements 
 and ordering him (Ibn Abi’l-Saj) to hurry to Kufah. 
 'Ali b. 'Isa wrote to the authorities at Kufah, bidding 
 them provide supplies and forage for Yusuf. The latter 
 left Wasit on Wednesday—1 Ramadan (Nov. 28, 927), 1 
 in the direction of Kufah. Salamah Tuluni, who 
 had brought him the money, left him and went home. 
 
 When Abu Tahir of Hajar approached Kufah, he 
 released all the captive pilgrims whom he had with him, 
 while the authorities of the Sultan fled from Kufah, so 
 that Abu Tahir was able to seize all the food and fodder 
 got ready for Yusuf, to the amount of a hundred kurr 
 
 1 One of these dates must be wrong, since if the last night but one was a 
 Wednesday, the last night but thirteen could not also be Wednesday. 
 
196 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 of meal and a thousand kurr of barley. His own stores 
 had by this time run low, and he with his followers had 
 been suffering in consequence. These acquisitions gave 
 them strength. Yusuf reached the outside of Kufah on 
 Friday 8 Shawwal (Dec. 7, 927), to find that Abu Tahir 
 had got there one day earlier and intercepted him. 
 
 Abu Tahir is reported to have stated that on the road 
 between Wasit and Kufah his army had come near that 
 of Yusuf, but owing to the fog neither army saw the other. 
 He was himself aware of the enemy's proximity, and had 
 he wished could have attacked.—Yusuf sent to invite 
 Abu Tahir to return to his allegiance ; if he refused, then 
 he summoned him to battle on the Sunday.—The 
 messenger narrated how ( 174 ) when he reached Abu 
 Tahir s camp, he was taken into a place where there 
 were a number of people dressed alike, and told to speak, 
 as the Sayyid was listening ; he did not know which of 
 them it was. He delivered his message and received the 
 reply that the Sayyid did not accept the proposal, nor 
 agree to delay the battle. So it commenced on Saturday 
 9 Shawwal (Dec. 8), at the gate of Kufah. It is said 
 that when Ibn Abi'l-Saj saw the army of Abu Tahir and 
 ascertained its numbers he utterly despised it, saying i 
 Who are these dogs ? After an hour they will be in my 
 hands.—So contemptuous was he that he ordered the 
 bulletin of victory to be written before the engagement. 
 The two armies then advanced. 
 
 When the Hajarites heard the sound of the trumpets 
 and drums with the shouting of the army of Ibn Abi'l- 
 Saj, and these were very loud, one of them turning to his 
 companion, asked What's this row ?—He replied : Funk. 
 
 The other said : Aye .—He said no more. It was the 
 practice of Abu Tahir to have no trumpets, drums or 
 shouting in his army. Ibn Abi'l-Saj arrayed his forces, 
 remaining at a distance himself with his retainers 
 according to a custom of his in battle. The engagement 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 197 
 
 began after sunrise on the Saturday and lasted till sunset. 
 Ibn Abi'l-Saj displayed no lack of determination, harass¬ 
 ing the troops of Abu Tahir with arrows, and wounding 
 many. When this was seen by Abu Tahir, who was standing 
 in a chariot with some two hundred trusted horsemen 
 near the walls of al-#aiz (the Outhouse), he descended 
 from his chariot, mounted a horse, and charged with his 
 friends. Yusuf also charged with his retainers ; a fierce 
 combat ensued between the two parties, and by the end 
 of the day Ibn Abi’l-Saj was taken prisoner with a wound 
 in his forehead. His retainers had urged him to retire, 
 but he had declined, so he with a number of retainers 
 fell into the hands of Abu Tahir after many (175) of his 
 followers had been killed and the rest taken to flight. 
 
 Yusuf after being taken prisoner at sunset was 
 brought to the camp of Abu Tahir ; a tent was pitched 
 and furnished for him, and he was guarded. They 
 fetched a medical man named Ibn al-Subai'i, who nar¬ 
 rates as follows : When, he said, I came into the tent 
 where he was kept prisoner I found him seated having 
 on him a vest of silver-coloured satin, of which the collar 
 and chest were of red satin, stained by the blood which 
 was flowing from the wound on his forehead. Finding 
 that the blood on his face was congealed, I asked for some 
 hot water, but was told by one of Abu Tahir's people 
 that they had none, and no instrument for heating it; 
 having left their baggage near Qadisiyyah, and with it 
 everything that was not required for the battle. So I washed 
 his face and wound with cold water and treated the latter. 
 He asked my name and what I was called, and when I 
 told him, I found that he had known my family when 
 he was at Kufah as a lad with his brother Afshin , 1 who 
 was governor of the place. I was surprised at his memory 
 and his acuteness, and his indifference to his condition. 
 
 1 He is mentioned by Stephanos of Tajon as “ vostikan of the Persians 
 before Yusuf, 118, 119. See above p.'19. 
 
198 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 The report of the battle and the capture of Ibn Abi’l- 
 Saj reaching ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, he hastened to the Palace, and 
 together with^Nasr^the Chamberlain and Munis the^ 
 Muzaffar proceeded to communicate the intelligence to 
 Muqtadir. It spread fast, and high and low became 
 terribly afraid of Abu Tahir. The whole population 
 bethought them of migrating to Wasit and then to Ahwaz. 
 Mu nis pitched his camp on the Ushnan 1 parade-ground, 
 with the intention oLmarching to Kufah. There came 
 however a despatch from the governor of Qasr Ibn 
 Hubairah to ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, informing him that Abu T ahir 
 and his followers had left Kufah on Tuesday 12 Shawwal, 
 (Dec. 11, 927) in the direction of ‘Ain Tamr. ‘Ali b! 
 Isa hastened to hire five hundred boats (176) wherein 
 he embarked a thousand men, and a number of barges 
 and launches, which he made cross from the Tigris to 
 the Euphrates, wherein he embarked a company of the 
 H ujari retainers, who were to prevent the Hajarites 
 from crossing the latter river ; he also ordered various 
 
 commanders to go by land from Baghdad to Anbar to 
 guard the latter. 
 
 On the Friday the people of Anbar and the com¬ 
 manders there saw the cavalry of Abu Tahir advancing 
 from the Western side, and they hastened to break 
 down the Anbar bridge. Abu Tahir waited until he was 
 able to cross by boats, and on the following Tuesday a 
 hundred of his men crossed that way, unperceived by 
 the Sultan’s followers, until they had reached Anbar. 
 An engagement then commenced between them and some 
 of the commanders. When the place was cleared of 
 the Sultan’s troops, Abu Tahir restored the bridge of 
 Anbar, and crossed leaving his baggage on the Western 
 bank, and with it Ibn Abi’l-Saj. When the imperial 
 troops on the launches learned that Abu Tahir had re¬ 
 stored the bridge, they went by night and set fire to it. 
 
 1 A bridge of this name is mentioned by Yaqut and located by Le Strange. 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 199 
 
 Thus Abu Tahir with part of his followers was left on the 
 Eastern bank of the Euphrates, while his baggage was on 
 the Western bank ; and the launches and barges were 
 between. When the news of Abu Tahir's crossing to 
 Anbar and slaughter of the commanders there came to 
 the capital, Nasr the Chamberlain started out with the 
 H ujari troops, the Masaffi infantry, and all the com¬ 
 manders left in Baghdad, preceded by the imperial 
 ensign, which is like any other standard, only black in 
 colour, with the legend in white Mohammed is the Apostle 
 of God. 
 
 Mu'nis had already arrived at the gate of Anbar, and 
 his forces united with those of Nasr ; the cavalry, infantry 
 and other ranks with them amounted in numbers to over 
 40,000 men. Abu’l-Haija and his brothers Abu’l- 
 Walid, Abu’l-'Ala, and Abu'l-Saraya came out with 
 his friends and Arabs. Nasr arrived before Mu'nis at 
 the bridge of the canal called Zubara in the region of 
 ‘Aqr Qub some two parasangs from Baghdad ; 1 presently 
 Mu'nis came up with him, and their forces united on the 
 canal. (177) Abu’l-Haija advised Nasr the Chamber- 
 lain to destroy the bridge over the Zubara, and indeed 
 insisted on this. When he found Nasr in no hurry to 
 adopt the suggestion, he said : 0 Ustadh, cut it and cut 
 my heard at the same time. 2 Nasr then had the bridge 
 destroyed. 
 
 Abu Tahir with those of his followers who were with 
 him on the Eastern bank of the Euphrates proceeded in 
 the direction of the Zubara ; when he had got to the 
 distance of one parasang from the imperial army, at the 
 end of Monday 10 Dhu'l-Qa'dah (Jan. 5, 927), 3 he spent 
 the night where he was, and started early next day in 
 the direction of the Zubara bridge. A black foot-soldier 
 advanced in front of the army, and became a mark for 
 
 1 If this be the 'Aqr quf of Yaqut, (Akker Kuf) four parasangs is another estimate. 
 
 2 A terrible form of dishonour. 
 
 3 According to Wdstenfeld this day was a Sunday. 
 
200 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 the imperial archers, and though he got to look like a 
 porcupine with the arrows that stuck in him, he advanced 
 undismayed, only returning when he had begun to mount 
 the bridge and found that it had been cut. Abu Tahir’s 
 followers tried for some time to ford the water of the 
 canal, but, when they found that it could nowhere be 
 forded, they retreated, without however turning their 
 backs. When they reached #asaniyyah, they found it 
 surrounded by water, Nasr and Mu’nis having previously 
 sent and made wide breaches in the embankments, so 
 that the water of the Makhr surrounded Abu Tahir’s 
 army. He remained there the Tuesday, and then pro¬ 
 ceeded with his followers to Anbar ; none of the imperial 
 forces ventured to follow him, or repair the bridge over 
 the Zubara or cross it. Abu’l-Haija’s advice that the 
 bridge should be cut proved to have been a divine in¬ 
 spiration , for had it remained standing, the Parmafians 
 would have crossed by it, nor would they have been 
 dismayed by the numbers of the imperial forces. Those 
 forces would have been routed, and the Qarmadans 
 would have taken Baghdad. For indeed most of the 
 imperial troops fled in disorder to Baghdad when they 
 heard that Abu Tahir had reached the canal, before they 
 had actually cast eyes on the enemy. So terrible was 
 the alarm that filled their breasts after the catastrophe 
 ^ which had befallen Ibn Abi’l-Saj. None among them 
 
 after that imagined that he would be able to stand against 
 Abu Tahir. 
 
 (178) Abu Tahir had with him a number of guides, who 
 led him away from the Makhr ; and he marched in the 
 direction of Anbar. When he and his followers 
 abandoned their encampment by the Zubara, the 
 imperial forces raised loud shouts and cheers, with the 
 view of spreading the intelligence. The despatch-riders 
 hastened to bring ‘Ali b. Tsa the news that they were 
 safe , that Abu Tahir had departed and was retreating 
 to Anbar, that there was no road, ford, or device, whereby 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. ‘Isa. 201 
 
 he could reach his camp, or approach Baghdad. Mu’nis 
 was anxious to capture his baggage with the portion of 
 his force which he had left on the Western side of Anbar, 
 and to rescue Ibn Abi’l-Saj. So he despatched his 
 chamberlain Yalbaq and a number of commanders and 
 retainers of Ibn Abi’l-Saj with six thousand men, 
 thinking Abu Tahir would be unable to cross the 
 Euphrates and rejoin his cavalry and baggage. Abu 
 Tahir, hearing of this, devised a scheme whereby he got 
 separated from his troops, and after walking a long 
 distance reached the deserted region which abuts on the 
 Euphrates ; he there crossed in the boat of a fisherman 
 to whom he is said to have paid a thousand dinars, and 
 got back to his baggage. Having rejoined his followers, 
 he proceeded to offer battle to Yalbaq, who made little 
 resistance, and took to flight, losing a great many men. 
 Abu Tahir happened to notice Ibn Abi’l-Saj outside the 
 tent in which he had been confined, and looking towards 
 the road to see how the battle was going. It occurred 
 to Abu Tahir that his prisoner was trying to escape. 
 So he summoned him into his presence and said : You 
 wanted to run away, did you ? (Others say that Ibn 
 Abi’l-Saj’s retainers had called out to him, and the 
 Qarmafian said : You wanted to be rescued by your 
 retainers, did you ?) He then ordered the prisoner’s 
 throat to be cut in his presence, and the throats of other 
 captives besides. 
 
 After this Abu Tahir devised a scheme which enabled 
 him to get all those troops who had been with him on the 
 Eastern bank of the Euphrates at Anbar across the river 
 to the Western side which is contiguous with the desert. 
 Yalbaq returned to Mu’nis the Muzaffar in a disorderly 
 
 rout. 
 
 ( 179 ) Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Zanji states that the number 
 of Abu Tahir’s" followers was fifteen hundred, seven 
 hundred: horse and eight hundred foot; and that he 
 
202 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 got this information from a man of Anbar, who acted 
 as spy for him and his troops. (Others put the number 
 at seventeen hundred.) He adds : I heard one of the 
 deserters from Abu Tahir, when asked why the imperial 
 forces had taken to flight so quickly, whereas the forces 
 of Abu Tahir had been so stedfast, reply : The reason 
 is that the imperial forces suppose safety to be found in 
 flight, to- which therefore they give the preference, 
 whereas we suppose it to lie in stedfastness, whence 
 we stand firm and do not budge. 
 
 Ali b. Isa organized between the Zubara and Baghdad 
 a series of posts, with a hundred pigeons and a man to 
 each pigeon, whose business it was to send despatches 
 on the wings of these birds every hour about the enemy’s 
 movements. That Baghdad remained safe on the day 
 when the Qarmafians advanced to the Zubara notwith¬ 
 standing the number of highwaymen and men mas¬ 
 querading as soldiers, all anxious to plunder the city 
 was due to the instructions given by ‘Ali b. ‘Isa to Nazuk 
 to patrol with his whole force both morning and evening 
 
 au bo J; h Sldes of the river. Further on the day when 
 Abu Tahir advanced to the Zubara the vizier ordered 
 Nazuk to take his whole force early in the morning to 
 the Harb Gate, and remain -there till evening; and to 
 have continuous proclamation made on both sides that 
 any highwayman or person masquerading as a soldier 
 who was discovered and any one found to be in posses¬ 
 sion of a weapon should be beheaded. So the highway¬ 
 men kept in their dens, and the tradesmen of Muhaw- 
 wal Gate, the Tabiq Canal, the Qalla’in and other 
 quarters shut up their shops, transferred their goods to 
 their residences, and mounted guard. The leading in¬ 
 habitants collected boats which they floated on the canals 
 that communicate with the Tigris ( 180 ) and embarked 
 their goods. Some took them down the river to Wasit. 
 Some who were prepared for emergencies transferred their 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 203 
 
 goods to #ulwan, that they might travel with the 
 pilgrims to Khorasan. No-one high or low had any 
 doubt that the Qarmadans would take Baghdad. Nazuk 
 in accordance with 'Ali b. 'Isa's orders remained on horse¬ 
 back from early morning till the first part of the night 
 was passed ; neither he nor his followers dismounted 
 except to perform their devotions. Tents were pitched 
 for him and them to occupy at night. These measures 
 kept the town safe. 
 
 The Qarmadan next made Hit his objective. Harun 
 b. Gharib and Sa'id b. #amdan hurried to the defence 
 of the place and arrived before him. Mounting its walls 
 they put heart into the inhabitants, who when the 
 Qarmadan arrived fought him with artillery ; many of 
 the Qarmadans were killed and Abu Tahir raised the 
 siege. When the news of this reached Baghdad, general 
 relief was felt ; Muqtadir and the Queen-mother when 
 they heard of his departure gave a hundred thousand 
 dirhems in charity. Mu’nis and Nasr had produced the 
 rolls of the troops who had been amassed on the Baghdad 
 side of the Zubara, taking no account of the Arabs, and 
 exclusive of their own retainers and dependents, and 
 found their number to have been 42,000 ; that of the 
 retainers and dependents 1 was many times more. 
 
 When 'Ali b. Tsa heard of the capture of Ibn Abi'l- 
 Saj, he immediately went to Muqtadir and addressed 
 him as follows : The former Caliphs hoarded money for 
 the sole purpose of suppressing the enemies of our re¬ 
 ligion, such as the Khawarij , and protecting Islam and 
 the Moslems. Now since the demise of the Blessed 
 Prophet no more serious disaster has befallen the Moslems 
 than this. For this man (Abu Tahir) is an infidel, who 
 attacked the pilgrims in the year 311, in an unheard-of 
 fashion. Terror of him has gained possession of the 
 hearts of your servants and of high and low. Now 
 
 1 i.e., of minor commanders. 
 
204 
 
 A.H. 315. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Mu'tadid and Muktafi hoarded treasure ( 181 ) in their 
 private Treasury for emergencies of this style. Not 
 very much at present remains in the private Treasury. 
 Fear God, O Commander of the Faithful, and speak to 
 
 is a pious and excellent woman, 
 and if she has any hoard which she has amassed against 
 any necessity that may overtake her or the empire, then 
 this is the time to bring it out. And if the other thing 
 come about, then do thou depart with thy company to 
 the remotest parts of Khorasan. And now I have given 
 thee true counsel and advice.—The Caliph visited his 
 mother and presently returned to say that she on con¬ 
 sultation with himself had ordered the transference of 
 half a million dinars of her own to the public Treasury, 
 to be spent on the troops. He then asked 'Ali b. ‘Isa 
 how much remained in the private Treasury, and was 
 told by him that there was half a million there. The 
 vizier set to work to economize, and ordered that not a 
 dirhem of this money should be wasted on commissions ; 
 he also collected the money due from the provinces, 
 sending persons to urge the local officials to pay it in.’ 
 Thus he got together another sum. A certain trades¬ 
 man warned ‘Ali b. 'Isa that he had ascertained that a 
 man from Shiraz acted as secret-service man for the 
 Qarmafian, and corresponded with him. The vizier sent 
 a party to arrest him and bring him to the Palace. Ques¬ 
 tioned by ‘Ali b. ‘Isa in the presence of the q a A Abu 
 Umar and the commanders, this person said : I am a 
 follower of Abu Tahir and my reason for following him 
 is that he is in the right, whereas you, your master, and 
 your adherents, are lying unbelievers. In God’s world 
 there must always be His representative and a just 
 sovereign of His appointment; our sovereign is the 
 Mahdi so-and-so son of so-and-so son of Isma'il son of 
 Ja'far ; we are not like the foolish Rafidis, who would 
 have men swear allegiance to a sovereign who is absent 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. 'Isa. 
 
 205 
 
 and awaited. 1 —'Ali b. 'Isa said to him : Give me a true 
 list of the people in Baghdad and Kufah who are in cor¬ 
 respondence with the Qarma/ian.—And why, he retorted, 
 should I give you a list of true believers to be delivered 
 into the hands of infidels, to put them to death ? Never ! 
 —The vizier ordered the man to be cuffed in his presence, 
 then scourged, fettered and laden with a heavy iron collar, 
 and gagged with a chain. He was then delivered to 
 Nazuk ( 182 ) and imprisoned in the Gaol. He died at 
 the end of eight days, having refused to eat or drink. 
 
 The army mutinied. 
 
 Year 316. 
 
 On Thursday 3 MuAarram (Feb. 27, 928) 2 Mu'nis 
 the Muzaffar arrived in Baghdad, having been preceded 
 by Na$r. There had been a mutiny in Anbar, for higher 
 pay ; these demands were maintained in Baghdad, and 
 an extra dinar a head was offered them, which they 
 accepted. 3 
 
 News came that Abu Tahir had entered Dali yah 4 
 on the Euphrates Road, and finding nothing there, had 
 slain a number of the inhabitants. Thence he proceeded 
 to Ra//bah, which he entered after encountering resistance 
 from the inhabitants, whom he massacred after taking 
 the place. Mu'nis the Mumffar was invited to go and 
 meet the Oarmadans, at Raqqah. The inhabitants of 
 Qarqisia had sent a deputation to the Qarmadan 
 soliciting his protection ; he made them fair promises, 
 then sent a herald to proclaim that no-one there was 
 to show himself in the dav; and no-one ventured 
 to do so.—A raiding party sent by him crossed 
 
 1 This is a very early reference to the doctrine now known as that of the 
 Ithna'sharis. 
 
 2 A Wednesday according to Wiistenfeld. 
 
 8 Doubtless per month. 
 
 * West bank, between Ra/ibah and 'Anah. Yaqut. 
 
206 A.H. 316. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 the river on a bridge erected by him at Rahbah, and 
 effected a great massacre of the Arabs, whose camels 
 and sheep he seized. The Arabs conceived very great 
 fear of him, and thought it unlucky to hear his name 
 mentioned. He imposed tribute upon them, one dinar 
 a year on each tent, which they pay to this day. He 
 then proceeded northwards to Raqqah. Mu’nis marched 
 to Mausil, and thence to Raqqah, whence Abu Tahir 
 departed by the Euphrates road, till he reached Rahbah. 
 There he embarked his ( 183 ) stores, &c. in boats, and 
 descended partly by water and partly by land with the 
 view of revisiting Hit. The inhabitants of this place 
 had erected on their wall both large and small machines 
 for hurling projectiles and resisted him, killing some of 
 his men ; so he departed thence in the direction of Kufah. 
 This movement was noised abroad, so Bunayy b. Nafis 
 and Harun b. Gharib were despatched in Nasr’s van. 
 
 The Oarmadan cavalry with Ibn Sanbar advanced to 
 Qasr Ibn Hubairah, where they crossed the Euphrates 
 by a ford, and killed a number of the inhabitants of the 
 Qasr. Nasr the Chamberlain marched out with the 
 commanders and the Masaffi infantry with the intention 
 of engaging Abu Tahir ; Nasr had a sharp attack of 
 fever, yet that did not prevent him from proceeding to 
 Sora. Abu Tahir reached the bank of the river at Sora 
 at sunset. Nasr was then so ill that he was unable to 
 mount his horse ; so he appointed Ahmad b. Kaigha- 
 lagh to take his place, putting him at the head of the 
 army. The Qarmadan however departed before this 
 commander could engage him. Nasr's illness grew worse, 
 his tongue drying up with fever ; he was sent home to 
 Baghdad in a litter, and died on the wav. Shafi‘ 
 Muqtadiri came out to the army with an order from 
 Muqtadir that Harun b.. Gharib was to take the command 
 in lieu of Nasr ; and the new commander brought the 
 army back to Baghdad, 
 
Second Vizierate of 'Ali b. ‘Isa. 207 
 
 Account of the events which led to the dismissal of ‘Ali h. 
 
 'Isa, and the appointment of Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah. 
 
 ( 184 ) ‘Ali b. ‘Isa was aware of the disorganization of 
 the provinces during the ministries of Khaqani and 
 Khasibi; and when he found that the additional pay 
 conceded to the infantry after their return from fighting 
 with the Qarmadans at Anbar came to 240,000 dinars a year 
 in addition to the enormous current expenditure, he was 
 alarmed and terrified thereat ; finding further that the 
 imperial troops were no match for the Qarmadans, and 
 that he had incurred the displeasure of Nasr the Cham¬ 
 berlain, owing to the favour wherewith he was regarded 
 by Mu’nis, he asked Muqtadir's permission to retire 
 from the vizierate. Muqtadir bade him stay on, saying 
 to him : You stand to me in the relation of Mutadid, and 
 I have a claim upon your services} He continued however 
 to press for permission, and Muqtadir consulted Mu’nis 
 the Mu^affar, informing the latter that three persons 
 had been nominated for the office : 
 
 al-Fadl b. Ja‘far Ibn #inzabah. Mu’nis did not 
 advise his appointment, because of the members of the 
 Furat family who had been put to death. 
 
 Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah. Mu’nis did not advise his 
 appointment, owing to his youth. For the vizierate, he 
 said, there is required a man of mature years, who has 
 acquired renown, and possesses talent. 
 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani. Mu’nis did not 
 advise his appointment, assuring the Caliph that he was 
 an ignorant man, incapable of spelling his own name, 
 and reckless. 
 
 Mu’nis then advised that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa should be coaxed 
 to continue in office ; and he himself, meeting the vizier, 
 endeavoured to do this. ‘Ali b. ‘Isa said to Mu’nis : 
 If you were remaining in the capital, I could rely on 
 
 1 Mu'tatfid was the Caliph’s father, and the person who had restored th<? 
 Caliphate after the first period of anarchy. 
 
208 A.H. 316. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 your aid, and would do as you wish ; but you are about 
 to leave for Raqqah. 
 
 Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah, hearing of this conversation, 
 started an active intrigue. 
 
 So when Muqtadir consulted Nasr the Chamberlain 
 about the three, he said : The ability and the social rank 
 of al-Fadl b. Ja'far are undeniable ; but only yesterday 
 you put his uncle to death, and the Furat family are by 
 religion Rafidis. As for Ibn Muqlah, he has no autho¬ 
 rity with the people.—He proceeded to advise the 
 appointment of Mohammed b. Khalaf, owing to what 
 had passed between them, and has been narrated. Muq¬ 
 tadir, knowing his ignorance and recklessness, dis¬ 
 approved. Ibn Muqlah then proceeded to curry the 
 favour of Nasr the Chamberlain, who ultimately recom¬ 
 mended him to Muqtadir, adding that if he proved 
 satisfactory, well and good ; if not, it was open to Muq¬ 
 tadir to dismiss him at any moment. Thus Muqtadir 
 was compelled to confer the (185) vizierate on Abu ‘Ali 
 Ibn Muqlah. 
 
 What decided Muqtadir in his favour was the follow¬ 
 ing fact. When Abu Tahir the Qarmadan approached 
 Anbar, Muqtadir was anxious to obtain information 
 about his movements. The only person who was sending 
 any despatches on the subject was #asan b. Isma‘il 
 Iskafi, governor of Anbar. When Abu ‘All Ibn Muqlah 
 understood the situation, he procured a lot of birds, 
 which he sent to Anbar, and which were used to bring 
 him news of the Oarmadan’s movements from time to 
 
 (V 
 
 time. These he immediately communicated to Nasr, 
 who showed them to Muqtadir. In this way Nasr found 
 the opportunity to commend Ibn Muqlah before the 
 Caliph, arguing that if he attended to the Caliph's busi¬ 
 ness so zealously when he was not in any office, what 
 would he be like when he had become a recipient of the 
 Caliph's favour ? 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MuQLAH. 209 
 
 Account of the arrest of * Ali b. ‘ Isa and the appointment 
 
 of Ibn Muqlah. 
 
 On Tuesday the middle 1 of Rabi‘ i, 316 (May 6, 928), 
 Harun b. Gharib was sent to arrest 'Ali b. Tsa. He 
 went to the residence of ‘Ali b. Tsa accompanied by Abu 
 Ja far Ibn Shirzad, who at that time was out of 
 employment. Harun sent Ibn Shirzad to the vizier, 
 being himself ashamed to deliver the message ; so after 
 informing the other of his business and handing the 
 message to him, he said that he would sit down and wait 
 for the vizier where he was.—‘Ali b. Tsa came dressed 
 in shoes, turban and hood, with a Qur'an and a pair of 
 scissors in his sleeve. He begged Harun to look after 
 his wives and children, which Harun agreed to do ; he 
 then conveyed the vizier with his brother Abu ‘Ali ‘Abd 
 al-Raltman to the Palace, where the former was placed 
 in the charge of the Stewardess Zaidan, whereas the latter 
 was put in the custody of Nasr. The duration of this 
 vizierate had been a year, four months and two days. 
 
 At the end of Tuesday 13 Rabi' i (May 6, 928), Abu 
 ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah was conveyed by river to the Palace, 
 but was not presented to Muqtadir, and was lodged with 
 Nasr in the Palace. Mohammed b. Khalaf 2 canvassed 
 hard for the vizierate, ( 186 ) offering three hundred thou¬ 
 sand dinars down, exclusive of the revenue of the 
 provinces. This alarmed Ibn Muqlah, who presented 
 himself on the morrow at the Sultan's apartments, but 
 again gained no admittance. Pressure was then brought 
 to bear on Muqtadir to ratify the appointment of Ibn 
 Muqlah, while Mohammed b. Khalaf was severely criti¬ 
 cized. The Caliph decided to ratify it ; Ibn Muqlah 
 presented himself on Thursday the middle of the month, 
 was admitted, and received a robe of honour ; as was 
 
 1 He should have said the 13th. Hilal has corrected this. 
 
 2 We were told above that he had escaped from Ibn Abi’l-Saj, but not haw 
 he did so. 
 
210 A.H. 316. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 the practice when a vizier was appointed, some food was 
 brought him from the Sultan’s apartment. 
 
 Twenty days before the dismissal of 'Ali b. Tsa he 
 had written to Abu 'Abdallah Baridi, ordering him 
 to call in the sum which according to the statement of 
 Ibn Mabandadh had been amassed in the treasury of 
 Ahwaz from the revenue of that province, viz., 1,050,000 
 dirhems ; to this was added the sum transmitted by land 
 by Qasim b. Dinar from the revenue of Fars and Kirman, 
 viz., 700,000 dirhems : in addition to the sum trans¬ 
 mitted by Abu 'Ali Ibn Rustam from the revenue of 
 Ispahan, viz., 450,000 dirhems : total 2,200,000 dirhems. 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi possessed the energy and courage 
 requisite at that time, so he wrote to Ibn Mabandadh 
 demanding the money, who wrote to say that it would 
 be paid. Ibn Mabandadh was at Tustar ; Baridi wrote 
 to hurry him, but instead of waiting for him, summoned 
 his clerk, and transmitted 1,200,000 dirhems by the 
 launch, with an undertaking to transmit the rest when 
 the launch returned. 'Ali b. Tsa was dismissed before 
 the remainder of the money arrived. 
 
 We have mentioned how Nasr the Chamberlain had 
 conceived a dislike for 'Ali b. Tsa, owing to the favour 
 shown him by Mu’nis the Mmraffar. So when 'Ali b. 
 Isa fell, Nasr professed to have discovered a man named 
 Jauhari, who admitted that he was an adherent of the 
 Qarmadan, and had been appointed by the latter to act 
 as his intermediary with 'Ali b. Tsa, asserting that the 
 ex-vizier corresponded with the Qarma^ian through him. 
 ( 187 ) He was confronted with 'Ali b. Tsa, and charged 
 him with this to his face. The ex-vizier declared the 
 charge to be utterly false and groundless. Nasr however 
 found a supporter in Ibn Muqlah, and the ex-vizier was 
 near being put to the torture, Muqtadir thinking of 
 having him scourged in the presence of the jurists, judges, 
 and heads of bureaux at the public Gate of the Palace ; 
 only the Queen-mother found means of getting at the 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MuQLAH. 211 
 
 facts of this accusation, and, ascertaining its falsity, 
 was able to convince her son. He therefore cancelled the 
 orders he had given on the subject. 
 
 Ibn Muqlah obtained the bonds of the provincial 
 agents and revenue-farmers for about 100,000 dinars, 
 and Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi, who was a friend of Ibn 
 Muqlah, and was in Ahwaz at the time, learning of his 
 appointment to the vizierate, immediately despatched 
 cheques to the value of 300,000 dirhems, 1 being what 
 remained over in the treasury of Ahwaz after the previous 
 instalment; Qasim b. Dinar and A/rniad b. Mohammed 
 b. Rustam had already transmitted to ‘Ali b. ‘Isa 600,000 
 dirhems, in cheques, which arrived after his dismissal. 
 Ibn Muqlah took them and was able to carry on the 
 business of the state by these accidents. He also issued 
 an order remitting all claims for arrears and fines, with 
 the view of quieting the people’s minds and enabling 
 them to proceed with their occupations. 
 
 In this year a battle was fought between Nazuk and 
 Harun b. Gharib. 
 
 Account of the cause for this. 
 
 The cause for this was the mutual jealousy of the 
 grooms of Harun b. Gharib and those of Nazuk over a 
 beardless boy. This led to a brawl, in consequence of 
 which Nazuk arrested the grooms of Harun b. Gharib 
 and, after scourging them, confined them in the criminal 
 gaol. The followers of Harun b. Gharib then went to 
 the Police Court, where they assaulted Abu’l-Jud, 
 Nazuk’s deputy, ( 188 ) and rescued their friends from his 
 hands. Nazuk thereupon rode to Muqtadir, and com¬ 
 plained of this action ,* as Muqtadir failed to express 
 disapproval to Nazuk’s satisfaction, the latter went away 
 angry and collected his troops. Harun b. Gharib did the 
 
 1 The text has dinars, but the preceding calculation shows that dirhems 
 Stre more likely to be meant. 
 
212 A.H. 316. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 like, and the two passed the night making preparations ; 
 when morning came, the followers of Nazuk proceeded 
 to the dwelling of Harun, who locked them out. Out¬ 
 side the gate there were a number of Harun's retainers 
 and followers, some of whom were killed ; thereupon 
 Harun's gate was opened, and his party came out, when 
 a fierce fight ensued. Nazuk then sent to withdraw his 
 followers. The vizier Ibn Muqlah then rode out, accom¬ 
 panied by Mufli h, to intervene, and began by conveying 
 to Harun (son of Muqtadir's maternal uncle) a message 
 from Muqtadir bidding him desist ; he then went to 
 Nazuk and transmitted a similar message, and the affair 
 came to an end. Nazuk however harboured resentment, 
 and remained in his house, with his retainers, followers 
 and troops. And as a boil appeared on his leg, which he 
 had removed, he made this an excuse for not presenting 
 himself at the Palace. Three days later he was visited 
 by Harun b. Gharib in a durra'ah, 1 and a reconciliation 
 was effected ; Nazuk however continued to stay at home, 
 and Harun b. Gharib went and took up his quarters in 
 the Najmi Garden, 2 to be at a distance from Nazuk. He 
 then became the subject of repeated rumours to the effect 
 that he was to be appointed Prince of Princes. These 
 annoyed the dependents of Mu’nis the Muzaffar, who 
 wrote to him at Raqqah. In consequence he hurried 
 away thence by the Mausil road to Baghdad ; but when 
 he reached the capital, he did not sail to Muqtadir or 
 ask for an audience. The prince Abu'l-'Abbas and the 
 vizier Ibn Muqlah sailed up the river to salute him, and 
 then Nazuk presented himself at the Palace. 
 
 The beginning of strained relations between Mu'nis and 
 
 Muqtadir. 
 
 Harun b. Gharib took up his quarters in the Palace, 
 avoiding the society of Mu'nis the Muzaffar. Abu'l- 
 
 1 The garb of a civil official. 
 
 2 In the part of Baghdad adjoining Baduriyya. 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MUQLAH. 213 
 
 Haija ‘Abdallah b. LTamdan 1 returned from the Jabal, 
 and joined Mu'nis. A long correspondence then took 
 place between Mu'nis and Muqtadir. 
 
 Year 317. 
 
 ( 189 ) Account of the revolt of Nazuk and Abu’l-Haija which 
 led to the dethronement of Muqtadir ; of the subsequent 
 death of the two , and the restoration of Muqtadir. 
 
 On Saturday 8 Mu^arram (Feb. 21, 929) Mu'nis the 
 Muzaffar marched with his army to the Shammasiyyah 
 Gate, and Nazuk rode out of his residence with his 
 retainers and followers in arms. When the latter reached 
 the Bridge, he found it had been cut; so he waited until 
 it had been repaired, when he crossed with his followers 
 and joined Mu'nis. He was then joined by Abu'l-Haija 
 Ibn iJamdan, and the other commanders ; they then 
 moved from the Shammasiyyah Gate to the Oratory. 
 Muqtadir filled his Palace with the troops of Harun b. 
 Gharib and A/hnad b. Kaighalagh, the H ujari and the 
 Masaffi infantry ; but as the day came to its end, the 
 greater number of the troops who were in the Palace 
 broke away, and joined Mu'nis. Mu'nis proceeded to 
 deprive Ni#rir the Less of the government of Dinawar, 
 which he restored to Abu'l-Haija as an addition to the 
 provinces already under his control. 
 
 Mu'nis addressed a letter to Muqtadir wherein he 
 stated that the army complained bitterly of the amount 
 of money and land wasted upon the eunuchs and women 
 of the court, and of their participation in the administra¬ 
 tion, and demanded their dismissal and removal from 
 the Palace, with seizure of their possessions. Muqtadir 
 wrote to Mu'nis the following reply :— 
 
 In the name of God, etc. May God give me good from 
 thee , and not deprive me of thee, nor show me any ill from 
 
 1 We last heard of him saving the situation at the Zubara by his wise 
 advice. 
 
214 A.H. 317. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 thee. I have meditated on the state whereunto our friends 
 and favourites and helpers have come, and whereby 
 they abide, and whereto they adhere, and I find that 
 they seek only the protection of me and my children, the 
 strengthening of my state and my empire, and the produc¬ 
 tion of good and of advantage from every quarter and by 
 every path : God bless them, and do good unto them, and 
 help me to accomplish my good intentions towards them ! 
 As for thee, Abu’l-Hasan the Conqueror,—may I never 
 lose thee !—thou art my teacher and my elder, ( 190 ) thou 
 art he whom I cease not to favour, to honour, to befriend 
 and to support, whether this trouble come between us or 
 not, and whether the bonds between us be broken or be un¬ 
 broken. I hope that thou wilt entertain no doubt thereof 
 when thou art true to thyself and dost reason with thy soul, 
 banishing therefrom all evil thoughts—long may God protect 
 and strengthen it ! Now what our friends propose in the 
 matter of the eunuchs and women, whom they would cast 
 out of the Palace and remove far away, and whose emolu¬ 
 ments for their service they hold should lapse, so that they 
 should be precluded and deprived of their fortunes and kept 
 at a distance from them until they deliver up the money 
 and the estates which are in their hands, and restore them 
 to their rightful owners,—that is a proposal, which, if they 
 properly considered and examined it, they would know to 
 be an unjust proposal, and one whose iniquity is obvious 
 to me. Still so anxious am I to agree with them, and so 
 obedient am I to their pleasure, that I assent so far as is 
 feasible with regard to this class of people of the court ; so 
 I am giving orders for the seizure of some of their fiefs, for 
 the abolition of their privileges, the subjection to assessment 
 of the land which they hold at a fixed rate, and for the re¬ 
 moval from the Palace of all whom it is permissible to expel , 
 while those who remain shall not be permitted to interfere 
 with my administration or counsels. I am also giving 
 orders that the financial officers be instructed in writing 
 to demand in full what is due to the Treasury from those 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MuQLAH. 215 
 
 estates of theirs which are their lawful possessions, as dis¬ 
 tinct from those about which there is some doubt or uncer¬ 
 tainty. I will also myself look after both the high and the 
 low, and mete out to them the most perfect justice and 
 benevolence. I shall rely on no vizier or intermediary 
 whatever ; I shall myself see to the development of resources, 
 to their collection and to their employment on the proper 
 objects, and to their being guarded against damage and 
 diminution. Herein I shall exert myself, and I shall resist 
 the enemies both far and near. I have hitherto neglected 
 this duty only because I relied on you and delegated my 
 functions to you, and was confident that you were my 
 partners and participators, specially affected by both the good 
 things and the evil things of my time, what was bitter therein 
 and what was sweet. Had I known that this would be 
 regarded as a fault on my part, and as a crime for which I 
 should be held guilty, I should have been the first to brave 
 ( 191 ) every hardship, the first to hasten towards it without 
 delay or hesitation. As for you, most of your fortune 
 comes from me, but it voould not be my way to reproach you 
 with any favour that I have conferred and which I both 
 regarded at the time and still regard as small compared 
 with your merits ; nay, it suits me better to fertilize and 
 increase it ; God knows the excellence of my intentions 
 with regard to such favours in the case of you all, and is 
 witness how I long to bring you to the utmost of your aspira¬ 
 tions. As for Nazuk, I know not with what he finds fault , 
 or why he is displeased and put out ; I did not blame him 
 for waging war with Harun the son of my mother's brother 
 Gharib, nor did I prevent him from defending himself 
 against Harun or endeavouring to avenge himself ; I gave 
 no orders for the help of Harun against him neither did I 
 restrain his hand from that whereunto it was stretched out 
 and which was within its reach ; I made no change in his 
 rank, nor did I confiscate any of his possessions, neither 
 did he hear from me or as said by me anything that could 
 vex or annoy him. God forgive us and him ! With regard 
 
216 
 
 A.H. 317. Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 to Abdallah b. #amdan, what has roused his anger 
 is the withdrawal of Dinawar from him * now arrange¬ 
 ments were being made to restore it to him if he wanted it, 
 in which case his demand would be granted ’ or for him to 
 apply for an exchange with some more important province 
 than Dinawar, in which case we shall not fall short of his 
 requirements. For him, for Nazuk, and for the rebels 
 generally I have nothing but forgiveness, mercy and forget¬ 
 fulness, as before, so hereafter ; I may claim from you that 
 oath of allegiance which you have affirmed time after time, 
 and whosoever has sworn allegiance to me has sworn it to 
 God, so that whosoever violates that oath violates what he 
 has vowed to God. I also may claim gratitude for favours 
 and benefits that I have conferred upon you, obligations and 
 kindnesses which I hope you will acknowledge and consider 
 binding ; and for which you will display gratitude and not the 
 reverse. If you return to a better course and repair this grave 
 error dispersing y our hosts and returning quietly to your homes 
 to set about your business and occupy yourselves therewith 
 and resume that service adequately and without negligence, 
 then you will be like one who has never left his station nor 
 done what would lead to his disgrace ; whereas I will be, 
 as you know me, ( 192 ) reliant upon you, ready to favour 
 you, to repose in you, and to overshadow you, thereunto you 
 have the promise to God, ‘' promises to whom must be fulfilled '' 
 (Qur an xvii. 36) . But if you are resolved on defiance, antag¬ 
 onism, the stirring up of strife, and the renewal of disorder, I 
 give you a free hand, and sheathe my sword, and declare before 
 God that I will not stretch out my arm against any one of 
 you, and rely on God to help, aid, and protect me. And I 
 have only left my house and delivered up the right which 
 God has committed unto me as ( Uthman b. ‘ Apfan left his 
 house 1 and delivered up his right when he was betrayed by 
 all his councillors and helpers. This then is my plea 
 before God, my excuse, and by His grace the reason for my 
 hopes of success in this world and the next. " And God 
 
 1 This seems to be inaccurate. 
 
217 
 
 VlZIERATE OF IBN MuQLAH. 
 
 beholds his servants , and is on the watch for the wrongdoers , 
 and God is sufficient for me and He is a good Trustee” 
 
 When this letter reached Mu’nis and its contents had 
 been ascertained by Nazuk and Abu'l-Haija, they decided 
 to reply with the suggestion that Muqtadir should expel 
 Harun b. Gharib from Baghdad. Muqtadir assented, 
 assigning to him the governorship of the frontiers of 
 Syria and the Jazirah. He started the same day, but 
 stopped at Qutfrabull. 
 
 On Monday 10 MuAarram (Feb. 23, 929) Mu'nis the 
 Muzaffar entered Baghdad with the army, but avoided 
 the Palace, being unwilling to let it be damaged by the 
 troops. He 1 made a public appearance however, and a 
 persistent rumour was circulated that an agreement 
 had been made between Nazuk, Abu'l-Haija and Mu’nis 
 the Muzaffar to substitute another Caliph for him. On 
 Wednesday 12 Mu’nis proceeded for the second time to 
 the Shammasiyyah Gate, accompanied by Nazuk, Abu'l- 
 Haija, Bunayy b. Nafis, and all the Commanders with 
 their forces, and thence they moved to the Palace. 
 
 Account of the deposition of Muqtadir , and the accession 
 
 of Qahir. 
 
 ( 193 ) When this whole body moved towards the 
 Palace, Muzaffar b. Yaqut, all the chamberlains, 
 attendants, and eunuchs, and the vizier Ibn Muqlah 
 fled from it, while Mu’nis entered by the Zawiyah Gate. 
 The army in its entirety was introduced into the Palace. 
 An hour after the second evening prayer Muqtadir, his 
 mother, her sister, and his favourite slave-girls were 
 removed from the Palace, and sent up the river to the 
 residence of Mu'nis the Muzaffar. Harun b. Gharib 
 secretly left Qufrabull and hid himself in Baghdad. 
 
 Abu'l-Haija 'Abdallah b. i/amdan proceeded to the 
 
 1 This seems to mean Muqtadir. 
 
218 
 
 A.H. 317/ Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Palace of Ibn Tahir , 1 to bring down the river thence 
 Mohammed son of Mu'tadid ; but Kafur, who was in 
 charge of the house declined to open to him, demanding 
 a sign from Mu’nis ; as he had none with him, he went 
 away. So he with Nazuk went up stream again after 
 obtaining the sign, setting fire on his way to the house of 
 Harun b. Gharib, and brought down Mohammed son 
 of Mu'tarfid, reaching the Palace in the last third of the 
 night before Saturday the middle of MuAarram (Feb. 28, 
 929) ; this person was saluted as Caliph, and homage 
 was done him by Mu’nis and the commanders. He took 
 the title al-Qahir Billah. 
 
 Mu’nis proceeded to release 'Ali b. 'Isa from his 
 prison in the Palace, and let him go home. He sum¬ 
 moned Ibn Muqlah and invested him with the vizierate 
 of Qahir, while bestowing on Nazuk the office of Cham¬ 
 berlain in addition to the headship of the Baghdad Police 
 which he already held ; and to Abud-Haija, in addition 
 to his governorship of the Khorasan Road, #ulwan, 
 Dinawar, the Samarra Road, Buzurj Sabur, Radhanain, 
 Daquqa, Khanikhan and Mausil, he gave the ministry of 
 public security in Hamadhan, Nahawand, Saimarah, 
 Sirwan, Masabadhan, Mihrijanqadhaq and Arzan. 
 
 The Palace was pillaged, and Bunayy b. Nafis went 
 to the tomb of the Queen-mother at Rusafah, and found 
 there a hoard of 600,000 dinars secreted by her. These 
 he brought to the Palace. 
 
 ( 194 ) Muqtadir was deposed on Saturday the middle 
 of Mu&arram (Feb. 28, 929) ; he had his abdication 
 attested by the judges, and the deed was delivered to 
 the qadi Abu 'Umar Mohammed b. Yusuf. 
 
 A case of prudence proving advantageous. 
 
 Abu'l-#usain the son of this Abu'Umar stated that 
 his father delivered the deed of abdication to him, bidding 
 
 1 See Le Strange, p. 119. Members of this family which was founded by 
 the Tahir who had won the throne for Ma’mun, played the part of Prince of 
 Princes (without the title) in the middle of the third century. 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MUQLAH. 219 
 
 him keep it hidden and let no creature see it in his posses¬ 
 sion. I asked my father (he said) what was the use of 
 • this secrecy, when people knew about it ? He replied : 
 And what is the use of revealing^it ? How can you tell 
 what is going to happen ?—So I obeyed his order, and 
 two days after the restoration of Muqtadir the qadi Abu 
 ‘Umar took the deed and delivered it personally to Muq¬ 
 tadir, swearing that with the exception of myself no 
 one had seen it in his possession.—This greatly pleased 
 Muqtadir, who expressed gratitude, and after a short 
 time appointed him Judge of Judges.—He then said to 
 me : My son, our concealment of the deed has done us 
 no harm. 
 
 The people 1 departed from the Palace on the Satur¬ 
 day; on the following Sunday Qahir sat, and the vizier Ibn 
 Muqlah presented himself and was received and ordered 
 to seat himself before the Caliph. The pillaging ceased. 
 Ibn Muqlah proceeded to compose a note announcing 
 the accession of Qahir, which was despatched to the 
 provincial governors. Nazuk commanded the Masaffi 
 infantry to remove their tents from the Palace, and in¬ 
 stalled his own infantry in their place. This occasioned 
 agitation among the former. Nazuk then gave orders to 
 the vice-chamberlains and door-keepers that no one was 
 to be allowed to enter the Palace who had not ( 195 ) a 
 post ; and this produced agitation among the H ujari 
 troops, who discussed this matter, and this led to the 
 restoration of Muqtadir. 
 
 The cause of Muqtadir s restoration. 
 
 On Monday 17 Mu/^arram (March 2, 929) the people 
 came betimes to the Palace, because it was a day of state 
 ceremonial, and the inauguration of a new reign. The 
 vestibules, corridors, and squares were filled with visitors, 
 as also was the bank of the Tigris. The Masaffi infantry 
 presented themselves armed, to demand accession- 
 
 1 He probably means the conspirators. 
 
220 
 
 A.H. 317. Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 money and a year’s pay. Mu’nis stayed in his residence 
 that day and did not sail down to the Palace. The 
 clamour of the infantry became loud, and Nazuk, hear¬ 
 ing it, was afraid they might come to blows with his own 
 men , so he gave orders to his retainers and followers 
 not to attack them. The shouts of the infantry in¬ 
 creased in violence, and they made a rush for the 
 Ninetieth Saloon \ no one hindered them, owing to the 
 orders given by Nazuk to his followers. Those of them 
 who had been on the bank entered by the window with 
 drawn weapons and their shouts were audible in the 
 room where Qahir was sitting ; for he was holding his 
 court in the corridor of the Ninetieth Saloon, with Ibn 
 Muqlah, Nazuk and Abu’l-Haija before him. He de¬ 
 spatched Nazuk to address the men. Nazuk, having 
 spent the previous night in drinking, was sodden with 
 liquor, and when he appeared at the window, and was 
 seen by the infantry, they hastened towards him ; he 
 took fright, as their weapons were drawn against him, 
 turned his back and fled. This encouraged them to 
 attack him, so they ran after him, and his flight was 
 presently stopped by a door-way which he had himself 
 blocked up the preceding ( 196 ) day with brick and 
 cement, so that he could not go through \ he was over¬ 
 taken and killed, his pursuers having previously put to 
 death Ajib , they then cried out Muqtadir the Victorious! 
 Thereupon the vizier, the chamberlains, the court-attend¬ 
 ants and other orders fled from the Palace, which was 
 left empty. 
 
 The infantry impaled Nazuk and ‘Ajib on the wood¬ 
 work of the curtain on the bank of the Tigris ; they then 
 proceeded to the palace of Mu’nis, to demand Muqtadir. 
 The servants in the Caliph’s Palace hastened to lock the 
 doors, being all of them eunuchs or dependents or 
 favourites of Muqtadir. Abu’l-Haija wished to leave 
 the Palace, but Qahir clung to him, saying : What, Abu’l- 
 Haija, are you going to desert me ?—Abu’l-Haija’s 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MUQLAH. 221 
 
 pride was aroused, and he said : No, by Allah, I will 
 never desert you ! So he turned back. Finding the 
 door locked, they entered the Staircase room, when a 
 loud cry was raised, Allah akbar ! Fa'iq the " Bowl- 
 face ” asked one of the inferior servants employed in 
 conveying messages to find out what the noise meant. 
 He went and returned to say that Abu’l-Haija had been 
 put to death. The Bowl-face bade him think carefully 
 what he was saying. He repeated the words three times. 
 The Bowl-face said to him : But here is AbuTHaija, 
 you fool.—The servant said : I made a mistake ; it is 
 Nazuk who has been killed.—Qahir then said to the Bowl- 
 face : Open that door so that I can go out to the river- 
 bank. He replied that there were several doors behind 
 that one, through which it will be impossible to reach 
 the river-bank ; still, he said, we will open it in any case. 
 —It was opened, and Qahir walked on to the steps of the 
 Water-wheels which were erected over the Tigris above 
 the Place of the Crown. He mounted them with his 
 hand in that of Abu'l-Haija, and they looked over the 
 Tigris. They saw the infantry armed and arranged in 
 close array from the Mu'alla Canal to the Place of the 
 Crown and to the Private Gate ; a countless mass. 
 Qahir descended hastily, but Abul-Haija said to him : 
 Go forward, Sire, for by the grave of #amdan I will never 
 leave you until I perish in your defence.—So they went 
 on till they entered the Firdaus, from the gate of which 
 they got out into the RaAbah ; there they met a slave 
 of the eunuch Muqbil mounted ; when he saw them he 
 dismounted. They asked him whence he had come. 
 He said from ( 197 ) the Nubian Gate.— Abul-Haija 
 thereupon stripped off his black robe and his belt, and 
 asked the slave to give him his jubbah. This was of 
 Egyptian wool. The slave gave it him, he put it on, 
 mounted the slave's horse, and leaving Qahir with the 
 eunuchs, said Sire, stay where you are till I return. 
 Abu'l-Haija was not long away, and when he returned, 
 
222 A.H. 317. Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Qahir asked him what news ?—He said : I got to the 
 Nubian Gate, where I was met by the gate-keeper Ja'far. 
 I asked him to open the door.—He said he could not, 
 as there were countless infantry and other troops behind! 
 since Nazuk's head had been brought thither.—Then 
 said Qahir : This is from heaven, so take us back.— 
 They re-entered the Firdaus, and after wandering about 
 it they came out near the Cell; then they entered the 
 small Dasani Saloon, then the Citron House. There were 
 now only a few servants with them, and here the Bowl- 
 face Fa iq hung back, and said to those servants who had 
 stopped when he had : Go in and finish off your master's 
 enemy.-Some ten of them entered, armed partly with 
 bows, partly with bludgeons. When Abu’l-Haija saw 
 them, he shouted at them, drew his sword, stripped off 
 the woollen jubbah which he had on, wrapped it round 
 his arm, and rushed at them. Thev fled terrified, and 
 some of them fell into the pond. He was at them, so 
 they shot at him perforce, till he went back and entered 
 a Teak room in the garden of the Citron House. When he 
 had got inside it, the slaves who were in the pond got out 
 and approached the Teak room ; he perceiving them 
 came out with his sword, whereupon they turned and 
 fled before him to a side of the Saloon, and opened a 
 door at an angle of the Saloon. By this door there 
 entered Khumarjuyah, one of the chief Hujari retainers, 
 armed with a bow and arrows, and accompanied by two 
 black slaves armed with swords and shields. Address- 
 ing the eunuchs, he said : Friends, where is he ?—In 
 the Teak room, they replied.—He said : Worry him till 
 he comes out. So they started reviling him, and pre¬ 
 sently he leaped out like a furious camel, ( 198 ) shrieking : 
 
 O tribe of Taghlib, shall I be slain between walls ? 
 Where's the chestnut, where's the black mare ?—Khum¬ 
 arjuyah shot him with an arrow that entered just below 
 the breast, and followed it with another which penetrated 
 the throat, and then with a third ; but by this time his 
 hand was unsteady and the third arrow pierced his thighs. 
 
Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 223 
 
 Bushra, the eye-witness who narrated this scene, 
 said : I saw Abu'l-Haija strike the arrow which had 
 pierced his thighs and break it : and pull out the arrow 
 which had entered beneath the breast. Flinging it away 
 he went towards the room, but fell on his face before he 
 reached it ; one of the two negroes ran up, and cut off 
 the right hand which held his sword, and took it away, 
 while the other negro seized him and cut off his head. 
 One of the eunuchs rushed up and snatched the head 
 from the negro's hand, and hurried away with it. 
 
 When the infantry had reached the palace of Mu'nis, 
 and he heard their shouts, he asked what they wanted. 
 He was told they wanted Muqtadir.—He ordered him to 
 be delivered to them.—When Muqtadir was told to go 
 with them to return to his post, he was afraid that it was 
 a plot, and declined ; so he was carried on men's necks 
 from Mu'nis’s palace to the barge, and from the barge 
 to the steps of the Ninetieth Saloon. When he had set 
 foot within the Palace, he went to the apartment of the 
 Stewardess Zaidan, and asked her what had happened 
 to Abu’l-Haija.—He was told that he was in the Citron 
 House.—He asked for ink, which the slaves were slow 
 about bringing; but he kept on asking till it was 
 brought, whereupon he wrote with his own hand an 
 amnesty for Abu'l-Haija, which he gave to one of the 
 eunuchs, saying : Be quick, you fool, or something may 
 happen to him.—This eunuch met the eunuch who held 
 the head, and the two returned. When Muqtadir saw 
 his messenger he asked him what news.—He replied : 
 God preserve the Commander of the Faithful !—He 
 said : Wretch, who killed him ?—Muflih made a sign 
 to the negro, and said : I do not know who killed him, 
 nor is it known, for he was attacked by a mixed crowd of 
 infantry. — Muqtadir said : We are God's, &c. He kept 
 on repeating these words, and said : During these days, 
 while I have been in the house of Mu'nis, no one (199) 
 but he has been visiting me to condole and manifest 
 
224 A.H. 317. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 s ympa.thy, as though he were a relative. He and his 
 kin had other claims besides.—Muqtadir displayed great 
 grief over his death. 
 
 While he was thus employed a shout was raised which 
 made him forget Abu'l-Haija. He asked what it meant. 
 —A eunuch came running, saying : Mohammed ! (mean¬ 
 ing Q a hir, w ho had been arrested and was being brought). 
 Muqtadir bade him approach and sit down before him, 
 and then pulling him towards himself, kissed him on 
 the forehead, and said : Brother, you are not to blame, 
 for I know well that you were forced. 1 —Qahir knelt and 
 cried : Commander of the Faithful, my life, my life !— 
 The Caliph said to him : By the Apostle of God no evil 
 shall ever befall thee from me, nor while I live shall any 
 one succeed in harming thee ; and I will see to it that 
 thou departest this night to thy abode in Ibn Tahir's 
 palace ; so be of good cheer and faint not. 
 
 The heads of Nazuk and Abu'l-Haija were brought 
 out and exposed in the streets, a crier calling out : This 
 is the recompense of him who rebels against his master and 
 is ungrateful for his benefits. The disturbance then 
 quieted down, and Ibn Muqlah returned to his vizierate, 
 and composed a note to the provincial governors in 
 Muqtadir's name announcing that he had been restored- 
 to his Caliphate and that the oath of allegiance to him 
 should be renewed. 
 
 When Muqtadir had resumed possession of the Palace, 
 and confirmed Ibn Muqlah in the vizierate, he gave the 
 army accession-money ; six months' pay with the addi¬ 
 tion of a dinar to each foot-soldier, and three terms' pay 
 with an addition of three dinars to each cavalry-man. 
 When the cash was exhausted ( 200 ) over these largesses, 
 the Caliph brought out the wearing apparel from the 
 stores and sold it with other goods. After this he gave 
 them contracts of sales by the agent whom he appointed, 
 
 1 His title Qahir means one who forces. 
 
VlZIERATE OF IBN MUQLAH. 225 
 
 ‘Au b. 'Abbas Nubakhti, whose appointment as his 
 agent he had duly attested, the purchasers undertaking 
 to pay into the Treasury tax upon the lands thus acquired 
 at the rate of tithe-paying fiefs, what they received as a 
 present being the difference between the two assessments 
 of lands owned by subjects, viz., the fief-assessment and 
 the metayer assessment. 1 The contracts made by Nubakhti 
 with them were attested, and these estates and pro¬ 
 perties were knocked down to them for very low prices. 
 
 Thabit b. Sinan states that he was present in the 
 office of the vizier Ibn Muqlah when he was entirely 
 occupied with the signing of sales of land to the troops 
 and the assignation to them of the difference between 
 the assessments as a gift. The officials in the bureaux 
 were also kept at work hunting out the assessments of the 
 lands which were being sold. The purchasers were 
 crowding round the vizier, and the vizier was signing, 
 when 'Ali b. Tsa was announced. He was admitted, 
 and when the vizier saw him, he rose to his full height 
 and made him sit on the same bench ; leaving the busi¬ 
 ness whereon he was engaged to attend to this visitor. 
 When the vizier asked 'Ali b. Tsa about himself, the 
 latter seeing the people pressing upon the former, said : 
 Let the vizier (God aid him !) attend to his business.— 
 Ibn Muqlah then turned to the throng and recommenced 
 signing. 'Ali b. Tsa observed a case containing the 
 assessment of the Estates of Gabriel father of Bakhtishu', 2 
 and thought the price which they had fetched small as - 
 compared with that for which they had been bought. 
 He exclaimed : " There is no god but Allah/’ Has it 
 come to this ? —Ibn Muqlah put down the deed which 
 was in his hand, and said : I was told by my chief Abu’l- 
 Qasim (meaning 'Isa b. Dawud) 3 that when Mutawak- 
 
 1 In the former there was a definite sum fixed, in the latter a portion of the 
 produce which was not less than a tithe, and might amount to a half. 
 
 2 Two famous physicians. For Gabriel’s wealth see Faraj ii. 103. 
 
 * Father of 'Ali b. ‘Isa. 
 
226 A.H. 317. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 kil became displeased with the physician Bakhtishu', 
 ( 201 ) he sent to his house to make an inventory of the 
 contents of his stores. There was found in his clothes 
 store a statement of the estates which he had purchased 
 and the price was more than ten million dirhems. They 
 have come to be sold now for this small figure.—Both 
 expressed their surprise, then Ibn Muqlah went back to 
 his work, and 'Ali b. Tsa rose to go. The vizier Ibn 
 Muqlah rose at his departure as he had risen at his entry. 
 
 In this year Abu 'Umar was appointed Judge of 
 Judges and the deed of investiture made out. 
 
 Account of the Qarmatian attack on the pilgrims and the 
 
 ravaging of Meccah. 
 
 This year the pilgrims were escorted by Mansur the 
 Dailemite, and made their journey safely ; but when 
 they reached Meccah, Abu Tahir of Hajar came thither 
 also on the Tarwiyah 1 day, and massacred the pilgrims 
 in the Holy Mosque, in the lanes of Meccah and in the 
 House. He tore out the Black Stone, put to death Ibn 
 Mikhlab 2 the governor of Meccah, removed the covering 
 of the House, wrenched away the door, and made one of 
 his followers mount the building with the view of 
 wrenching off the gutter. This man fell on his head and 
 died. Abu Tahir took the property of the people, flung 
 the dead into the Well Zamzam, and buried others where 
 they had fallen in the Holy Mosque and elsewhgre with¬ 
 out praying over them. He then returned to his own 
 country taking with him the plunder of the Meccans and 
 the Black Stone. 
 
 (202) In this year the headship of the Police in Bagh¬ 
 dad was conferred upon the two sons of Ra'iq 3 in lieu 
 of Nazuk. 
 
 1 8 Dhu’l-Hijjah (Jan. 12, 930). 
 
 2 In the Chronicles of Meccah ii. 204 another reading Ibn Muharib is men¬ 
 tioned, but the form in the text preferred. 
 
 3 The father Ra’iq figures as a commander in the last years of Tabari’s 
 Chronicle. He is called the Khazari. His name “ pleasing " is evidently that 
 of a slave, 
 
Vizierate OF Ibn Muqlah. 227 
 
 Year 318. 
 
 There was a mutiny of the cavalry who threatened to 
 do terrible things; Muqtadir summoned their com¬ 
 manders and spoke them fair, promising them the pay¬ 
 ment of their money in the new month. They were 
 mollified and went away. The infantry also mutinied 
 and were paid their money. 
 
 In Shawwal of this year (Oct.-Nov. 930) Muqtadir 
 bestowed a robe of honour on his son the prince Harun, 
 making him governor of Fars, Kirman, Sijistan, and 
 Mukran. The vizier and the army rode with him. In 
 Dhu’l-Qa'dah (Nov.-Dee.) he bestowed one on his son the 
 prince Abu’l-'Abba.s, who was designated governor of 
 the West, with Mu'nis for his deputy. The vizier, Mu’nis 
 the Muzaffar and all the army rode with him. 
 
 This year the two sons of Ra'iq were dismissed from 
 the prefecture of Police and Abu Bakr Mohammed b. 
 Yaout was appointed to it. 
 
 In this year the Masaffi infantry were destroyed. 
 
 Account of the reason for their destruction. 
 
 The Masaffi infantry had become insufferably riotous, 
 boasting that they had been the cause of Muqtadir’s 
 restoration after his deposition ; they were a heavy 
 charge, were importunate in their demands, mutinous 
 and insubordinate. The cost of maintaining this force 
 came to 130,000 dinars for every month of the lunar 
 year. It happened that on the occasion of a mutiny on 
 the part of the cavalry, who were demanding their pay, 
 they were attacked by the infantry, and some of them 
 killed. The Sultan pleaded with the cavalry that the 
 money (203) all went to the infantry ; so the cavalry 
 engaged the infantry, and succeeded in driving them out 
 of the Palace. Mohammed b. Yaqut then mounted his 
 horse and proclaimed that they must not remain in 
 Baghdad; and af ter this proclamation any of them 
 
228 A.H. 318. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 who were found were arrested and put into the criminal 
 gaol. The houses of the sergeants of the infantry were 
 demolished.- The son of Yaqut rode about and renewed 
 the proclamation, and presently when a party of them 
 were caught, they were beaten and exposed ; the lands 
 assigned to the Masajfi infantry were seized and their 
 houses pulled down. There was presently a riot of the 
 blacks at the ‘Ammar Gate ; Mohammed b. Yaqut rode 
 out with the H ujari commanders and attacked them, 
 setting fire to the whole district. Abu’l-'Ala Sa'id b. 
 //amdan inflicted a notable defeat upon them, and they 
 fled in various directions ; they were then joined by a 
 number of whites of the Masajfi infantry and others, 
 and becoming numerous they descended to Wasit, where 
 they made their captain one of the cavalry called Na5R 
 the Saji, and expelled the Sultan’s officials from Wasit. 
 Mu’nis went down to Wasit, attacked them and massa¬ 
 cred them. After this they raised no banner again. 
 
 In this year the vizier Ibn Muqlah was arrested. 
 
 Account of the reason for his arrest. 
 
 Muqtadir viewed Ibn Muqlah with suspicion as a 
 partisan of Mu’nis, from whom he was estranged though 
 he made show of friendliness ; and Yaqut too was ill- 
 disposed to him owing to Mu’nis’s favouring him. It 
 so happened that Mu’nis the Muzaffar had gone out on 
 an excursion to Awana, 1 when Ibn Muqlah came down 
 to the Palace ; Muqtadir took advantage of the absence 
 of Mu’nis to arrest him. Mohammed b. Yaqut was also 
 his enemy, and when he was arrested sent people at night 
 to burn his house. 
 
 (204) Muqtadir had intended to appoint to the 
 vizierate #usain b. Qasim b. ‘Ubaidallah. Mu’nis 
 however travelled back from Awana to Baghdad and sent 
 to Muqtadir to say that he disapproved of i/usain b. 
 
 1 The modern Waneh between Baghdad and Takrit. 
 
ViZIERATE OF IBN MuQLAtt. ' 229 
 
 Qasim, and requesting him to reappoint Ibn Muqlah. 
 Muqtadir was so incensed that he thought of putting Ibn 
 Muqlah to death. 'Ali b. 'Isa acted as messenger and 
 mollified Muqtadir saying : It is not your vizier’s fault 
 that Mu’nis pleads for him. He finally induced the 
 Caliph to abandon his design. So anxious was Muq¬ 
 tadir to appoint Husain b. Qasim to the office that he 
 summoned him, made him stay the night in the Palace, 
 bestowed on him a robe of honour, and promised that 
 the next day he should receive a public audience and be 
 invested with the vizierate. When Mu’nis heard of this, 
 he was vexed that Muqtadir should take such a step 
 without consulting him, especially as he had previously 
 declared that #usain Was not qualified to be vizier. So 
 a series of communications passed between Mu'nis and 
 Muqtadir through 'Ali b. 'Isa, who, being consulted by 
 the latter, in accordance with the wish of Mu’nis (205), 
 advised the restoration to office of Ibn Muqlah, and that 
 after being asked to undertake it himself and having 
 declined.—Muqtadir said : That is impossible ; nominate 
 some one else.—He nominated Sulaiman b. #asan, 
 whose appointment he advised, or 'Abd al-Rahman b. 
 'Isa 1 ; Muqtadir preferred the former, because he had 
 previously attacked Ibn Muqlah and manifested hostility 
 towards him. He ordered him to be brought. #usain 
 b. Qasim left the Palace and went into hiding. The term 
 of office of Abu 'Ali Mohammed b. 'Ali b. Muqlah had 
 been two vears and four months. 
 
 Account of the fortune of the vizierate after the dismissal 
 of Ibn Muqlah and its assumption by Sulaiman b. 
 
 Hasan. 
 
 On Wednesday —14 Jumada i (June 16, 930) Sulai¬ 
 man b. Hasan was summoned to the Palace, but given 
 no audience on that day ; the next day, Thursday, he 
 returned, was admitted to the imperial presence, and 
 
 1 His own brother. 
 
230 A.H. 318. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 received a robe of honour ; Muqtadir ordered ‘Ali b. ‘Isa 
 to survey all the business departments and bureaux, 
 and support Sulaiman energetically. So he used to be 
 admitted with Sulaiman to Muqtadir, and Sulaiman 
 made no appointments, dismissals or other arrangements 
 without the assent of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa. 
 
 In this year the Baridis were arrested and fined. 
 
 Account of this proceeding. 
 
 Abu'l-Faraj Ibn Abi Hisham narrates as follows : 
 My father was clerk to Ahmad b. Nasr Qushuri, and 
 this A/zmad wished to be made Chamberlain as his father 
 had been. He was minister of public security in Ahwaz. 
 One day when we were in his presence there came to him 
 an autograph from Muqtadir conveyed by a despatch- 
 rider privately known to A/rniad, containing the following 
 message : Ahmad, you know the offence which you have 
 committed and whereby you have forfeited my good opinion . 
 It is now within your power to retrieve it by obeying the 
 order which this autograph contains. Arrest the three 
 Baridis (206) and get them into your house. On no account 
 release them except upon receipt of an autograph like this. 
 If you do this , be assured that I will change back and pro¬ 
 mote you, make your fortune, and restore your rank. 
 
 He continues : AAmad b. Nasr showed me this auto¬ 
 graph, and prostrated himself, thanking God for the 
 confidence which Muqtadir reposed in him. He crossed 
 over at once to the house of Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi, sent 
 his doorkeeper Abu Ya'qub to the house of Abu Yusuf 
 Baridi, and despatched AAmad b. Muqbil to the house 
 of Abu'l-//usain. He found that they had all left their 
 houses and embarked in their barges one moment before 
 he had started. The news had reached them before 
 him. They had professed to be going to the Ri^a Mosque 
 adjoining the Fountain in Ahwaz ; A/hnad went in pur¬ 
 suit, and learned that they were really off to Basrah— 
 to his consternation. 
 
VIZIERATE OF SULAIMAN B. #ASAN. 23l 
 
 He despatched Abu Ya'qub with his retainers in pur¬ 
 suit, and, as the wind was violent and against the Baridis, 
 preventing their progress, they were overtaken by their 
 pursuers and captured. . 
 
 Abu Abdallah offered Abu Ya'qub fifty thousand 
 dinars to let them escape, but he declined ; he then 
 offered twenty thousand if he would let one of the 
 brothers escape ; this also he declined. So he brought 
 them back, and they were taken to A/rniad b. Nasr’s 
 house. Five days had not passed when loud shouting 
 was heard. A/wnad b. Nasr bade me go outside and 
 ascertain its cause. Now he had assigned to them his 
 house on the river-bank, and removed into an apartment 
 of it. As I hurried out, I was seen by Abu ‘Abdallah 
 Baridi, who called out to me : Go and give him the good 
 news : deliverance has come ! Here is a letter from the 
 vizier ordering our release, and confirming me in my 
 appointment, and bidding me attend to business.—He 
 gave me the letter, with which I hurried back to AAmad. 
 He read it and went to Abu ‘Abdallah and his brothers, 
 to whom he said : This is a mercy for which I am bound 
 to give thanks, bestow alms, and pay vows , - only here 
 are the orders of the Commander of the Faithful, and I 
 must have an autograph like it countermanding the 
 former.—At this (207) the faces of the brothers fell; 
 their confusion appeared on their countenances, and 
 they began to appeal for mercy and tried to mollify him. 
 
 The next day there was a mutiny of the infantry in 
 Ahwaz who took the side of the Baridis, and clamoured 
 for their release, with arms in their hands. Afciad b. 
 Nasr had under his command certain Basran regiments, 
 and a large number of blacks and H ujari retainers. He 
 collected this force, and vowed with divorce as the 
 penalty that if any one tried to break into his house he 
 would execute the three Baridis and send their heads 
 to the Caliph. That letter, he went on to say, is a 
 
232 A.H. 318. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 forgery ; else why does no confirmation of it come ? 
 You have stirred the infantry against me, and negotiated 
 with them to get them to rescue you from my house by 
 force of arms, for fear your forgery should be exposed ; 
 you hoped to run away before.—When they saw that 
 he was not to be frightened, they made humble excuses, 
 and sent to the infantry requesting them to go away, 
 having first sworn that their partisanship had been of 
 their owm initiative. After this attempt they remained 
 where they were. 
 
 After ten days there arrived Ibn Musa Danju with 
 an autograph resembling the former. They were 
 delivered to him, and he went off with them. AAmad b. 
 Nasr Qushuri now knew that they had forged and plotted, 
 and was embittered against them. This feeling remained 
 between the parties until fate parted them. 
 
 When the Baridis arrived at the capital they were 
 examined with a view to the assessment of their fines. 
 Abu Zakariyya Yahya b. Sa'id Susi, who at the time 
 was on bad terms with them, says : I paid an early 
 visit to Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. Qasim Karkhi, 1 
 and said to him : Ahwaz was the ground of your father, 
 and is your home and your brother's ; for sixty years 
 you have been in control there, so why have you left it 
 to these scoundrels ? Why have you not endeavoured 
 to crush them and smash them till they have not a wing 
 to fly with ?—He said : Abu Zakariyya, at what amount 
 do you assess their fine if it is to reduce them to the con¬ 
 dition which you describe ?—I replied, thinking I was 
 naming a high figure : Three hundred thousand dinars 
 (208) would extinguish them.—He said : Rise, brother, 
 let us cross over to the vizier's palace (the vizier at the 
 time was Sulaiman b. Hasan).—I went with him, we took 
 our seats in the barge, and when we had got inside the 
 palace we found Abu'l-Qasim Kalwadhani in one 
 
 1 Vizier in 324. - 
 
VlZIERATE OF SULAIMAN B. #ASAN. 2$3 
 
 quarter of it, and before him were the Baridis and the 
 clerks.—Abu Ja‘far said to me : What say you to our 
 paying him our respects, finding out how things are 
 going with them, and so obtaining a basis for what we 
 shall say to the vizier ?—I told him this would be right.— 
 So we turned aside to Kalwadhani, and took our seats 
 by him. He said to Abu Ja‘far : We have settled our 
 friends' business. Now you are the ornament of the 
 capital, its crown, its gentleman ; these are your 
 brethren ; you are the proper person to help them.—He 
 replied : The least they can demand—God help them— 
 is that I should share their trouble ; mere help would 
 not satisfy my mind. For how much is their business 
 settled ?—For nine million dirhems, he replied.—Abu 
 Ja‘far looked at me and I was abashed. We rose. He 
 said to me : Abu Zakariyva, this is very different from 
 what you thought.—I said : There is something behind 
 this, I am sure. They do not possess this sum, for I 
 know well what their earnings are ; only Abu ‘Abdallah 
 is an ambitious man, anxious to display himself to his 
 sovereign ; so he offers more than the Caliph had been 
 made to hope for, and more than his enemies plotted to 
 extort from him ; watching times and seasons and on 
 the look out for a turn in fortune's wheel, and hoping 
 that the Sultan may hear of the enormous sum which 
 he has undertaken to pay, and thereby feel respect for 
 his ability and desire to renew his favours towards him. 
 Not every one would run such a risk ; this is not the 
 last we shall hear of him ; he has a career before him, 
 and God save us from the mischief that he may do ! 
 
 Abu Zakariyya said : From that day I changed my 
 course, and did my best to conciliate Abu ‘Abdallah 
 Baridi. 
 
 Muqtadir ordered Sulaiman b. E asan and ‘Ali b. 
 ‘Isa to examine Ibn Muqlah ; they chose for the purpose 
 Ahmad b. Mohammed b. Salih of ‘Ukbara, whom they 
 
234 A.H. 3l9. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 sent to the Palace. He examined him, but did little 
 more than upbraid him and explain to him the wicked¬ 
 ness (209) of his conduct. Ibn Muqlah requested that 
 his examiner might be 'Ali b. 'Isa ; so he held a joint 
 session with the vizier Sulaiman in the Chamberlain's 
 apartment and in the presence of Yaqut the Chamber- 
 lain. 1 Sulaiman used harsh language to him, charged 
 him with errors, and insulted him ; telling him that he 
 had created dissension between the Sultan and his 
 ministers. Ultimately 'Ali b. 'Isa fixed his fine at 
 200,000 dinars, of which sum one half was to be paid at 
 once, the rest in instalments of fine—the last being a 
 formality, since they were not demanded from the 
 person who had given his bond for them. Mu'nis the 
 Muzaffar wrote to Muqtadir to intercede for Ibn Muqlah, 
 asking for the remission of his fine and that he be put in 
 the custody of the eunuch Murshid. These requests 
 were granted. 
 
 Year 319. 
 
 In this year the disaffection of Mu'nis the Muzaffar 
 was increased. 
 
 Account of the reason for his disaffection and rebellion. 
 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut disliked Sulaiman and favoured 
 Husain b. Qasim ; whereas Mu’nis the Muzaffar and his 
 dependents favoured Sulaiman owing to the authority 
 of 'Ali b. 'Isa and their confidence in him, whilst they 
 disliked Husain b. Qasim. Mohammed b. Yaqut's in¬ 
 fluence grew, and he was appointed Censor in addition 
 to being head of the Police. He enrolled retainers, 
 thereby making himself powerful. Mu'nis was dis¬ 
 pleased with this procedure, and requested Muqtadir 
 to remove him from the Censorship, 2 and bestow it on 
 Ibn Battja, which was done. (210) Mu'nis commanded 
 
 1 He must have been promoted to this office after Nasr’s death. 
 
 On the duties of this office see Amedroz’s article in J.R.A.S. for 1916. 
 
VlZIERATE OF SULAIMAN B. #ASAN. 235 
 
 his followers to rally round him, and then Yaqut and his 
 son collected troops in the Palace and in the house of 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut. Mu’nis was informed that the 
 latter meditated a nightly attack on his (Mu'nis’s) resid¬ 
 ence ; Mu’nis's followers insisted on his going out to the 
 Shammasiyyah Gate, and went thither with him. He 
 was visited there by ‘Ali b. 'Isa, who showed him the 
 unwisdom of this step, and advised him to return to his 
 residence. He would not accept that advice, and adhered 
 to his plan. 
 
 He then sent to Muqtadir to demand the dismissal 
 of Mohammed b. Yaqut from the Censorship 1 and the 
 headship of police, and of Yaqut from the office of 
 Chamberlain, and the expulsion of both from the capital. 
 Muqtadir sent the Judge of Judges Abu 'Umar, 
 his son Abu'l-#usain, Ibn Abi’l-Shawarib, and a 
 number of the Hashimite nobles, holders of office, to 
 Mu’nis with a civilly worded message wherein he was 
 requested to return to his residence. The Judge of 
 Judges 2 observed that a copy had best be written of 
 the message wherewith they were charged, to which 
 they could refer, and which should serve as the norm 
 for what they were to say ; for, he said, there are a 
 number of us, who are likely to disagree and liable to 
 forget. The vizier saw no point in this precaution; 
 but ‘Ali b. Tsa said it was the proper course, so a letter 
 was written. 
 
 The vizier and 'Ali b. 'Isa sat in the Palace awaiting 
 the return of the party. They presently returned and 
 reported that they had not been admitted to see Mu’nis, 
 but had been requested to remain seated in their boat. 
 Mu'nis then sent to them to inform him of their errand, 
 which they stated. His clerks then came to them and 
 delivered a civil message from him ; but while they were 
 
 1 Apparently this had already been done. 
 
 a Abu ‘Umar. 
 
236 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 delivering it, the boat was attacked by the army, and 
 nearly sunk ; the soldiers calling out Nothing will satisfy 
 us but the expulsion of Yaqut and his sons. They also 
 used violent language. Towards the end of the day 
 the vizier Sulaiman b. #asan, 'Ali b. Tsa, and the con¬ 
 fidential attendants ( 211 ) who were with them betook 
 themselves to the Shammasiyyah Gate, where they 
 delivered the message to Mu'nis orally ; he however 
 made no reply, but as they were leaving at sunset 
 arrested them and imprisoned them in their boat. 
 Yaqut departed the same night with his two sons and 
 dismounted at Madam. The next day when the 
 Mu'nisites learned that he and his sons had left the 
 capital, they released the vizier and his party, who re¬ 
 turned to their homes. 
 
 Muqtadir appointed Yaqut minister of kharaj and 
 public security in Fars and Kirman, and wrote to Abu 
 Tahir Mohammed b. Abd al-Samad, bidding him 
 attach himself to Yaqut, which he did, giving him the 
 title IJstadh. To Muzaffar b. Yaqut he gave the govern¬ 
 ment of Ispahan. The two sons of Ra'iq, Ibrahim and 
 Mohammed, were installed in Yaqut s place. Yaqut 
 remained for a time in Shiraz. There 'Ali b. Khalaf 
 b. Tinab was farmer of the revenues from the Estates 
 and of the kharaj ; he formed a league with Yaqut, and 
 the two prevented any revenue being sent to the Sultan 
 until Ali b. Buwaihi became master of Fars on Saturday 
 —10 Jumada ii. 922 (June 7, 934). 
 
 This year the pilgrim caravans came safely from 
 Meccah to Baghdad escorted by Mu'nis WarqaT. 
 People were cheered by the accomplishment of the 
 pilgrimage and the opening of the road. Arches were 
 put up in Baghdad to celebrate the event. 
 
 In this year the vizier Sulaiman b. i/asan 
 arrested. 
 
 was 
 
VlZIERATE OF KALWADHANI. 
 
 237 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason was that Sulaiman was in severe financial 
 straits, great demands being made upon him which he 
 was unable to meet. There was a stream of applica¬ 
 tions from persons who were intriguing for the vizierate, 
 and Sulaiman b. i/asan with Abu’l-Qasim ‘Ubaidallah 
 b. Mohammed Kalwadhani was arrested, a proceeding 
 which occasioned great sorrow and apprehension. They 
 were conveyed to the Palace. Muqtadir was exceedingly 
 anxious to bestow the vizierate on (212) #usain b. Qasim, 
 but Mu’nis objected, advising the appointment of 
 Kalwadhani. Muqtadir was compelled to appoint 
 him ; the vizierate of Sulaiman had lasted one year, 
 two months and some days. 
 
 Accordingly Muqtadir summoned Abu’l-Qasim 
 'Ubaidallah b. Mohammed Kalwadhani from the 
 palace of Mu’nis 1 on Saturday—5 Rajab (March 19, 
 931) ; Mufli// brought him the message of Muqtadir 
 appointing him vizier and president of the bureaux ; 
 but he did not present him at once, being ordered to 
 bring him on the Monday to receive his robe of honour. 
 Kalwadhani was afraid that JTusain b. Qasim might 
 succeed after all in his designs upon the vizierate, having 
 been informed that after Sulaiman’s arrest he had been 
 canvassing vigorously ; so he sent word to Mu’nis the 
 Muzaffar to the effect that quite possibly the Caliph 
 might allege as a reason for delaying the investiture of 
 Kalwadhani the fact that there were no robes ready ; 
 and he advised Mu’nis to send a supply of robes from 
 his own residence to the Palace, to be bestowed by Muq¬ 
 tadir upon him. Mu’nis did this, and on the Monday 
 Muqtadir performed the investiture of Kalwadhani, and 
 publicly declared him vizier and head of the bureaux. 
 He further bade him appoint #usain b. Qasim to some 
 
 1 It is not stated how he got thither ; we were told that he had been con¬ 
 veyed to the Palace of the Caliph. ‘Arib holds that Sulaiman was dismissed 
 partly for vulgarity. 
 
238 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 important bureau that he might show himself, and 
 rumours connecting him with the vizier ate might cease. 
 ‘Ali b. 'Isa received an audience simultaneously with 
 Kalwadhani, and was ordered by Muqtadir in the other’s 
 presence to continue his customary surveillance of busi¬ 
 ness, and to present himself together with the vizier ; 
 he informed him that he had committed to him sole 
 charge of Appeals, wherein Kalwadhani was to have no 
 share. Kalwadhani rode in his robes from the Palace 
 to his own house, and obtained the bond of Sulaiman 
 b. Hasan for 200,000 dinars. 
 
 Just then Abu’l-Fath al-Fadl b. Ja'far arrived 
 from Syria, and Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. ‘Ubaidallah 
 from the regions of Jund Qinnasrin and the ‘Awasim 1 ; 
 the former was on his way to Qumis, but at the sugges¬ 
 tion of Mu’nis he was appointed by Kalwadhani— 
 unwillingly—to the bureau of the Sawad. Thereby 
 Kalwadhani (213) and Abu’l-Fayyad lost certain sup¬ 
 plies that used to reach them, such as the pay of persons 
 who were not present, revenues allotted to persons who 
 had no existence, sums allotted to retainers and stewards 
 in the Palace and court attendants under the name of 
 jurists and clerks, as well as what was granted them for 
 paper and parchment, but which in part was spent on 
 other necessities, and the like. Kalwadhani was further 
 unable to lay his hands on the goods of certain persons 
 because they were protected by Mu’nis. 
 
 Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah had ingratiated himself 
 with MufliA, who introduced him to Muqtadir ; who 
 made him his go-between in the matter of those secret 
 profits whereby he ruined the Caliphate. Ibn Qarabah 
 told him that these secret profits had been enjoyed by 
 the viziers, but that the revenue-farmers had offered to 
 pay them to the Caliph to expend on his own concerns, 
 owing to the financial stress. Ibn Qarabah pretended 
 
 1 Region between Aleppo and Antioch. He had been in Baghdad a short 
 time before. 
 
VlZIERATE OF KaLWADHANI. 
 
 239 
 
 to Muqtadir and the negro Muffle that he “ran” the 
 vizierate, and that no vizier could get on without him ; 
 and indeed he used to haunt the palace of Kalwadhani 
 and lend him money belonging to the Baridis and others 
 at the rate of a dirhem on a dinar. He lent Kalwadhani 
 200,000 dinars which with the money from fines enabled 
 him to keep things going. 
 
 In this year news came of a battle between Harun 
 b. Gharib and Mardawij in the neighbourhood of Ham- 
 adhan, wherein Harun was defeated, in consequence 
 whereof Mardawij became master of the whole Jabal 
 as far as i/ulwan. Harun came to a stand at Dair ‘Aqul. 
 
 In this year too Ispahan was invaded by Lashkari 
 the Dailemite, who was met in battle by Ahmad b. 
 Kaighalagh ; the latter was defeated, and Lashkari 
 became master of Ispahan. This Lashkari had been a 
 follower of Asfar b. Shirawaihi. When Harun b. Gharib 
 went to fight against Asfar, 1 Lashkari deserted to Harun; 
 then when Harun was routed, Lashkari, being involved in 
 the rout, fled to Qinnasrin. Then when Harun got ready 
 a second time with reinforcements from Baghdad to fight 
 Mardawij, he sent Lashkari from Dinawar to Nahawand 
 with a body of retainers to conyey money to him, with 
 orders to him to bring it (214) to Hamadhan, and wait 
 there until he joined him. When Lashkari got to Naha¬ 
 wand, his cupidity was aroused by the wealth of the 
 inhabitants and the affluence which he saw, so he imposed 
 on them a contribution of some three million dirhems, 
 which he collected in the course of a week; he then raised 
 an army, and proceeded to Karaj where he did the like. 
 News of these proceedings reached Harun, who went in 
 pursuit of him, but Lashkari fled before him till he 
 invaded Ispahan where the governor was AAmad b. 
 Kaighalagh. 
 
 1 This event has not been mentioned ; Ibn Isfandiyar alludes to it, but his 
 dates are evidently wrong. 
 
240 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Account of a lucky accident which befell Ahmad b. Kaigha - 
 lagh after his defeat and the entry of Ispahan by 
 Lashkari and his followers . 
 
 Abu'l-^asan Mafarukhi records how he was in 
 Ispahan at the time, and how AAmad b. Kaighalagh 
 after a shameful rout took refuge with thirty souls in a 
 village behind its fort. Lashkari’s followers entered 
 Ispahan and established themselves in the dwellings, 
 khans , and baths ; Lashkari himself lagged behind, 
 then moved on a little and dismounted for a private 
 purpose. Catching sight of a troop which he failed to 
 recognize, he asked what it was ; and being told that it 
 was a party of Kaighalaghites, he mounted at once to 
 attack it. When he got near it, AAmad b. Kaighalagh 
 learning that it was he, rushed to meet him ; they fought 
 a duel, and Lashkari was near taking him prisoner, when 
 the people of the village came out and shouted at him. 
 Lashkari lost heart, and A/hnad being close to him, 
 struck him a blow with his sword, which clove his mail- 
 cap and his helmet ; the sword penetrating to the head 
 killed him; Lashkari fell down, and A/rniad, dis¬ 
 mounting, decapitated him. When Lashkari's followers 
 learned of this disaster, they fled panicstricken. This 
 was an extraordinary sort of victory, and a wonderful 
 case of fortune. AAmad b. Kaighalagh was more than 
 seventy years old at the time. 1 
 
 In the same year Kalwadhani was dismissed from the 
 vizierate, which was conferred upon #usain b. Qasim. 
 
 Account of the reason for the appointment of Husain b. 
 
 Qasim and the success of his intrigue for the purpose 
 
 of procuring it. 
 
 (215) A curious story was told by Abu’l-Qasim Ibn 
 Zanji of the mode whereby i/usain b. Qasim attained 
 the vizierate. Abu ‘Ali tfusain b. Qasim used to be 
 
 1 He is mentioned by Tabari as fighting in the year 291. 
 
VlZIERATE OF KALWADHANI. 241 
 
 called Abu'l-Jamal (“father of beauty ”) ; he was a 
 friend of mine, reposed confidence in me, and used to 
 invite me to the place where he lay hid, and ask my advice. 
 So he earned a claim to my fidelity, and I tried all sorts of 
 schemes and plans to secure his appointment to the 
 vizierate. My most successful operation was the following. 
 There was at the time in Baghdad a man called Daniali 
 (The Danielite), who was attached to me and passed 
 nights at my house. Among the secrets which he confided 
 to me was that he was in the habit of producing books in 
 an ancient script which he ascribed to the prophet 
 Daniel; into these he would introduce the names of 
 various dignitaries of the empire with the letters of 
 their names detached ; but which were intelligible when 
 put together. Thereby he had acquired renown, and 
 his business was thriving. He had got good sums out of 
 the qa^i Abu 'Umar, his son Abu'l-Husain, and the 
 leading men in the empire, and was in special favour with 
 Mufllh, having informed him that he had found in his 
 books that he, MufliA, was a descendant of Ja'far son of 
 Abu Talib. This had gone down with Muffin, who had 
 rewarded him liberally for the discovery. It was put 
 into my mind to ask him to insert in the books which 
 he was composing a chapter dealing with what I wanted. 
 He agreed. I proceeded to give a description of Husain 
 b. Qasim, confined indeed to his height, the pockmarks 
 on his face, the mark on his lower-lip, and the thinness 
 of the hair there ; with the statement that if he became 
 vizier to the eighteenth of the ‘Abbasids,. that Caliph 
 would be successful in all his affairs, would gain the 
 victory over his enemies, would conquer new countries, 
 and see the world flourish in his days. I handed the 
 paper to Daniali, who agreed to compose a pamphlet 
 wherein he would mention various matters, inserting 
 this section in the middle.—I requested him to produce 
 it and indeed importuned him, till he let me know that 
 it would require at the least twenty days for the docu- 
 
242 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 ment to assume the appearance that he wanted, of 
 extreme and indubitable antiquity ; he had to put it 
 in straw for some days, and then put it into his shoe and 
 walk about on it for some days, so that it might look 
 yellow and old. When the time which he had (216) 
 calculated had come, he brought it to me, and showed it 
 me. I looked out the chapter, and found the leaves to 
 be such that had I not known their origin, I should have 
 sworn that they were indubitably ancient. So he went 
 off with his work to MufliA, and read the contents out 
 to him among other matters. MufliA requested him to 
 read that chapter a second time. When this was done, 
 MufliA went off to Muqtadir and told him about it. 
 Muqtadir asked for the book, and when MufliA brought 
 it to him, the Caliph asked: Whom do we know 
 answering to this description ? This question he kept 
 on repeating, though MufliA said he knew no-one who 
 answered to it. Muqtadir however was anxious to know 
 some-one who corresponded with the description, and 
 at last MufM said : The only person known to me who 
 corresponds with it is Husain b. Qasim called Abu'l- 
 Jamal.—Muqtadir said to him : If any friend of his 
 bring an application, or ask you to convey a message, 
 then let me know it, but conceal the proceedings, letting 
 no-one else know. MufliA came out to Daniali and said 
 to him : Do you know any one of this description ?— 
 Daniali replied that he only read what he had found in 
 the books of Daniel, and had no knowledge beyond. 
 
 Daniali came to me with this story, and I at once 
 went to Husain b. Qasim and repeated it to him ; he 
 was exceedingly pleased and even elated, and a look of 
 triumph appeared on his face. He said to me : Let me 
 tell you that Abu Bishr the clerk yesterday took a letter 
 from me to Mufli/z, and came away despondent, chagrined 
 and vexed by the ill-will towards me which Muffin 
 displayed ; and that grieved me.—I said : We shall 
 know now whether Daniali spoke true or lied ; send 
 
VlZIERATE OF KaLWADHANI. ' 243 
 
 Abu Bishr to-morrow with a letter to MufiiA ; his treat¬ 
 ment of your messenger will show whether what 
 Daniali recounted was truth or fiction.—So he called his 
 clerk Abu Bishr the Christian, gave him a letter, and 
 particularly requested him to call early.—The next day, 
 at the close of the daytime I went to him to find out 
 what had happened. He summoned Abu Bishr and 
 bade him repeat the story to me. Abu Bishr informed 
 me that (217) there were a number of people in Muffin's 
 room when he entered ; MufliA had seated him by his side 
 above them all, and commenced a conversation. Then 
 bidding him come close to him, he had asked him in a 
 whisper for news of ii/usain b. Qasim, and after listening 
 to his message had said : Greet him from me and assure 
 him that I undertake to manage his business , with other 
 words to that effect ; and that he was to send a letter 
 which he, Mufli/^, would deliver ; he would also act as 
 Husain's deputy with the Caliph.—Abu Bishr added : 
 So I came away completely confident and reliant on 
 God for the success of the negotiation.—I then told 
 flusain that the man's story was true, and we had now 
 seen the effects. 
 
 Zanji continues : Daniali now asked me for his re¬ 
 muneration, and I bade him be of good cheer, merely 
 requesting him to wait till #usain had been actually 
 appointed vizier. I reminded #usain of the man's ser¬ 
 vices, and i/usain appointed him Censor in Baghdad 
 with a stipend of a hundred dinars a month. #usain 
 made a friend of him, and when he came to his saloon, 
 bade him sit by the side of his own cushion. But as the 
 days passed, Daniali declared that he was not satisfied 
 with his allowance, and wanted an increase ; so I put 
 his case before i/usain, who assigned him a further 
 hundred dinars a month, which was to come out of the 
 jurists' allowances. 
 
 This affair of “ the Danielite " was one of the most 
 effective causes of #usain's appointment to the vizierate 
 
244 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 in the face of numerous persons who disapproved and 
 objected. 
 
 To this which is narrated by Abu'l-Qasim Ibn Zanji 
 there should be added that Kalwadhani made an estimate 
 of the serious expenditure that was necessary, and ob¬ 
 tained estimates made independently by the Presidents 
 of the Bureau of the Army and the Bureau of Public 
 Expenditure, wherein the requirements came to more 
 than his estimate by 200,000 dinars. This showed Muq¬ 
 tadir how cautious Kalwadhani had been and modest in 
 his statement. There was a deficit of 700,000 dinars. 
 Kalwadhani showed the estimates to Muqtadir, adding : 
 My sole resource for meeting this expenditure is what the 
 Commander of the Faithful will bestow. Muqtadir was 
 indignant at this ; and when iTusain heard about the 
 estimate furnished by Kalwadhani, he wrote a letter to 
 Muqtadir offering to undertake the whole expense with¬ 
 out (218) demanding anything of the Caliph ; and in 
 addition to raise a million dinars which should go into 
 the Private Treasury. Muqtadir sent the letter to 
 Kalwadhani, adding : This is the letter of So-and-so , and 
 I do not demand of you financial assistance, I only want 
 you to meet the expenditure.—Kalwadhani replied : 
 This person may succeed where I have failed ; and re¬ 
 quested the Caliph to bestow the office on the person 
 who had given this guarantee, while permitting him, 
 Kalwadhani, to retire.—When Muqtadir had ascertained 
 the inability of Kalwadhani to find the means, and been 
 impressed by the offer of #usain b. Qasim, he made up 
 his mind to appoint the latter vizier. Knowing how 
 strongly opposed Mu'nis was to the appointment, Muq¬ 
 tadir instructed i/usain through MufM to strive hard 
 to conciliate his enemies. Husain commenced with the 
 sons of Ra’iq, personally visiting their clerk Ibrahim 
 the Christian, and adding promise to promise until they 
 were conciliated. He did the like with Abu Nasr Walid 
 b. Jabir, clerk of Shafi' ; then with Stephen son of 
 
VlZIERATE OF JTUSAIN B. QASIM. 245 
 
 Ya'qub, clerk of Mu'nis, to whom he said : If I am made 
 vizier , it is you who will have made me. Stephen advised 
 him to pay court to Abu 'Ali Yahya b. 'Abdallah 
 Tabari, clerk of Yalbaq. He did this ; Yalbaq had 
 however heard that ii/usain was a bad man, suspected 
 of unorthodoxy : so Abu 'Ali Tabari arranged a meeting 
 between the two, at which iJusain swore by every oath 
 that could bind either a Moslem or a member of a 
 tolerated cult that every charge that had been brought 
 against his orthodoxy was false, in the first place ; then 
 that the same was the case with the charge of ill-will 
 to Mu’nis, his staff and his followers. Husain harboured 
 ill (he said) to no-one ; and the money which he intended 
 to raise was to be taken from arrears due by certain 
 traders who had appropriated moneys that belonged to 
 the Sultan as the price of produce, or from revenue 
 farmers who had made enormous profits. iTisain 
 promised Yalbaq and his clerk handsome estates ; so 
 Yalbaq pleaded his cause with Mu'nis, and Mu’nis with 
 Muqtadir. Thus he became sure of his appointment; 
 and Kalwadhani, hearing of this, repeated his request 
 for permission to retire. 
 
 It so happened that five hundred horsemen who had 
 been stationed in the Jabal in Mah al-Kufah (219) and 
 #ulwan, regions not conquered by Mardawij, came to 
 Baghdad, owing to a delay in their pay, and demanded 
 it of Kalwadhani, who told them to return to their 
 stations, to receive it there. Instead of listening they 
 pelted him with brickbats, as he was returning in his 
 barge. Making this his excuse he locked his door and 
 vowed that he would attend no more to the business of 
 the vizierate. His tenure of office had been two months 
 and three days. 
 
 Muqtadir then issued a rescript to #usain b. Qasim, 
 appointing him vizier. The chief clerks, officials and 
 commanders rode out to him, and when the news reached 
 
246 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Abu’l-Fath al-Fadl b. Ja'far he also visited him with 
 the qadi Abu 'Umar Mohammed b. Yusuf and his son, 
 and the qadi Ibn Abi'l-Shawarib. He wrote a letter in 
 the name of Muqtadir to Khorasan and the other pro¬ 
 vinces, announcing his appointment to the vizierate. 
 The date of his investiturejwas Friday—2 Ramadan 
 (Sep. 28, 931). He declined to hold a reception for con¬ 
 gratulations, and devoted himself to the financial ques¬ 
 tion, including the sum necessary for the feast; al-Fa^l 
 b. Ja'far and Hisham b. 'Abdallah were in attendance 
 upon him, because they were in charge of the bureau 
 and the control of the East, and the bureau of the 
 Treasury. He obtained the bonds of various officials 
 and revenue-farmers for seventy thousand dinars. Late 
 in the day he was visited by 'Ali b. 'Isa, who offered con¬ 
 gratulations ; but Husain had stipulated that this 
 person was to attend to none of the business and not to 
 hear appeals, and this had been granted. 
 
 The clerk of the sons of Ra'iq and the others who 
 had intrigued to secure him the vizierate now made 
 exorbitant demands upon him for money ; they went 
 so far as to seize a vessel that had come from Ahwaz 
 bringing the revenue of Ahwaz, Ispahan and Fars. The 
 vizier Husain wrote to Muqtadir to complain of this 
 (220) action, but the Caliph made only a mild remon¬ 
 strance ; so Husain and the two sons of Ra’iq effected a 
 compromise whereby the latter took half the money, 
 and released the rest. 
 
 Dimnah, who was a favourite concubine of Muqtadir, 
 used to transmit to her master the letters of Husain, 
 and look after his interests, for which he paid her a vast 
 sum ; he also sent a sum to her son the prince Abu 
 Ahmad Ishaq, and asked Muqtadir's permission (which 
 he obtained) to make his son Qasim b. Husain the 
 prince's secretary. He promised Dimnah that he would 
 pay her son a hundred dinars a day if she would see 
 that he was not dismissed. 
 
VlZIERATE OF fiTuSAIN B. QASIM. 247 
 
 His favour was sought by the Baridis and Abu 
 Bakr Ibn Qarabah, who advanced him a sum of money 
 from the revenue-farmers at the usual rate of interest, 
 a dirhem per dinar. Among the commanders who 
 attached themselves to him were Ja'far b. Warqa and 
 Abu 'Abdallah Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani, whom 
 he appointed minister of war, kharaj, and estates in 
 i/ulwan, Marj al-QaFah, and Mah al-Kufah, permitting 
 him to wear the qaba, the sword and belt; he took the 
 title Emir (Prince), and was addressed by it; he under¬ 
 took to collect troops, reconquer the Eastern provinces, 
 and wrest them from the hands of Mardawij. This person 
 (Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani) had embezzled certain 
 arrears of money due to the Sultan from the revenues 
 of the Estates and the kharaj, private and public, which 
 he had farmed in the days of Sulaiman b. iTasan, and 
 they came to a large sum. At one time he had been 
 governor of Kirman, out of whose revenues he had 
 collected a large sum, which he had carried off with him ; 
 his successor wrote that he had not spent one dirhem of 
 this money in the province. And there were other 
 similar incidents in his career. iTusain b. Qasim tried 
 hard to get f Ali b. Tsa and his brother ‘Abd al-Ra/mian 
 removed to Egypt and Syria, and Muqtadir communi¬ 
 cated with ‘Ali b. Tsa on the subject ; but Mu’nis the 
 Mu^affar (221) protected him, urging that he was a man 
 of authority who could be consulted and whose support 
 was of value. It was finally settled that he should go 
 no further than Safiyah, 1 whither he went. 
 
 On Saturday 3 Dhu’KHijjah (Dec. 17, 931) Mu’nis 
 commenced to feel aggrieved and to display disloyalty. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason for this was that a report reached Mu'nis 
 of a meeting between the vizier iTusain b. Qasim and a 
 
 1 Near Dair Qunna, at the extremity of Nahrawan. It was a ruin in Yaqut’s 
 time. 
 
248 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 number of the commanders at which they had plotted 
 against him; //usain, hearing of Mu’nis’s resentment, and 
 that the Muzaffar meant to invade his house at night with a 
 number of his partisans for the purpose of arresting 
 him, moved during ten days to ten different places, and 
 had no known home or place where he could be met; 
 the heads of the bureaux could only find him when he 
 sent for them. Finally he established himself in the 
 Palace. Mu’nis the Muzaffar then sent a message to 
 Muqtadir, requiring him to dismiss //usain from the 
 office of vizier; Muqtadir agreed to dismiss him and 
 order him not to leave his own house. Mu’nis was not 
 satisfied with this, but demanded that he should be 
 arrested and banished to Oman. Muqtadir declined 
 this proposal, and a series of negotiations ensued, 
 //usain b. Qasim wrote to Muqtadir that Mu’nis was 
 plotting to kidnap the prince Abu’l-'Abbas from his 
 house in Mukharrim, and carry him off to Egypt or 
 Syria and there proclaim him Caliph, and advised Muq¬ 
 tadir to bring the prince Abu’l-'Abbas back to his apart¬ 
 ment in the Palace. Muqtadir adopted this suggestion. 
 The Prince Abu’l-'Abbas hearing of this proceeding on 
 the part of //usain b. Qasim resented it, and cherished 
 the grievance until he became Caliph, when he inflicted 
 on //usain the punishment which we hope to narrate in 
 its place. 1 
 
 //usain b. Qasim also wrote to Harun b. Gharib, who 
 was in Dair al-‘Aqul after (222) his defeat by Mardawij, 
 bidding him hurry to the capital. The alarm of Mu’nis 
 was increased by these proceedings, and he was now con¬ 
 vinced that //usain b. Qasim was plotting against him. 
 So on 5 Muferram 320 (Jan. 17, 932) he left his palace, 
 taking his seat in a boat, in a series which extended to the 
 Shammasiyyah Gate, whither most of his followers also 
 came who proceeded to pitch their tents. Mu’nis then 
 
 1 In 321 he was banished to Raqqah by his brother who was then vizier to 
 
 Qahir. 
 
VlZIERATE OF HUSAIN B. QASlM. 249 
 
 wrote to Muqtadir that MufliA the negro was conspiring 
 with .Husain b. Qasim against him, and that he should 
 not feel easy until MufliA was sent to him ; he would then 
 invest MufliA with a most important command and send 
 him out to it.—Muqtadir replied that MufliA was a faith¬ 
 ful servant in whom he had confidence, and not the man 
 to be mixed up in what Mu’nis suggested.—Mu’nis 
 hearing that Husain had assembled his troops and the 
 H ujari retainers in the Palace, and commenced distribut¬ 
 ing money among them, and that Harun b. Gharib had 
 approached Baghdad, made no further secret of his dis¬ 
 pleasure, and proceeded to Mausil. But first he sent his 
 servant Bushra to deliver a message to Muqtadir. When 
 he got within the Palace and into the presence of 
 Husain b. Qasim, the latter told him to hand over the 
 letter which he had brought; he replied that he had no 
 letter, but only a message.—Husain bade him repeat it. 
 —He said his orders were to repeat it to the Caliph 
 only.—Husain sent and told Muqtadir this, and the 
 Caliph sent back word bidding Bushra deliver his message 
 to Husain.—Bushra said he must first go and get his 
 master’s permission and then he would return.—Husain 
 then insulted him and his master, ordered him to be 
 arrested and scourged, and said : I will not give the 
 order to stop the scourging until you give a bond for 
 300,000 dinars.—Bushra gave the bond, and was ordered 
 to prison. Husain immediately sent to Bushra’s house, 
 had its contents removed and arrested and imposed a 
 fine upon his wife. When Mu’nis heard of the treatment 
 which his servant Bushra had received, he proceeded up 
 stream with the commanders in his service and his 
 followers. Husain b. Qasim wrote to the commanders 
 and retainers of his party (223) bidding them leave him 
 and present themselves at the Sultan’s gate. A certain 
 number obeyed this order ; Mu’nis with his own partisans 
 and retainers hastened towards Mausil. Husain ordered 
 the confiscation of his goods and lands, and the lands 
 
* t * ' * i *. J, .. 
 
 250 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 of his dependents. He established a special bureau 
 called the Rebels' Bureau for dealing with these pro¬ 
 perties ; making Mohammed b. Jinni its chief. 
 
 #usain b. Qasim now rose high in Muqtadir's favour, 
 who sent him food from his own table, and ordered that 
 he should be called by his kunyah, should have the title 
 'Amid al-daulah, 1 and that this title should be struck on 
 the dinars and dirhems. 2 This was done, and the robe 
 of honour bestowed on Monday—4 MuAarram, 920 
 (Feb. 6, 320) 3 ; and the vizier composed a letter on the 
 subject, which was despatched to all the provinces and 
 regions. He proceeded to dismiss and appoint officials. 
 Among his appointments was that of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub 
 b. Mohammed Baridi at his own request to the ministries 
 of kharaj, Estates, shipping and all other taxes in Basrah ; 
 these he was to farm on condition of his paying out of 
 the proceeds all the expenses of administration, a subsidy 
 of 30,000 dinars to be granted him besides. When 
 Abu'l-Fath al-Fadl b. Ja'far learned of this arrange¬ 
 ment, he was astonished that the revenue of Basrah 
 should not be sufficient to meet the expenses, and that 
 a subsidy should be required to be provided from the 
 revenues of some other places; so he ordered the 
 accounts of the officials, both those which had been 
 passed and those which had not been passed, 4 to be 
 brought to him ; and he told all the members of his com¬ 
 mittees to bring him the records which they possessed 
 of the revenues of Basrah for three years. The un¬ 
 passed accounts were brought to him, and he went 
 through them as well as through the statements of the 
 
 1 The first of the princely names compounded with daulah " empire,” 
 which are characteristic of the Buwaihids and Hamdanids. This title means 
 “ maintainer of the empire.” 
 
 2 An unheard of honour. Coins bearing his name are to be found in the 
 chief European collections. 
 
 3 According to Wiistenfeld this should be -5 Muharram. 
 
 4 See MafatiA, 56. 
 
VIZIERATE OF #USAIN B. QASIM. 251 
 
 clerks of the committees. Combining statement with 
 statement and working from the morning prayer to the 
 second evening prayer, he got together a memoir of the 
 sort which he wanted. He then summoned Abu Yusuf 
 Baridi and showed it to him ; Baridi found it impossible 
 to deny any of the facts which he had produced, so he 
 gave Al-Fadl b. Ja'far his bond to pay all that was due 
 to the state functionaries, and increase by a thousand 
 (224) the guardians of the wall whom he would pay at 
 the same rate as those to whom they were to be attached, 
 pay all other permanent expenses, and transmit to him 
 in addition 60,000 dinars to be paid into the Treasury 
 in the capital. Al-Fadl b. Ja'far brought this bond to 
 the vizier #usain b. Qasim with some pride, laid it before 
 him and narrated the negotiations between himself and 
 Baridi which had resulted in his writing this bond. It 
 did not make the impression on the vizier which al-Fa^l 
 had calculated on its making ; he displayed vexation, 
 thinking that it was a reproach to himself and that al- 
 Fa^l had exceeded his functions. When al-Fadl per¬ 
 ceived the state of the case he communicated to Muqtadir 
 what he had been doing, and Muqtadir was highly grati¬ 
 fied ; the story got about the bureaux, and was the 
 gossip of the presidents and clerks. This annoyed 
 flusain when he heard of it, and wishing to humiliate 
 al-Fadl, he instructed Ibn Jubair to ridicule al-Fa^l 
 and scold him in the vizier's saloon. Ibn Jubair did as 
 he was told, using expressions not ordinarily heard, while 
 #usain maintained a reserve, and did not interfere. 
 When Abu’l-FatA (al-Fadl) noticed this and understood 
 the object, he rose from the assembly, saying : The 
 person who is addressing me is not you, but some one else. 
 When he had turned his back to depart, #usain became 
 conscious of the error which he had committed, and 
 calling Abu 'Abdallah Zanji, said to him : Abu’l-Fat/* 
 is a friend of yours, and will listen to you. I do not like 
 him to depart in this style ; please overtake him, pacify 
 
252 A.H. 319. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 him, and bring him back.—Abu 'Abdallah made haste, 
 and mollified him till he let himself be brought back, 
 when #usain apologized to him for the expression used 
 by Ibn Jubair. Still he went away alarmed, and hid 
 with Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah, leaving his office un¬ 
 attended until #usain despaired of his appearing, and 
 appointed Abu’l-Qasim Kalwadhani to take charge of 
 it. Abu'l-FatA intrigued to secure the vizierate for him¬ 
 self, and ultimately succeeded, as we shall narrate. 
 
 (225) When Mu'nis failed to return to Baghdad, Z/usain 
 sent to Ibn Muqlah who was in confinement, and fined 
 him; he obtained his bond for 200,000 dinars. He also 
 sent to summon ‘Ali b. 'Isa, who was in Safiyah ; holding 
 out hopes to Muqtadir that he would be able to extort 
 200,000 dinars from him. When the messenger of 
 i/usain reached Safiyah, he found there Harun b. 
 Gharib, who was greatly interested in 'Ali b. 'Isa, and 
 prevented the messenger from fetching him, saying that 
 he would plead his cause with Muqtadir. When ii/usain 
 became aware that Harun b. Gharib had undertaken to 
 protect him, he left him alone. 
 
 When Harun b. Gharib came to the Palace, he had a 
 private audience of the Caliph, and then retired to his 
 own house, where he was visited by the vizier, the two 
 sons of Ra’iq, Mohammed b. Yaqut, 1 MufliA, and Shafi' ; 
 so important had he become. He proceeded to plead 
 with Muqtadir for 'Ali b. ‘Isa, whose fine the Caliph 
 remitted, and for Ibn Muqlah, whose fine was reduced 
 by 50,000 dinars ; the Caliph also gave orders that Ibn 
 Muqlah should be conveyed to Harun’s house. Pre¬ 
 sently, however, the Caliph thought this a mistake, fear¬ 
 ing that Ibn Muqlah might send letters or messages to 
 Mu’nis. Ibn Muqlah requested Harun to approach the 
 Caliph again on this subject, offering to swear the most 
 solemn oaths that he would send neither letter nor 
 
 1 His return is narrated on the next page. 
 
253 
 
 VlZIERATE OF H USAIN B. QASIM. 
 
 message to Mu’nis or any of his dependents. Harun 
 agreed and Ibn Muqlah was brought to his house. My 
 authority says that when Ibn Muqlah was vizier to Ra^i, 
 he told them that after his removal from the Palace he 
 started soliciting contributions, and paid the whole of 
 his fine by what he received from various quarters. 
 There was a surplus of 20,000 dinars, with which he 
 bought certain lands in the name of ‘Abdallah b. ‘Ali 
 Niffari, and settled them on the descendants of Abu 
 Talib. 
 
 #usain wrote to Yaqut bidding him arrest Khasibi, 
 who was in Shiraz, and send him to the capital; the 
 agent of Khasibi, ‘Ali b. Mohammed b. Rauh, hastened 
 to warn his chief, who fled from Shiraz the same day, 
 secretly, and coming to Baghdad went into hiding in the 
 house of Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah, (226) with whom al- 
 Fa^l b. Ja‘far also was hiding. Neither knew about the 
 other. Mohammed b. Yaqut arrived from Ahwaz. 
 Mohammed son of Mu‘tadid and Abu A#mad son of 
 Muktafi were both arrested and brought to the Palace, 
 where they were confined. The Queen-mother was 
 profuse in her liberality towards Mohammed son of 
 Mu‘ta^id, and in the respect she showed him ; she pre¬ 
 sented him with a number of slave-girls. 
 
 The position of the vizier #usain now began to grow 
 difficult. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The financial crisis became severe, and #usain sold 
 lands for half a million dinars, and anticipated half the 
 revenue of the year 320 some months before the collec¬ 
 tion of it properly began. He could find no way of 
 meeting the arrears of the kharaj year 319. 1 Harun b. 
 Gharib, knowing of this, communicated the facts to 
 Muqtadir, who decided to appoint Khasibi vizier; he 
 
 1 The kharaj year was solar, beginning in June (Letters of Sabi', p. 211). 
 
254 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 wrote him a deed of amnesty, in consequence whereof he 
 showed himself. He was approached on the subject 
 of assuming the vizierate, but stated that no revenue 
 remained anywhere due to the Sultan for the year 319, 
 of which three months yet remained, 1 that #usain had 
 anticipated a large portion of the revenue of the year 
 320, and that he was not prepared to deceive the Sultan 
 with regard to his own powers. Harun suggested that 
 Khasibi should be appointed controller of the bureaux 
 by Muqtadir directly, so that the bureaux of first esti¬ 
 mates should be under #usain, who was in the first 
 instance to frame the budget. #usain acquiesced, and 
 Khasibi was in consequence appointed to the presidency 
 of the bureaux of control, with a stipend of 2,700 dinars 
 a month for himself and his clerks. Muqtadir presented 
 i/usain with a robe of honour to silence rumour. 
 
 #usain now proceeded to draw up statements, the 
 accuracy of which was certified by the heads of the 
 primary bureaux and of the bureaux of control, concern¬ 
 ing the revenue due from the provinces, and the amount 
 which was likely to be realized. He assessed the ex¬ 
 penditure at a sum approximating to the revenue, 
 thereby relieving Muqtadir’s mind. Muqtadir handed 
 this statement to Khasibi, ordering him to examine it 
 in detail. (227) Khasibi found that J^usain b. Qasim 
 had disingenuously added to the sums which might be 
 expected to be realized from the provinces the revenue 
 of districts which had passed out of the Sultan’s hands, 
 having been wrested from them by usurpers, as Rayy 
 and the Jabal which had been seized by the Dailemites, 
 and Mausil with Diyar Rabi'ah, which were in the hands 
 of Mu’nis, and the revenue of Diyar Mu^ar, Egypt and 
 Syria, which had not been transmitted for four years ; 
 all this made a vast sum. Further he deducted from the 
 expenditure increases which he had himself made to 
 
 1 Probably this means with the expenses unpaid, The events narrated 
 here must belong to 920 f 
 
255 
 
 VlZIERATE OF Hv SAIN B. QASIM. 
 
 the pay of the army and the allowances of the court- 
 attendants and others. On the other hand he had not 
 deducted from the expected receipts the revenue coming 
 from lands which he had sold. So Khasibi drew up a 
 statement which he laid before Muqtadir and which 
 Muqtadir ordered to be brought to the notice of the 
 vizier. A meeting of the clerks was arranged, and 
 Muqtadir ordered him to examine them. When they 
 addressed him, he began to rebuke them and to charge 
 them with slandering him. In what, he asked, have I 
 misled the Sultan ? Are not these the bonds of the 
 revenue-farmers ?—They replied : God forbid that any 
 one should say such a thing of the vizier ! Still, his 
 statement was based on sums due in the year 319 which 
 he was compelled to allocate out of the revenues of the 
 year 320 ; and the revenue-farmers have sent into the 
 bureau of control statements of the revenue which they 
 have paid on account of the year 320, and of the amount 
 which they have undertaken to pay of these allocated 
 sums at harvest time. This is why we have been sum¬ 
 moned. Husain said : Do you know what the amount 
 is ? Khasibi replied : Yes. He then brought a state¬ 
 ment which he had drawn up, wherein it appeared that 
 the amount allocated out of the revenue of the Sawad, 
 Ahwaz and Fars for the year 320 some months before 
 the collection of it commenced was forty million dirhems ; 
 and that what was still due from the revenue-farmers 
 up to the end of 320 and before the commencement 
 of 321 was twenty millions. It was asserted that no 
 
 similar budget had been brought up in ancient or in 
 modern times. 
 
 When Husain came to understand this, he was aghast, 
 and wished to break up the meeting by clamouring ; 
 You put down in your estimates things the like of which 
 no vizier ever perpetrated, and then (228) you lay them 
 before me ! Hisham said : It is an error, written (no 
 doubt) by oversight, and cannot affect the assets one way 
 
256 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 or the other.—He was beaten for this remark, and then 
 said : We have been summoned for the sole purpose 
 of looking into the accounts and telling the vizier the 
 facts.—#usain then turned to Khasibi and mocked him, 
 not attempting to argue. Khasibi left the meeting 
 when #usain had been exposed, and went with the 
 revenue-farmers and Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad to 
 Harun b. Gharib, to whom he set forth what had hap¬ 
 pened. The meeting was reported precisely as it had 
 taken place to Muqtadir, in whose presence Khasibi 
 addressed to iTusain the same remarks as before. 
 Husain's cause was ruined, and he was arrested after 
 holding office seven months. 
 
 The vizierate of Abu’l-Fath al-Fadl b. Jafar.' 
 
 Abu'l-Fatd al-Fadl b. Ja'far was now appointed 
 vizier, the robe of honour being bestowed on him on 
 Monday—2 Rabi' ii (May 7, 932) ; he rode in his robes 
 accompanied by the commanders and the courtiers of 
 Muqtadir. Muqtadir put JTusain b. Qasim in the power 
 of the new vizier, who held friendly intercourse with him, 
 and assessed his fine at 40,000 dinars. When he had 
 paid it, the vizier asked Muqtadir's permission to appoint 
 him inspector of Egypt and Syria ; and this permission 
 was granted. It then appeared that i/usain was trying 
 to dig through the wall of the place in which he was con¬ 
 fined, and Khasibi said : This is a man who has got hold 
 of a vast sum belonging to the Sultan, and it is unde¬ 
 sirable that he should be at large or occupy any public 
 post.—The arrangement was therefore delayed, a second 
 fine was imposed on him, and after that the vizier re¬ 
 tained him in his power, and kept him for some time ; 
 he then sent him off to Basrah with an allowance of 5,000 
 dirhems a month. 
 
 This year there appeared an agent of Mardawij b. 
 Ziyar, who requested that the Eastern provinces which 
 fie had conquered should be allotted him in fief ; his 
 
VlZIERATE OF AL FADL B. Ja'FAR. 257 
 
 cause was taken up by Harun b. Gharib, who settled that 
 he should restore to the Sultan the districts of Mah al- 
 Kufah and Hamadhan, (229) but be invested with the 
 government of the rest, for which he was to send revenue. 
 His deed of investiture was made out, and a banner with 
 robes of honour was sent to him. 
 
 Then Muqtadir bethought him of appointing Ibn 
 Muqlah to the vizierate, but when Harun b. Gharib 
 heard of this he disapproved, owing to Ibn Muqlah’s 
 attachment to Mu'nis. Harun met the vizier Abu'l- 
 Fa th, and the two compelled Abu 'Abdallah Baridi to 
 pay 100,000 dinars ; Ibn Muqlah was handed over to 
 him 1 ; the vizier Abu’l-FatA was enabled to keep things 
 
 going; and Ibn Muqlah was conveyed to Shiraz with 
 Rashiq Aisar. 
 
 This year the qa^i Abu 'Umar died, and Abu Bakr 
 Ibn Q arabah strenuously urged the Caliph to make 
 calls upon his heirs ; telling Muqtadir that the qa^i's 
 son ought to pay a hundred thousand dinars, which he 
 could well afford. If he declined, some one else would 
 present himself to be appointed Judge of Judges, and the 
 money would be furnished from that source. Muqtadir 
 ordered Harun b. Gharib to send his clerk, and the vizier 
 to associate with him a confidential agent, who should 
 go to see Abu'l-#usain son of Abu 'Umar with Ibn 
 Qarabah, who should speak to him in their presence. 
 Accordingly Ibn Qarabah went accompanied by Abu 
 Ja'far Ibn Shirzad and Abu 'Ali Ahmad b. Nasr 
 Baziyar. When they came to the house of the qadi 
 Abu'l-i7usain, they found there a large company of friends 
 paying visits of condolence. They said some words of 
 sympathy themselves, and then sat down in silence as 
 is proper on such melancholy occasions. Then Ibn 
 Qarabah said : This is not the purpose of our visit ; 
 come with us, Abu’l-i/usain, where we can see you 
 
 1 It is not clear to whom : apparently Baridi, 
 
258 . A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 alone.—He rose and went with them, and then Ibn 
 Qarabah made a most importunate demand. Abu’l- 
 Husain replied : My fortune and my father’s fortune 
 are both derived from the Commander of the Faithful 
 Muqtadir, so I shall reserve nothing from him.—He asked 
 for the delay of that day, so that he might cast up his 
 accounts, and said he would come the next morning 
 and give a true account of his means. It was Ramadan ; 
 when night came on, at the time of breaking fast, he went 
 to Ibn Qarabah, and demanded admission. He was 
 brought in, and as a table was in front of Ibn Qarabah, 
 the latter bade him break fast with him. So he washed 
 his hands, said In the Name of God, and proceeded to eat; 
 his bereavement was indeed very fresh, having (230) 
 happened that very day, but his idea was to protect him¬ 
 self from Ibn Qarabah’s evil designs.—When the break¬ 
 fast was over, he said : Sir, I have come to put myself 
 in your hands ; do you settle as you think fit what I am 
 to do.—Ibn Qarabah replied : Arise and go in peace ; 
 you need give me no instructions and need not think 
 about your concerns ; I will settle it all and act in a way 
 that will satisfy you.—The two Baridis, Abu 'Abdallah 
 and Abu Yusuf, were present at Ibn Qarabah’s table ; 
 when they had finished their meal, they approached 
 the qadi Abu’l-Husain, in the character of sympathizers, 
 manifested their participation in his trouble, and 
 approved his idea of visiting Ibn Qarabah and breaking 
 fast with him.—Then they said to him : You are on the 
 road to fortune.—Abu Yusuf then offered him three 
 thousand dinars, saying : If you are in need of them, 
 take them and ransom yourself with them ; or, if the 
 state of affairs renders it necessary for you to go into 
 hiding, then spend them on your retreat, and before 
 they are exhausted deliverance will come.—Abu’l-Husain 
 had no occasion to go into hiding ; Muqtadir was merci¬ 
 ful with him, and he was liberally helped by the Baridis 
 
VlZIERATE OF AL FADL B. Ja'FAR. 259 
 
 and his friends. Muqtadir appointed him Judge of 
 Judges, he recovered heart and his affairs prospered. 
 
 Muqtadir after this was explaining to Ibn Qarabah 
 the financial crisis, when the latter said to him : Com¬ 
 mander of the Faithful, why are you not helped by 
 Harun, your maternal uncle's son, who has barns filled 
 with money ?—Muqtadir repeated this to Harun, who 
 said : Commander of the Faithful, if I do own such 
 stores, I do not grudge them you, as your safety is mine ; 
 I spend them on your army, so that they come back to 
 you. But Ibn Qarabah has hoards for which he has no 
 use whatever, and I can get half a million dinars out of 
 him. He has not the relationship with the Commander 
 of the Faithful which I have, so why should he be allowed 
 to retain them ? I will pay them to you out of his 
 assets.—Muqtadir said : Go and take possession of him. 
 —So Harun arrested Ibn Qarabah, who was tortured till 
 he nearly died ; but Muqtadir was put to death in time, 
 and so Ibn Qarabah escaped. We must not wonder at 
 God's decrees. 
 
 (231) The vizier Abu'l-FatA had already ordered a 
 statement to be drawn up of the profit made by Ibn 
 Qarabah on the sums which he advanced on behalf of 
 the revenue-farmers, the arrears of the fine which had 
 been imposed on him in the days of 'Abdallah Khaqani, 
 and the surplus due from him on the estates which he 
 had purchased. The amount due from him on these var¬ 
 ious accounts came out at a million dinars ; out of which he 
 actually paid ninety thousand. Then the attention of the 
 vizier and of Harun was absorbed by the news that Mu'nis 
 was descending the river from Mausil. One day Harun had 
 had Ibn Qarabah fettered, and delivered to his door¬ 
 keeper and a number of his retainers to remove to Wasit. 
 That day Muqtadir was put to death, and all who were 
 in charge of Ibn Qarabah took to flight except two slaves 
 of Harun whom he had purchased, and who looked after 
 
260 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 him. These went with him to the wharf of Ja'far, took 
 him into a mosque, and fetched a smith who removed 
 his fetters. Being released he went to his house in 
 Suwaiqat Ghalib, and gave the two slaves five hundred 
 dinars. 
 
 Thabit b. Sinan records in his work that his father 
 Sinan b. Thabit was on friendly terms with Ibn 
 Qarabah ; so we went, he says, to congratulate him on 
 his escape. He said to my father : Abu Sa'id, you are 
 attached to me, and are besides a man of prudence and 
 sound judgment. I want you to advise me what I had 
 best do.—My father said : Tell me the subject, and I 
 will give you the advice of a friend.—Ibn Qarabah said : 
 You know that I was in seas of meddling, and that claims 
 were brought against me in consequence of the business 
 which I transacted in advancing money on account of 
 the revenue-farmers ; on no-one were ever such claims 
 made. I have now experienced this reverse, but the 
 amount of fine which I have paid in consequence is less 
 than what I possessed ; and I have now got sources that 
 produce 20,000 dinars net revenue, and I possess besides 
 orchards and cultivated lands unrivalled in extent, with 
 furniture, utensils, crystal, cut glass, china, gems, and 
 apparel such as are owned by no other person. Besides 
 these I possess (232) slaves, handsome pages, retainers 
 and horses in greater numbers than any one else. I 
 have besides three hundred thousand dinars in cash 
 which I do not require. There is a firm friendship be¬ 
 tween the present vizier (i.e., Ibn Muqlah, who had 
 been appointed by Qahir and was still in Fars) and my¬ 
 self ; when he arrives, do you advise me to confine myself 
 to an occasional call in order to maintain our relations, 
 without my attaching myself to him and returning to 
 my former occupation, or should I enter the meddling 
 once more ?—My father said : I never saw a stranger 
 consultation than this ; usually people consult about 
 
VlZIERATE OF AL FADL B. Ja'fAR. 261 
 
 difficult situations, but where they are obvious counsel 
 is not required. Consider, God help you; if the 
 meddling produced what you like, then go back to it; 
 but if it has only produced what you dislike, and ex¬ 
 posed you to the loss of your life and of your fortune, 
 then do not go back ! And besides men work and toil 
 and expose themselves to vexation to obtain merely a 
 part of what you have acquired. So praise God, and 
 en j°y your fortune ; for you have obtained sufficient 
 honour to protect it. Reap the benefit of security and 
 health !—Ibn Qarabah listened to all this, and then said : 
 I am well aware that your advice is good, indeed excel¬ 
 lent ; but I have an unfortunate disposition which will 
 not be resigned ; I must go back to my former occupa¬ 
 tion.—My father said : May God be good to you !— 
 We parted, and my father said to me : My boy, I have 
 never seen a greater fool than that man. Men of that 
 kind either get themselves killed or die in the most abject 
 poverty. 
 
 The event turned out as he prophesied. His meddling 
 led to his being arrested by Qahir, who confiscated his 
 fortune ; his goods were seized and his house was pulled 
 down ; the Caliph wished to put him to death, only was 
 himself dethroned too soon. He then went back to his 
 meddling, entered the service of the Baridis when they 
 rebelled against the government, then of Ahmad b. 
 Buwaihi when he made himself master of Ahwaz ; but 
 he was taken prisoner when this prince was compelled 
 to retreat from the Diyala, and was fined so heavily that 
 nothing was left him, and he was forced to enter the 
 service of Nasir Al-Daulah Abu Mohammed Ibn 
 i/AMDAN for a wage of a dinar a month; and to him 
 (233) this seemed a great deal, though he had been 
 accustomed to spend that amount in a day. He died 
 in Mausil. God keep us from folly and ill-luck ! 
 
262 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Year 320. 1 
 
 In this year Mu'nis descended the river from Mausil 
 to Baghdad and Muqtadir was put to death. 
 
 Account of the cause for this. 
 
 The cause was the estrangement between Mu'nis 
 and the Caliph which has already been described. When 
 Mu’nis succeeded in getting away to Mausil, Husain b. 
 Qasim wrote to Dawud and Sa'id sons of Hamdan and 
 .Hasan b. 'Abdallah b. Hamdan, bidding him offer 
 armed resistance to Mu’nis, and keep him out of Mausil 
 as a rebel. Mu’nis on his journey had sent letters to the 
 chieftains of the Arabs in Diyar Rabi'ah stating that 
 he had been sent by the Sultan to fight against the Banu 
 Hamdan : his intention being to keep these chieftains 
 from assisting them. Dawud refused to resist Mu’nis 
 owing to the favours which the latter had conferred upon 
 him ; his relations however urged him to carry out his 
 orders, saying : We have not yet cleared away the dis¬ 
 grace of the doings of Husain b. Hamdan , 2 and the 
 recent acts of Abu’l-Haija ; 3 are we about to perpetrate 
 a third business ? He finally yielded to their represen¬ 
 tations, though exceedingly unwillingly, saying: My 
 people, with what face shall I meet Mu'nis when he has 
 been so kind to me ? He enumerated the benefits 
 which he had received, then said : By Allah, it would 
 not be surprising if an arrow shot at a venture came at 
 me in this place (pointing to his throat), and put an end 
 to me.—And in fact (my authority adds) the moment 
 when Mu'nis met him an arrow shot at a venture came 
 just where he had put his finger, and pierced his throat. 
 He was the only man killed on the occasion. 
 
 1 This heading is somewhat belated, as many of the events recorded above 
 were in that year. 
 
 2 See above, p. 5 foil. 
 
 A # 
 
 3 See above, p p. 196-198. 
 
VIZIERATE OF AL FaDL B. Ja'fAR. 263 
 
 The ffamdanid force was of 30,000, whereas Mu'nis 
 was at the head of 800 ; still the #amdanids were routed 
 and Dawud slain. When Mu’nis was told that Dawud 
 was advancing to meet him in battle, he expressed sur¬ 
 prise : Friends, he said, am I to be attacked by Dawud, 
 whom I held in my lap when he was circumcised, and 
 on whom I have more than a father's claims ? 
 
 When (234) Mu'nis had obtained possession of the 
 goods, stores and lands of the #amdanids, and become 
 supreme in the districts of Mausil, the officials came out 
 to him in parties 1 and in increasing numbers, and urged 
 him to leave Mausil and invade the metropolis. After 
 nine months' residence in Mausil he descended the river ; 
 and when the troops in Baghdad heard of this, they 
 mutinied demanding their pay. Muqtadir gave out the 
 money, and held a sitting in the Jausaq, at which he paid 
 them ; he then had a tent of his called The Tent of Blood 
 brought out to the Shammasiyyah Gate. Mu'nis with 
 his followers arrived at the same Gate, before that time 
 Muqtadir had despatched Abu'l-'Ala Sa'id b. #amdan 
 and Safi of Basrah with cavalry to Samarra; he then 
 sent Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Yaqut with two thousand 
 'horse and the H ujari retainers to Ma'shuq , 2 and after 
 him Mu’nis Warqa'i scouting; when Mu'nis the 
 Mu^affar approached, they commenced retreating and 
 reassembled in ‘Ukbara. When Mu'nis approached 
 ‘Ukbara, these troops retired with Mohammed b. Yaqut 
 to Baradan, 3 and when he encamped in 'Ukbara, 
 they retired to the Shammasiyyah Gate. There they 
 encamped. 
 
 1 Doubtless from Baghdad. 
 
 2 A large fort on the western bank of the Tigris, opposite Samarra and in 
 the midst of the desert. Yaqut. 
 
 3 Village belonging to Baghdad at a distance of four parasangs (12 miles) 
 ‘Ukbara was five parasangs further. Bibliotheca Geographorum Arab. vi. 67. 
 
264 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadik. 
 
 Great confusion ensued, the tax-farmers and the 
 officials stopping the transmission of money. Muq- 
 tadir tried to get Harun to march out against Mu’nis, 
 but he made difficulties, alleging that most of his 
 followers were soldiers who had previously been under 
 Mu nis, or under himself at the time of his war against 
 Mardawij, or Dailemites who had deserted to him. He 
 understood, he said, their quality as fighters, that they 
 would take to flight and be unable to stand firm. He 
 had no confidence in any of them, being convinced that 
 they would desert and abandon him. So he put off 
 marching out until the followers of Mu’nis were at the 
 Shammasiyyah Gate, opposite the troops of Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut. Mohammed b. Yaqut went to the vizier 
 al-Faril b. Ja far, and the two went down the river to 
 (235) Muqtadir, accompanied by the two sons of Ra’iq 
 and Muflih, and Mohammed b. Yaqut explained the 
 situation as follows. The soldiers, he said, only fight 
 for money ; if this is produced, fighting will be unneces¬ 
 sary, for most of Mu’nis’s followers will desert, and he 
 will be compelled either to fly or to hide himself.—Muq¬ 
 tadir replied : The vizier has been paying out money, 
 but not to every one.—They asked him to contrive to 
 furnish 200,000 dinars from his own funds and those of 
 his mother, to be spent on objects of immediate import-" 
 ance, but he replied that neither he nor she had any 
 means of raising money left. So he ordered the barges 
 and launches with the view of sailing with his family to 
 Wasit, thence to write to the officials in Basrah, Ahwaz 
 and Fars, to demand their help and presence to combat 
 and defeat Mu’nis.—Mohammed b. Yaqut then said: 
 Fear God, O Commander of the Faithful; think of thy 
 retainers and servants, and do not abandon Baghdad 
 to Mu nis without a fight.—He then began to endeavour 
 to shake his resolve, advising him to go personally to the 
 camp, so that the troops might see him and be encour¬ 
 aged to fight. If, he said, the followers of Mu’nis but 
 
VlZIERATE OF AL FADL B. Ja'fAR. 265 
 
 see you, they will not have the heart to fight against 
 you.—Muqtadir said to him: You are the Devil’s apostle. 
 —He then sent an order by the vizier al-Fa^l b. Ja'far 
 to Harun to march out, adding reproaches.—The vizier 
 went to Harun and they arranged that the latter should 
 march to the Palace on Wednesday—3 Shawwal (Oct. 
 31, 932). On that day Muqtadir rode out with them 
 wearing the cloak of the Prophet which was an heirloom 
 of the Caliphs, with the Prophet’s rod in his hand, with 
 his son the prince Abu 'Ali in front of him, and the 
 Ansar, 1 having with them copies of the Qur’an spread 
 out and Readers reading the Qur’an aloud, and sur¬ 
 rounded by the Hajari retainers armed and on foot, with 
 all the commanders and the vizier behind him. He 
 proceeded through Baghdad to the Shammasiyyah 
 Quarter, with loud prayers from the inhabitants for his 
 success. He advanced through the main street to the 
 camp. When he reached it, he was advised to mount to 
 a high place at a distance from the battlefield. The 
 battle was furiously contested between the followers of 
 Mu’nis and those of Muqtadir; Mu’nis remained in 
 Rashidiyyah, 2 and was not present at the battle. Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Yaqut and Harun b. (236) Gharib stood firm, 
 and the armies came to grips. Abu’l-'Ala Sa'id b. 
 TTamdan brought Muqtadir a message from the two 
 commanders begging him to appear on the battlefield. 
 If Mu’nis’s followers saw him, they would (the com¬ 
 manders assured him) desert.—Muqtadir would not move 
 from his place.—Then Abu’l-‘Ala Safi of Basrah went 
 up to him and said the same; but he would not hear. 
 Then there appeared Mohammed b. Ahmad Qarariti, 
 clerk of Mohammed b. Yaqut, soliciting an audience of 
 Muqtadir ; brought before the Caliph, who was on horse¬ 
 back, he kissed the ground and said : Commander of the 
 Faithful, the generals and thy slave Mohammed b. 
 
 1 Seems to mean members of the old families of Medinah. 
 3 One of the villages belonging to Baghdad. 
 
266 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Muqtadir. 
 
 Yaqut say : Lord Commander of the Faithful, betake 
 thyself to the place, for if the enemy see thee, they will 
 be routed.—Still Muqtadir would not budge. He re¬ 
 mained motionless on his horse, while behind him was the 
 vizier Abu'1-Fat A with MufliA the negro, and a number 
 of private retainers. While they were in this state, 
 there came a message from the generals who were actively 
 en g a g e d> after which Muqtadir ordered that a proclamation 
 should be made before him : Whoever brings a prisoner 
 shall have ten dinars, and whoever brings a head shall 
 have five ; and this proclamation was made.—Then a 
 note came for him, which was handed to him, and which 
 he read; he then called MufliA and Qararid, and 
 whispered into their ears, and then called the vizier and 
 did the like. The vizier made a reply which was not 
 heard. Then there came another note, which he also 
 read. Then came oral messages publicly delivered from 
 the generals, which the people could hear, to the effect 
 that the soldiers engaged were saying : We want to see 
 our sovereign, that we may fling ourselves upon these 
 hounds.—Qararifi and the others kept imploring him 
 to go, and assuring him that there was no difficulty, 
 till at last he started with MufliA and those who remained 
 with him. Only al-Fa^l b. Ja'far hung back and went 
 towards the river-bank. Before however Muqtadir 
 could reach the battle-field his followers had been driven 
 off it and been routed, the last person who remained fighting 
 vigorously being Mohammed b. Yaqut. AAmad b. 
 Kaighalagh and other generals were taken prisoner. Muq¬ 
 tadir on his way to the battle-field, and before he had 
 reached it, was met by ‘Ali b. Yalbaq they were on 
 (237) an expanse of country. When Ali's eye fell on the 
 Caliph, he dismounted, being fully armed, and cried : 
 My lord, the Commander of the Faithful! and proceeded 
 to kiss the ground and then the Caliph's knee. Just 
 then the Berber followers of Mu'nis came up, and sur- 
 
 1 Son of Mu'nis's chief adherent. 
 
Death of Muqtadir. 267 
 
 rounded Muqtadir ; one of them struck him from behind 
 a blow that brought him to the ground. He cried out : 
 Curse you, I am the Caliph ! The Berber said : It's 
 you I'm after ! He made the Caliph lie on the ground 
 and cut his throat with a sword. With the Caliph there 
 was a vice-chamberlain who flung himself on the Berber 
 and had his throat cut also. The head of Muqtadir was 
 raised upon a sword, then upon a stake ; he was stripped 
 of his clothing, even his drawers, and left stark naked 
 till a labouring man who passed by covered him with hay, 
 and dug a grave for him where he lay, buried him, and 
 obliterated the traces. 1 
 
 Yalbaq and his son ‘Ali went to repose in their tents, 
 and men were at once sent to the Palace to guard it. 
 Mu’nis came down the river from Rashidiyyah to Sham- 
 masiyyah, where he spent the night; 'Abd al-Wahid 
 son of Muqtadir, MufM, Harun b. Gharib, Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut, and the two sons of Ra'iq went by land to 
 Mada’in. 
 
 The procedure of Mu'nis in letting the face of Muq¬ 
 tadir be struck with the sword, and letting him be killed, 
 followed by his entry of Baghdad in this style, emboldened 
 the enemies to achieve what they had never aspired to ; 
 to take possession of the capital. Since that time the 
 Caliphate has been weakened and the Caliph's authority 
 been shattered. This process kept on increasing till it 
 reached the state which we hope presently to describe. 
 
 (238) Thabit tells a story of Muqtadir's waste of the 
 revenue which I have thought well to transcribe at 
 length, that no sovereign or public administrator may be 
 deceived by the richness of his resources, and forget to 
 fertilize them, or take his ease and be slothful when he 
 should be toiling thereat. If he acts thus, he may hurry 
 but he will not overtake. His state will be comparable 
 
 1 In ‘Arib’s account the Caliph fights bravely, but his authorities agree that 
 he was most unwilling to take part in the battle. 
 
268 
 
 A.H. 320. Death of Muqtadir. 
 
 to the breach in a dyke which starts with the diameter 
 of a dirhem, and then expands and cannot be repaired. 
 
 I—I am here speaking in my own person—once 
 warned an administrator in this way, and emphasized 
 my warning. He only smiled, proud in the possession 
 of vast treasures and stores. Two years had not passed 
 before I saw him in a pitiable condition, wherein pity 
 would do no good. I will tell his story in due course. 
 
 Muqtadir wasted more than seventy million dinars 
 in addition to what he spent on proper objects and in 
 the right places. That is a larger amount than had been 
 hoarded by Rashid for his successors, though among 
 all the ‘Abbasids none hoarded more than he. When 
 Qasim b. ‘Ubaidallah was asked by Mu'tadid concerning 
 the amount left by each of the ‘Abbasids, he replied that 
 none had left more than Rashid, who had left in his 
 Treasury forty-eight million dinars. 
 
 The following is a copy of a statement drawn up by 
 one of the clerks of Abu’l-i/asan Ibn al-Furat when he 
 was appointed vizier by Muqtadir. 
 
 In the Name of God, etc* 
 
 Amount in the private Treasury when Muqtadir assumed the Caliphate : 
 Fourteen million dinars. 
 
 Abu’l-#asan Ibn al-Furat reconquered the provinces 
 of Fars and Kirman in the year 299, and the revenue 
 thence produced every year out of the kharaj , the Public 
 Lands, and the lands known as the Princes* was 
 23,800,000 dirhems. Of this the revenue of Fars was 
 18,000,000 dirhems, and that of Kirman 5,000,000 dir¬ 
 hems. (239) In the space of twenty-one years, ending 
 with the kharaj year 320, after deducting 800,000 dirhems 
 as unpaid arrears for each year, this produces a total of 
 483,000,000 dirhems. If we deduct from this the amount 
 paid by the conquerors of Fars and Kirman yearly into 
 the Public Treasury at the capital, about 4,000,000, 
 amounting in the course of these years to 83,000,000 
 dirhems, there remains 400,000,000 dirhems, worth 
 28,000,000 dinars. 
 
269 
 
 Death of Muqtadir. 
 
 From the revenues of Egypt and Syria there was a 
 surplus as compared with what they produced in the days 
 of Mu'tadid, amounting to 3,600,000 dinars. 
 
 Muqtadir realized out of the fines which he imposed 
 upon Ibn al-Furat and his clerks and dependents 4,400,000 
 dinars. On the first occasion 2,300,000 dinars. On the 
 second 1,100,000 dinars. On the third including what 
 he took from the wife of MuAassin and Daulah 900,000 
 dinars. Revenue produced by the lands of Ibn al-Furat 
 that had been privately owned, exclusive of fiefs, and 
 lands leased for a fixed amount, during seventeen years, 
 account being taken of such lands as were sold, delivered 
 in fief or leased for a fixed amount to members of the 
 court, at the rate of 250,000 dinars a year, 4,250,000 
 dinars. 
 
 Amount realized by the confiscation of the estate of 
 Abu 'Abdallah al-Jassas al-Jauhari, 1 exclusive of his own 
 exaggerations, 2,000,000 dinars. 
 
 Amount realized on the lands of 'Abbas b. #asan 
 after he had been put to death, and for a period of 
 twenty-four years, at the rate of 120,000 dinars a year, 
 2,880,000 dinars. 1 
 
 ( 240 ) Property which had belonged to //amid b. 
 'Abbas and been confiscated, together with the revenue 
 of his lands until they were restored to his children, 
 2,200,000 dinars. 
 
 Property that had belonged to the Madara'is, #usain 
 b. A/hnad and Mohammed b. 'Ali, and had been confis¬ 
 cated in the days of the vizierate of Abu 'Ali Khaqani, 
 the three vizierates of Ibn al-Furat, and in the days of 
 Abu’l-Qasim Khaqani and Abu’l-'Abbas Khasibi, in the 
 second vizierate of 'Ali b. ‘Isa, and that of Ibn Muqlah, 
 1,300,000 dinars. 
 
 1 See above, p. 35 . 
 
 2 There should be 80,000 more. 
 
270 
 
 A.H. 320. Death of Muqtadir. 
 
 Moneys obtained from ‘Ali b. ‘Isa, Ibn al-Z/awari, 
 and other clerks and heads of departments who were 
 fined, 2,000,000 dinars. 
 
 Moneys obtained from the inheritance of Rasibi, 
 500,000 dinars. 1 
 
 Moneys obtained from the inheritance of Ibrahim 
 Misma'i, 300,000 dinars. 
 
 Moneys obtained from sales in the days of the various 
 viziers and increased by al-Fa^l b. Ja'far, 3,000,000 
 dinars. 
 
 Money obtained from the estates of Umm Musa, her 
 brother, her sister, and her dependents, 2,000,000 dinars. 
 
 The whole amount of cash comes to 68,430,000 
 dinars. 2 
 
 Deduct therefrom the revenue of the lands sold from 
 the year 317 to the end of 320 at the rate (approximately 
 right) of 900,000 dinars a year : 3,600,000 dinars. 
 
 There remains after that as the amount which went 
 into the Treasury of Muqtadir over and above what was 
 transmitted to the Private Treasury in the days of 
 Mu'tacfid and Muktafi out of the revenues of the Estates 
 and the kharaj of the Sawad, Ahwaz, the East and the 
 West, 64,830,000 dinars. Now it had been the ( 241 ) 
 practice of both Mu'tadid and Muktafi to save a million 
 dinars each year of their Caliphate out of the revenue 
 of the provinces after paying the stipends of the soldiers, 
 retainers, eunuchs and court attendants and all extra¬ 
 ordinary expenditure in addition to what they found 
 hoarded in the Private Treasury. 
 
 Had Muqtadir saved in like fashion, the amount in 
 twenty-five years would have reached 25,000,000 dinars. 
 
 1 See above p. 25. 
 
 2 It is evident that some items have been omitted by the copyists, as the 
 figures actually given come to 56,430,000 ; there are besides some errors in the 
 totals where the details of a suni are given, probably due to careless copying also. 
 
Death of Muqtadir. 271 
 
 The whole sum then which ought to have been stored 
 in Muqtadir s Treasury during these years to the end of 
 320 would have been 89,830,000 dinars. Deduct thence 
 sums not squandered, but spent on three accessions, 1 
 and on the re-conquest of Fars and Kirman, over 
 10,000,000 dinars ; there remains over 70,000,000 dinars 
 all of it squandered and wasted. 
 
 The duration of the vizierate of Abu'l-FatA al-Fadl 
 
 b. Ja far to Muqtadir was five months and twenty-nine 
 days. 
 
 1 fiis own first and second and tf^e first of Qahir, 
 
Chapter II. 
 
 The Caliphate of al-Qahir Billah Abu Mansur 
 
 Mohammed son of Mu'tadid. 
 
 In the Year 320. 
 
 When Muqtadir was put to death and his head 
 brought into the presence of Mu'nis, he burst into tears, 
 saying : You have killed him ! By Allah we shall all be 
 killed ! The least you can do is to declare that this hap¬ 
 pened without any intention on your part , or any order ; 
 and to place on the throne his son Abu Abbas y for he is my 
 nursling ; and if he be seated thereon , his grandmother , 
 Muqtadir s mother , his brothers , and (242) his father's 
 retainers will be willing to spend money . This proposal was 
 opposed by Abu Ya'qub Ishaq b. Isma'il Nubakhti 
 partly because of its wisdom, but also owing to what had 
 been foreordained by the Almighty. He said : After 
 all the trouble which it has taken us to get rid of a 
 sovereign with a mother and an aunt and eunuchs are 
 we going to have the same thing again ? He urged his 
 views upon Mu'nis and his dependents till he had 
 brought them to reject AbuVAbbas and made them 
 inclined to favour Mohammed son of Mu'tadid ; so that 
 that might be accomplished which had been foreordained, 
 that Mu’nis should die by his hand. To that assembly 
 there came Bowl-face Fa'iq of the haram, who toldMu'nis 
 that when the Queen-mother heard of her son's death 
 she wanted to fly, but that he had put her under surveil¬ 
 lance and made sure of her. He added that Mohammed 
 son of Mu'ta^id and Mohammed son of Muktafi were in 
 his custody. Mu'nis sent him to fetch them, and he 
 brought them up stream to the palace of Mu'nis after 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 273 
 
 rele^ing Mu’nis’s servant Bushra. 1 Mu’nis first 
 a dressed himself to Mohammed son of Muktafi, who 
 declined the office, saying that his uncle had a better 
 c aim. Mu’nis then addressed Mohammed son of 
 
 ,- d ’ Wh ° acce P ted J he was made to take an oath 
 of fidelity to Mu’nis the Muzaffar, Yalbaq, his son ‘Ali, 
 and YaAya b. ‘Abdallah Tabari, Yalbaq’s clerk. When 
 they had made sure of him by oaths and covenants, 
 they did homage to him, and the like was done by the 
 judges and commanders present. He took the title 
 al-Qahir Billah (The Conqueror by God). It was the 
 morning of Thursday — 2 Shawwal (Nov. 1 , 932). Mu’nis 
 advised that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa be appointed his vizier, and 
 eulogized his integrity, uprightness, orthodoxy and 
 piety , but Yalbaq and his son objected that the time 
 did not admit of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa’s ways ; it required some one 
 who was more liberal and less strict. He then nominated 
 Ibn Muqlah with Abu’l-Qasim Kalwadhani as his deputy 
 until he arrived from Fars. This arrangement was rati¬ 
 fied by Mu’nis, who wrote to Ibn Muqlah bidding him 
 hasten, and to Yaqut to send him with all speed. 
 
 Qahir went downstream to the Palace, and mounted 
 the stairs ; Mu’nis and his dependents also descended to 
 their homes. Mohammed son of Muktafi was sent off 
 to his apartment in the palace of Ibn Tahir. Qahir 
 proceeded to appoint as his chamberlain (243) ‘Ali b. 
 Yalbaq, who made Abu ‘Ali Hasan b. Harun his secre¬ 
 tary. Mu nis the Mu^affar sent to fetch ‘Ali b. ‘Isa from 
 Safiyah, and a message was sent him also by Qahir 
 through i/asan b. Harun, summoning him. He inter¬ 
 viewed Mu nis first, then went down stream to Qahir, 
 —of whom he had an audience, in which he was respect¬ 
 fully addressed by the Caliph ; this was prior to the 
 arrival of Ibn Muqlah. Mu’nis also summoned Kal¬ 
 wadhani and went down with him to the Palace, where 
 
 1 His arrest was described above, p. 222. 
 
274 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 he introduced him to Qahir, whom he informed that 
 he had appointed Ibn Muqlah vizier, and Kalwadhani 
 his deputy until the other arrived. Qahir bade the 
 latter move into the apartment of Mufli^ in order that 
 he might be at hand when the Caliph required him. He 
 did this, and received congratulatory visits from the 
 heads of the bureaux, and proceeded to issue orders and 
 prohibitions. 
 
 Qahir now devoted his attention to discovering which 
 of Muqtadir's women and children were in hiding, and 
 to examining his (Muqtadir’s) mother, who was seriously 
 ill with a broken constitution and the commencement of 
 dropsy. Moreover when she learned of her son being 
 put to death, and not properly buried, she became 
 desperate, bruised her face and head, and would neither 
 eat nor drink until she nearly died. The new Caliph 
 treated her with gentleness until she had taken a little 
 bread and salt and drunk a little water. Then he sum¬ 
 moned her and tried to make her reveal her treasures, 
 at one time with gentleness, at another with threats ; 
 but she declared on oath that she had no money, nor 
 gems, only some boxes containing ornaments and wearing 
 apparel, household goods and perfume. These boxes 
 were, she said, in an apartment adjoining that wherein 
 she resided in the Palace. She showed him the apart¬ 
 ment and the boxes, and said : Had I possessed any 
 money, I should not have delivered my son to his death. 
 —Thereupon the Caliph smote her with his hand, had 
 her suspended by one foot, and beat her mercilessly on 
 the soft parts of the body ; he showed no gratitude for 
 the kindness which she had done him when he was 
 imprisoned by Muqtadir. 1 By inflicting these tortures 
 he did not discover more than she had confessed of her 
 own free will. When the first day of Dhu'l-Qa‘dah 
 came (Nov. 3, 932) the Palace was visited by Yalbaq, 
 his son ‘Ali, and Kalwadhani, who, being admitted to 
 
 1 See above, p. 225. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 275 
 
 the Caliph s presence, demanded a sum of money to be 
 furnished to Mu nis the Mu^affar, to be expended on the 
 accession-gift. (244) The Caliph told them what he had 
 done to the mother of Muqtadir, how with his own hand 
 he had scourged her a hundred times on the soft parts 
 of her body with intent to make her confess, and how 
 she had not confessed to the possession of a single 
 dirhem besides what she had admitted possessing of her 
 own free will. But, he added, she is in your hands.— 
 Then he took them to the apartment which contained 
 the boxes, and there they found embroidery and satin 
 of Rum and Tustar, heavily adorned with gold, carpets 
 of leather and striped silken and woollen fabrics, and 
 satin ; some of the chests contained magnificent wearing 
 apparel, and a few gold ornaments, with many silver 
 ornaments, a great deal of perfume, such as Indian 
 wood, ambergris, musk, camphor, and camphor dolls. 
 The worth of the whole was about 130,000 dinars, ex¬ 
 clusive of the dolls, which were worth 30,000 dirhems. 
 Mu’nis the Mu^affar took possession of most of it to sell; 
 some however was left for the use of Qahir. 
 
 Fines were imposed upon all Muqtadir's dependents. 
 Al-Fa^l b. JaTar came out of concealment; and Mu’nis 
 with Yalbaq and his son tried to protect him ; but when 
 they spoke to Qahir on his behalf, the Caliph urged 
 that he had been Muqtadir's vizier and must be fined. 
 He offered 20,000 dinars, to be paid at once. Mu'nis 
 said he would pay the money for him, as he was a trust¬ 
 worthy, honest and pious clerk. He ordered that he 
 should be made president of the bureau of the lands 
 seized from Muqtadir's mother, and of the property 
 taken from Muqtadir's children and other dependents. 
 He was treated with profound respect and when he went 
 to Kalwadhani, the deputy vizier rose both on his entry and 
 at his departure. Qahir confirmed him in the presidency 
 of the bureaux which have been mentioned, and he took 
 
276 A.H. 320. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 them over ; but he made little of them, since, having 
 yesterday been Muqtadir's vizier, he did not like to be 
 put in charge to-day of the bureau of the property seized 
 from that Caliph's mother, children and dependents. So 
 Kalwadhani summoned Hisham and made him controller 
 of those bureaux, while he appointed Abu Mohammed 
 Madara'i president of the bureau of first instance. The 
 duration of al-Fadl’s presidency of these offices was 
 seventeen days. 
 
 The fine imposed on Abu Bakr I bn Q arab ah 1 
 had acquired notoriety, and the fact besides that he had 
 only paid ninety thousand dinars of it ; and the rest 
 was demanded of him. 2 Qahir also brought Muqtadir's 
 mother out of her prison to call (245) on the Judges and 
 certified witnesses to attest that she recalled her pious 
 trusts, and appointed as her agent for the sale of them 
 ‘Ali b. 'Abbas Nubakhti. She was questioned on this 
 matter, but declined, asserting that she had created of 
 the property a trust for the benefit of the sick and poor 
 of Meccah and the frontiers, and did not regard it as 
 lawful to cancel the act. But, she said, as for my un¬ 
 settled properties, I appoint 'Ali b. 'Abbas agent for their 
 sale.—The qa^i 'Umar b. Mohammed rose with the wit¬ 
 nesses and went into the presence of Qahir, who bade 
 them testify that he had cancelled her deeds of trust, 
 and that he appointed 'Ali b. 'Abbas agent for their 
 sale, and for the sale of other private lands, lands origin¬ 
 ally in the possession of Ibn al-Furat, and his brother 
 'Abbas, lands newly acquired and lands taken back and 
 the like in all the provinces ; and that he appointed 
 Abu Talib Nubakhti, Ishaq b. Isma'il and Abu’l- 
 Faraj Jalakht agents for the sale of productive proper¬ 
 ties in the capital, and of “ differences between the two 
 systems ” 3 which they were able to sell. The dependents 
 of Mu'nis perceived that the sales would never be effected 
 
 1 The text has Yaqut by mistake. 
 
 2 See above, p. 231. * See above, p. 200. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 277 
 
 unless the vendors began by selling to them ; so they 
 
 made purchases to the value of about half a million 
 dinars. 
 
 Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah arrived on the Day of Sacrifice 
 (10 Dhu Kffijjah 320=Dec. 12, 932). He had written 
 to Qahir requesting that an audience might be given 
 him at night, as he had elected to meet him when 
 Capricorn was in the ascendant, with one of the Sa'd's 
 therein, and the other in the middle of the sky. He 
 arrived at the time which he had proposed, and found 
 Qahir awaiting him ; after his audience he found on 
 leaving the imperial presence that the apartment of 
 Harun son of Muqtadir had been prepared for him, and 
 furnished. So he entered it, and in it made certain 
 appointments of officials ; the next day his robes of 
 honour as vizier were bestowed on him, he went to greet 
 Munis the Mu^affar at his palace, and returned to his 
 quarters. People then began to pay him visits of con¬ 
 gratulation, and at the end of the day there came ‘Ali 
 b. ‘Isa, for whom Ibn Muqlah did not rise, which pro¬ 
 voked unfavourable comment. (246) Another visitor 
 was Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah, who fulfilled his promise 
 of doing business with him and returning to his 
 “ meddling/' as was set forth above. 1 
 
 Year 321. 
 
 Ibn Muqlah had a grievance against Kalwadhani, 
 which was that after being appointed his deputy the 
 latter had made no inquiries about his brothers, children, 
 women or dependents, had not gone to his house, 
 appointed any of his dependents to an office, or bestowed 
 any gift on his women and children. More serious than 
 all this was the fact that when Abu ‘Abdallah Ibn 
 Thawabah had asked Kalwadhani's permission, when 
 the latter was Ibn Muqlah's deputy, to mention his 
 kunyah in the letters sent to the provincial governors, 
 
 1 See pp. 231. 232, 
 
278 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 it had been refused ! So Ibn Muqlah arrested Kal- 
 wadhani, and his dependents, this act being the first 
 thing with which he reproached him. He obtained 
 Kalwadhani's bond for 200,000 dinars, and removed him 
 with his clerk and his dependents to the house of Ibn 
 Qarabah. He proceeded to arrest various officials and 
 bureau clerks, among them Ishaq b. Isma‘il Nubakhti, 
 and the Baridis, whose farming-contracts he gave to 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani, for an additional pay¬ 
 ment of 300,000 dinars ; this person, also^guaranteed to 
 extract from them fines to the amount of 600,000 dinars, 
 and so they were delivered into his power and he took 
 them to his house. In all these proceedings Ibn 
 Qarabah acted as intermediary ; Mohammed b. Khalaf, 
 having placed them in confinement in his house, separated 
 them from each other. In addition to these functions 
 Ibn Muqlah bestowed on Mohammed b. Khalaf the 
 ministry of public security. IsAaq b. Isma‘il and the 
 Baridis, knowing the recklessness and ruthlessness of 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf, were in fear of their lives. Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Baridi took to cajoling Mohammed b. Khalaf, 
 and tried to mollify him, suggesting that he might act 
 as Mohammed's agent, in which case he would see that 
 the revenue of the provinces which he farmed was 
 forthcoming (247) with the increase, which Mohammed 
 had promised ; that he would obey him in financial 
 matters and execute his orders without opposition. 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf in consequence treated him 
 humanely, alone among the party ; he tortured the two 
 brothers of Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi, suspending from them 
 jars that had been filled, and putting them in stocks. 
 They refused to pay anything. He kept IsAaq b. Isma‘il 
 in close confinement, but did not actually torture him. 
 
 Between Is/^aq b. Isma‘il and Abu Ja‘far Ibn Shir- 
 zad there was close friendship; the latter asked 
 permission of the vizier Ibn Muqlah to interview Is^aq, 
 alleging that he had to examine him on the subject of 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 279 
 
 moneys which in the days of Muqtadir he had been 
 ordered to provide for Ibn Shirzad's chief, Harun b. 
 Gharib, and find out what he had paid, in order that he 
 might not play him some trick with reference to what 
 he had not paid. Ibn Muqlah sent one of the vizier's 
 doorkeepers with him, who brought him to IsAaq. When 
 Is&aq saw who it was, he cried out : Sir, in God's name 
 have pity on me, and go at once to the Mmraffar, the 
 Ustadh, and give him no respite till he releases me from 
 the hands of this madman. Abu Ja‘far went to Mu'nis, 
 and importuned him till he summoned Yalbaq and bade 
 him go and plead with Ibn Muqlah for him ; and if he 
 would not release him—which would be the best thing— 
 at least let him withdraw him from the custody of 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf, and transfer him to that of Mu'nis. 
 Yalbaq carried out his instructions, and Ibn Muqlah 
 saw no escape from complying, and alleviating the 
 sufferings of IsAaq. 
 
 Abu l-Faraj Ibn Abi Hisham records after Abu 
 Sa‘id Ibn Qudaidah that the cause of the troubles which 
 befell the Baridis was the grievance which Ibn Qarabah 
 had against them for delaying to pay money which 
 they owed him ; he had advanced it on their account 
 and they made difficulties about refunding it. The day 
 whereon Mohammed b. Khalaf got them into his hands 
 by promising to obtain from them 600,000 dinars, Ibn 
 Qarabah obtained a promise from him that he would 
 make them pay back what Ibn Qarabah had advanced 
 on their account, and would refund it to him. When 
 they were put into the power of Mohammed b. Khalaf, 
 he got 20,000 dinars from Abu ‘Abdallah and his two 
 brothers (the Baridis) ; he then sent the receipt of a 
 banker in ‘Aun Street for the sum to Ibn Qarabah, as 
 part payment of the debt due to him. He proceeded to 
 urge his prisoners to further payments ; Abu Yusuf 
 with Abu'l-#usain let him work his will, and endured 
 severe torture at his hands, whereas Abu ‘Abdallah made 
 
280 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 (248) elusive promises, and so secured milder treatment. 
 On the third day of their imprisonment Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf paid a visit to Ibn Muqlah, who said to him : 
 Abu 'Abdallah, you have disappointed us ; those people 
 are in your hands, but their tricks have worked with you 
 and have done you out of your profit.—Mohammed 
 turned red with anger, and said : I have already trans¬ 
 mitted 20,000 dinars from this source, and I only guar¬ 
 anteed payment of the money within three months. 
 What fault has the vizier to find with me, that he can 
 address me so harshly ?—The vizier said : This is the 
 first I have heard about the matter ; to whom did you 
 deliver the money ?—He replied : To Ibn Qarabah.— 
 So the vizier summoned Ibn Qarabah and asked him 
 about the matter mentioned by Mohammed b. Khalaf.— 
 He said : He sent me, sir vizier, this paper, ^which I have 
 not yet cashed at the banker's, stating that it represented 
 part of their debt to me ; had he told me that it was part 
 of the sum to be transmitted I should have reported it 
 at once. Since he has changed his mind, here is the 
 paper, with God's blessing.—He then handed the paper 
 to Mohammed b. Khalaf.—The latter said : No, assuredly 
 I did not set it against your loan ; how could I give your 
 claims priority over those of the Sultan ?—Each of the 
 parties was offended with the other. When Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi heard of the meeting, he cheered up, 
 and endeavoured to find the means to write a letter to 
 Ibn Qarabah requesting him to call; he had at the 
 time neither ink nor messenger. It happened however 
 that Abu Sa'id Ibn Qudaidah sent his slave A/hnad to 
 witness his condition, and Abu 'Abdallah threw himself 
 on this slave's mercy, held out hopes of benefits and 
 rewards, and promised to make him a rich man, if he 
 would take a note from him to Ibn Qarabah. The slave 
 yielded, and ingeniously stuffed some inked cotton into 
 a nutshell, which he brought with a small reed and a 
 scrap of paper ; then Abu 'Abdallah Baridi wrote a 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn MuqlAh. 28l 
 
 letter thereon to Ibn Qarabah wherein he swore that if 
 Ibn Qarabah would take him into his house, he (Baridi) 
 would pay him his money to the last coin, and do him 
 excellent service.—Ibn Qarabah accordingly paid an 
 early visit to Mohammed b. Khalaf, ostensibly to 
 remonstrate ; then, when he had exhausted this subject, 
 he said . Bring Baridi out to me, for he will be at ease 
 with me when I talk to him, that I may settle his fine, 
 and find out what he thinks of doing in the matter of 
 his debt to me.—Mohammed b. Khalaf produced Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Baridi, who afterwards said : (249) The com¬ 
 mencement of my luck was that I said to Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf “ Only private conversation is proof against 
 sorcery/' 1 so will the prince be so good as to leave us 
 two alone ?—Thereupon Mohammed b. Khalaf rose 
 from his seat and foolishly surrendered it to me, saying 
 that he was going to the private apartments. So we had 
 our conference, and I sat on his seat and squatted where 
 he had squatted, and took this as a good omen, thinking 
 to myself that the seat had once been mine, 2 had been 
 transferred to him, and was now restored to me. So I 
 conciliated Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah, and he promised to 
 rescue me. He was as good as his word, for he went, 
 settled the amount which we must pay, and guaranteed 
 payment of it. The following day Ibn Muqlah declared 
 himself satisfied with us, and summoned my brothers 
 and me. Mohammed b. Khalaf then called us, allayed 
 our apprehensions and sent us to the vizier. As I was 
 about to leave, 3 I said to Mohammed b. Khalaf : Prince, 
 Abu Ya‘qub Isttaq b. Isma'il is your servant, and 
 Mu’nis is protecting him, and is going to send for him 
 immediately ; let me reconcile him to you and arrange 
 between you an oath and a covenant.—He said : Do so.— 
 
 1 Eloquence is said to be a form of sorcery. This sentence is apparently a 
 proverb. 
 
 2 As farmer of the revenue of Ahwaz. 
 
 3 Probably after his release from Mohammed b. Khalafs custody had 
 been finally arranged. 
 
282 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Being left alone with IsAaq b. Isma'il, I said to him ; 
 I have been having my joke at the expense of- this 
 wretch, and am about to leave ; do you make a covenant 
 with him and swear to it, then say : We are now sworn 
 friends, so I am bound to tell you the truth. Ibn Muqlah 
 detests you, and suspects that you are aiming at the 
 vizierate ; his object has been to raise up enemies for 
 you, and get possession of our goods through you ; he 
 will then urge us to offer a sum of money to be got from 
 you if you are put into our hands. And indeed Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Baridi is prepared to offer 300,000 dinars. 
 He told me so himself. So for some days you should 
 not visit the vizier. If he asks about you, that will show 
 that the Caliph is protecting you from him ; but if he 
 summons you, then his purpose will be to deliver you to 
 Baridi.—Then I went off to Mohammed b. Khalaf, and 
 told him that I had finished the business, and that the 
 man was prepared to serve the prince as he wished.— 
 We departed, and IsAaq repeated to Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf what I had told him, and left the house before 
 the afternoon prayer and after I had gone. 
 
 When Mohammed b. Khalaf stayed at home, and 
 gave up visiting the vizier, Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi went 
 to Ibn Muqlah and said to him : I learned when I was 
 in Mohammed b. Khalaf s house that he was canvassing 
 for (250) the vizierate, and that his agents were circulat¬ 
 ing among the dependents of Mu’nis and Qahir; you 
 must not let him remain in the town.—Ibn Muqlah was 
 a coward ; so he proceeded to summon Mohammed b. 
 Khalaf, to whom Baridi’s first statement had been 
 already delivered ; so he assaulted the servants, retainers 
 and chamberlain of Ibn Muqlah, 1 beat them, shut them 
 up in a room, and locked the door. He then climbed 
 over the rooves and fled, and did not show himself until 
 Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. Qasim b. ‘Ubaidallah was 
 
 1 Who apparently had been seat to fetch him. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 283 
 
 Qahir s vizier. When Abu‘ Abdallah Baridi was residing 
 m Ahwaz, and Mohammed b. Khalaf after the success 
 of Baridi s plot against himself learned how it was 
 worked, he said to some one who told Baridi, to whom 
 the remark was addressed : I thought well of you, not 
 knowing that you were intriguing against me; yet 
 people had told me the truth about you, only I refused 
 to receive it.—Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi bade Abu ‘Ali the 
 clerk write to the slave Fa’iq bidding him say to 
 Mohammed b. Khalaf: A plot of this kind may well be 
 passed off on you, for such have been passed off on your 
 superiors. But what is more serious is that from the 
 place wherein we were confined there was unknown to 
 you access to your private apartments. Be careful 
 about this in the future. 
 
 Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah undertook to mediate in the 
 affairs of the party; he settled them with Ibn Muqlah, 
 who ordered the restoration of the Baridis to their offices,’ 
 wherein they prospered. When Mohammed b. Khalaf’s 
 contract for the revenue which had been farmed by the 
 Baridis was cancelled, he was also dismissed from his 
 ministry of public security in these regions. Ibn Muqlah 
 summoned him, and his assault on the messengers and 
 the chamberlain of the vizier has already been described, 
 as well as his going into hiding. Ibn Muqlah sent again 
 to his house and opened the door of the room where his 
 servants, retainers and chamberlain were imprisoned, 
 and so they were released. 
 
 Ibn Muqlah was an enemy of Abu’l-Khattab son of 
 Abu’l-‘Abbas son of al-Furat, 1 yet found no official 
 excuse for arresting him, as he had left the service twenty 
 years, during which he had remained in his residence, 
 and contented himself with the proceeds of his land! 
 The reason for Ibn Muqlah’s enmity was that (251) a 
 request for assistance made by himself at the time of his 
 
 1 Brother of the vizier. 
 
284 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir 
 
 fall had been declined by Abu’l-Kha#ab, alleging poverty. 
 Presently however Abu’l-Kha^ab held a circumcision 
 feast for his sons on the scale usual with persons of his 
 rank ; to this he invited the children of Ibn Muqlah, who 
 witnessed ample hospitality, with handsome vessels and 
 numerous pieces of plate, some of which had been 
 borrowed. Going home they told their father about it 
 with exaggerations and additions. On the occasion of 
 a state ceremony Abu'l-Kha#ab paid a visit of compli¬ 
 ment to the vizier Ibn Muqlah, according to his custom ; 
 Abu’l-Faraj Ibn Abi Hisham says he was told by 
 Abu Zakariyya Yahya b. Abi Sa'id of Sus that he was 
 present on this occasion when Abu’l-Kha#ab was 
 arrested, and that Ibn Muqlah sent negotiators, of whom 
 he was one, to Abu’l-Kha^ab to demand 300,000 dinars. 
 Abu’l-Kha^ab replied to the demand : What ground 
 has the vizier against me, seeing that I have quitted the 
 service twenty years, and when I was in it, I was 
 honest and harmless, and annoyed no-one ? I have 
 besides certain claims on the vizier which it is not well 
 that he should forget, as he has a reputation for genero¬ 
 sity, whereas it would ill beseem me too to disgrace him 
 by the publication of letters from him in my possession 
 prior to this intemperate display. So say to him: 
 Sir vizier Abu ‘Ali: I would remind you of certain pro¬ 
 ceedings which I might well ask you to bear in mind, 
 and of obligations conferred by me upon you in your dark 
 days in recompense for which I might reasonably ask 
 for the government of a province or a subsidy or excep¬ 
 tional treatment of my land, or some bounty. Is it 
 decent that, when I have released you from all such 
 demands, I should not have even security for my person, 
 owing to your conduct towards me, for which, if you are 
 candid with yourself, you must fear punishment from God 
 and infamy from men ? Your notion about my posses¬ 
 sions is not in accordance with the facts. If this 
 supposed wealth be inherited from my father, I am not 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 285 
 
 his only heir ; had it had an existence, we should have 
 divided it between the number of us, and people would 
 certainly have heard and known about it. But if you 
 suppose me to have acquired it, then my office and its 
 earnings are known, and you are not unaware that they 
 were trifling. Moreover the bureau officials who are 
 still with you will testify that I did not earn the whole 
 of my expenses. If you suppose that it comes (252) 
 from the productiveness of my land, then the produce 
 is divided between the heirs and if you refer to them, 
 you will find that what belonged to me at the time when 
 I held office was only part of what went on my household 
 expenses and entertainment. The viziers and high 
 officials have left sons of the same or less competence 
 than myself, and they have offered themselves for 
 appointments and aspired to posts; they have sent and 
 received messages 1 ; now have you found me do ought 
 but keep the tenor of my way, satisfied with God's 
 shadow being extended over me, and with abstinence 
 from worldly things ? If you injure me, what will you 
 say to God, whose name be blessed, and His servants 
 in excuse ?—When this speech was repeated to Ibn 
 Muqlah—not by us, only he had sent people to listen— 
 he blushed and was confused, and presently said : This 
 man claims the rights of the Furat family, and the 
 Commander of the Faithful does not permit me to re¬ 
 cognize the obligations of people of that kind. I will 
 send him to Khasibi, who will understand better how to 
 treat him.—So we rose and I went to Khasibi, to whom 
 I related what had taken place at the meeting, and then 
 I said : I implore you not to make of yourself an agent 
 of mischief to people, nor let it be said that people lose 
 their fortunes through you, you being a vizier and a 
 vizier's son. God has raised you above such a trade, 
 with your professional skill, your integrity and your 
 descent.—He said : God reward you, you shall see that 
 
 1 i.e., to and from the Palace. 
 
286 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 I shall send him back to Ibn Muqlah after I have done 
 a little to him by way of an excuse. 
 
 Then Ibn Muqlah summoned Khasibi, and delivered 
 Abu’l-Kha^ab to him after compelling him to give a 
 bond for 300,000 dinars to be paid within twenty days. 
 Khasibi called in the prefect of police, who stripped him, 
 and beat him ten strokes with the rod, then had him 
 gently racked, then scourged ; he adhered to his asser¬ 
 tion that he had no money, and that he had put his 
 estates in trust and could not sell them. Then Khasibi 
 desired to be excused further endeavours and sent him 
 back to the residence of Ibn Muqlah, who put him in 
 confinement. He then delivered him to the person 
 known as Ibn al-Ja'fari the Registrar, who brought to 
 him one of the slaves of Qahir and told him that this 
 slave had orders to decapitate him unless he paid an in¬ 
 stalment of the money. He however put them off with 
 elusive promises until the term came, and paid nothing. 
 When the term arrived, he had a sword brought, and 
 bound his head and eyes : (253) Abud-Kha#ab requested 
 that his face might be turned to the qiblah , which was 
 done ; then he said : Gently ! and uttered the shahadah. 1 
 Ibn al-Ja‘fari hurried to tell Ibn Muqlah who 
 said : Nothing further than this may be done. 
 Mu'nis the Mu^affar then said to Ibn Muqlah : What 
 claim have you on a man who has held no office since the 
 end of 299 ?—So Ibn Muqlah took Abud-Kha^ab and 
 delivered him to his chamberlain with orders to put him 
 in confinement; where he remained two days. Then 
 Abu Yusuf Baridi happening to visit Ibn Muqlah, the 
 latter complained to him of the obstinacy displayed by 
 Abud-Kha^ab, and requested him to mediate. Abu 
 Yusuf went to Abud-Kha^ab and arranged that he 
 should pay ten thousand dinars ; of which however he 
 refused to produce one dirhem even on pain of death 
 before he had been released and sent home. Ibn 
 
 1 The two sentences of the Mohammedan faith. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 287 
 
 Muqlah then sent him one of his own robes of honour, 
 set him on a horse with a saddle, summoned him to his 
 presence and moved towards him almost rising, and 
 then said : The Caliph was urgent in this matter, and I 
 am grieved by what has befallen you. Go home with 
 the escort. He departed and paid the money within 
 ten days, and his lands and goods were released. 
 
 Ibn Muqlah sent for IsAaq b. Isma'il and obtained 
 his bond to the effect that he would send every lunar 
 month the same amount as he had been in the habit of 
 sending to Muqtadir's private coffer as a secret profit, 
 viz., two thousand dinars ; he also obtained a bond from 
 Abu Abdallah Baridi that he would send three thousand 
 dinars a month on the same system, and those of his 
 brothers Abu Yusuf and Abul-ii/usain for one thousand, 
 five hundred. 
 
 Story of the fortunes of the commanders in the service of 
 
 Muqtadir who fled. 
 
 Harun b. Gharib wrote to Abu Ja'far Mohammed 
 b. Yahya b. Shirzad requesting him to make terms for 
 him, on the basis of a fine of 300,000 dinars to be paid 
 by him, after which his lands (254) and possessions 
 wherever they might be should be freed from embargo, 
 and all other sources of revenue except leases 1 and trusts, 
 which had been in his hands, and he was to pay the 
 dues of the Treasury according to the old assessments. 
 He was also to recover his fiefs. His interests were pro¬ 
 tected by Mu’nis and his dependents. Qahir wrote him 
 an amnesty, the fine which he had offered was accepted, 
 and he was made minister of public security in Mah al- 
 Kufah, Masabadhan, and Mihrijan-qadhaq. 
 
 'Abd al-Wahid son of Muqtadir, Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut the Bahilite, 2 the two sons of Ra’iq, Surur and 
 
 1 Probably such as belonged to the crown. 
 
 2 His father's name indicates that he was originally a slave. 
 
288 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Muflih, abandoning Harun b. Gharib, left Wasit and 
 proceeded to Sus and Jundaisabur, wasting the land, 
 spoiling and plundering on their way ; they laid hands 
 on the cultivators and traders, and proceeded by land 
 to Suq al-Ahwaz. When they had stayed a longtime in 
 Ahwaz, Yalbaq with the army went out against them. 
 He was met at Jarjaraya by Harun b. Gharib, and then 
 proceeded to the war with the people mentioned. 
 
 The following is the narrative of Abu’l-Faraj Ibn 
 Abi Hisham, an eye-witness. Muqtadir's commanders 
 who fled with his son 'Abd al-Wa/dd entered Suq al- 
 Ahwaz by the Tib road, but did not enter either Sus or 
 Jundaisabur. Sole command was assumed by Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut over the two sons of Ra'iq and the rest. He 
 made his clerk Qarariti inspector general, levied contri¬ 
 butions, gave orders and counter-orders ; the money 
 poured in to Mohammed b. Yaqut, who gave such sums 
 as he thought fit to the two sons of Ra'iq and the others. 
 He now became unpopular and the others determined to 
 resist him. 
 
 Now Abu 'Abdallah Baridi was in the confidence of 
 Ibn Muqlah, and was in receipt of correspondence from 
 Ahwaz which told him all that occurred. He advised 
 the vizier to attend to the situation, asserting that the 
 party was breaking up, that Ibn Yaqut was playing the 
 autocrat, but that sentiment was divided ; the two sons 
 of Ra’iq were his (Ibn Muqlah's) friends, and if an army 
 were sent out against them, there would be a split, 
 whereas if they were left to themselves they would be 
 strengthened by the wealth of Ahwaz, would make 
 'Abd al-WaMd Caliph, and march to the capital. Ibn 
 (255) Muqlah sent Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi to Mu'nis to 
 communicate all this to him orally. Mu'nis said : You 
 see the embarrassment which the provision of the acces¬ 
 sion-money has occasioned, and a quarter's stipend is 
 now due to the troops, since the affair of Muqtadir took 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 289 
 
 place three months ago ; so whence is the money to 
 come ?—Baridi replied : I undertake to supply it; draw 
 upon me for it. I will provide 30,000 dinars in the 
 capital, 50,000 in Sus, 20,000 in Tustar, and the rest in 
 Ahwaz.—The head of the army bureau was summoned, 
 he made out a roll of the force that was enrolled under 
 Yalbaq, and an estimate of the money which they would 
 require. It came to 250,000 dinars. Baridi produced 
 the 30,000 dinars which he had promised to furnish at 
 once in the capital; the commanders were addressed, 
 and the troops mustered with Yalbaq, with whom was 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi. Badr Kharshani started by 
 water, and orders were sent to A#mad b. Nasr Qushuri , 1 
 who was governor of Basrah, to join him. 
 
 When the armies reached Wasit, Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut became unpopular and this was so clearly shown 
 that he said to the party : I am one of you, and will not 
 oppose your views ; but the best course for us is to 
 gather in Tustar, which is strongly fortified, and there 
 draw up our plans with God's help ; we ought not 
 to fight.—He came to terms with them with regard 
 to the pay which they should receive, and they 
 at once proceeded to 'Askar Mukram, evacuating the 
 capital of Ahwaz. Qararifi however perpetrated enor¬ 
 mities there which went beyond the doings of the 
 Domesticus, as he opened the shops at night, sent mules 
 and carried off the tradesmen's goods, and fined blacks 
 and whites. When news came of the encampment of 
 Yalbaq at Sus, the whole party went to Tustar. Baridi 
 now arrived at Sus and followed the system of Qararid, 
 only he did more ; and by one expedient and another 
 got together the fifty thousand dinars. Then Yalbaq 
 with the army advanced to the Tustar bridge, which they 
 found cut, so that the Dujail separated them from 
 Tustar. 
 
 1 See above, p. 205. 
 
290 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi is said to have narrated as 
 follows with regard to the sequel: I aspired to be a 
 conqueror and determined to become a ruler of men from 
 the time when I had experience of the weakness of 
 Yalbaq (256) and the incompetence of his secretary Ibn 
 al-Tabari. They were both, I found, unequal to the 
 situation. 
 
 Deserters were leaving the ranks, Yalbaq was grow¬ 
 ing weary, his troops were out of control, and he was 
 thinking of retreating, but was steadied by Abu'Abdallah 
 Baridi, who went from commander to commander, 
 flattering, bribing, mollifying, and started a correspond¬ 
 ence with the two sons of Ra’iq, assuring them of his 
 affection, and advising them to abandon Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut, on whose bad character, self-conceit, and 
 arbitrary treatment of them he dilated ; ultimately they 
 agreed to accept the government of Basrah and to retire 
 from Tustar.—The first intimation which Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut got of their intention was that one morning they 
 sounded their trumpet and departed. He could do 
 nothing, as, if he had attacked them, the army which was 
 facing him would have taken the opportunity to cross 
 and he would have been killed or taken prisoner. 
 
 When the two sons of Ra'iq had taken the road to 
 Basrah, MufliA and Surur asked permission to go over to 
 Yalbaq taking with them 'Abd al-Wa/ud : telling Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Yaqut that they were discouraged, and that 
 whereas he was protected by his troops, they and their 
 followers had no protectors save their retainers.—He 
 left the choice to them ; and they entered into communi¬ 
 cation with Yalbaq, from whom they obtained the pro¬ 
 mise of their lives; they then crossed over to him. This 
 embarrassed Mohammed b. Yaqut, who sent to Yalbaq 
 requesting him to swear to deal honourably with him if 
 an interview were arranged, he Mohammed b. Yaqut to 
 cross over to Yalbaq, discuss matters with him, and then 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 291 
 
 return to his camp. Yalbaq agreed and swore as desired ; 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut then crossed over to him in a white 
 vest, a turban, and shoes, 1 accompanied by a single slave, 
 in the afternoon. Yalbaq rose to meet him, and they 
 held a long discussion the upshot of which was not at 
 once known. Baridi was in a fever of excitement, and 
 went again and again to Ibn al-Tabari, suggesting that 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut should be arrested. Ibn al-Tabari 
 communicated his advice to Yalbaq, adding that this was 
 the suggestion of Baridi, the representative of the vizier, 
 and the counsellor of the Ustadh Mu'nis ; he himself 
 said nothing. Yalbaq’s reply was : I am not the man 
 to repudiate my guarantee or violate my oath, even at 
 the cost of my life.—When prayer-time came, Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut stood up in a wide space beneath the canopy 
 and pronounced the call to prayer, and then the formula 
 called iqamah 2 ; Yalbaq then came forward to prayer 
 with most of the troops behind him. When Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut had finished the prescribed prayer, he bent 
 over Yalbaq to embrace him, the latter rose, they bade 
 (257) each other farewell, and Mohammed b. Yaqut 
 returned to his army. The secret was now revealed. 
 After some mutual remonstrances they had come to an 
 agreement, which they swore to observe, according to 
 which both parties were to proceed to the capital, each 
 with a safe-conduct from the other, but with a distance 
 of a day's journey between them on the march. 
 
 After three days Mohammed b. Yaqut advanced from 
 Tustar to 'Askar Mukram, and Yalbaq entered Tustar. 
 Here Baridi did worse than had been done by Qararid 
 by a great deal, for the people had taken precautions 
 against Qararid, but felt safe when they saw the followers 
 of the vSultan. Baridi came upon them, and assailed the 
 Jews who were the bulk of the traders ; by outdoing 
 
 1 This means in the dress of a civil official. 
 
 2 A second call to prayer; in the Shafi'i system the first is of nine sentences, 
 the second of eleven, 
 
292 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 every known form of outrage he made up the hundred 
 thousand dinars. 1 Meanwhile Yalbaq advanced to 
 Ahwaz, whose inhabitants were flying from Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut, and escaped, as they went to Basrah. Baridi 
 afflicted the people of ‘Askar Mukram and Tustar, his 
 mildest measure being to ride to the bankers' houses and 
 appropriate all the money that he found whether theirs 
 or their clients' ; he ravaged the Sawad till he paid 
 Yalbaq 200,000 dinars, and he still owed 50,000. He 
 was protected by Ibn al-Tabari, on whom he had humbly 
 ministered, so much so that he would come with him to 
 the doors of the local churches, and sit on a horsecloth 
 waiting till he came out, when he would ask him for his 
 consecrated bread, 2 which when given him, he would 
 kiss before putting it into his sleeve; he had also formally 
 presented him with lands producing a revenue of ten 
 thousand dinars. Hence Ibn al-Tabari befriended him. 
 So he approached Yalbaq on his behalf, saying : Let us 
 set this fifty thousand to the account of the prince, 3 
 whose gratuity was included in the sum promised by 
 Baridi, for he has done good service and whitened the 
 prince's face by his operations and devices, which have 
 dispersed the enemies. He deserves Ibn Muqlah's place 
 better than Ibn Muqlah and is a far abler manager of 
 affairs. Yalbaq agreed to this proposal, and left with 
 Baridi a slave named Itakh. 
 
 (258) Mohammed b. Yaqut marched to Shabarzan, 
 and was followed by Yalbaq ; they entered Baghdad. 
 The embargo was removed from the possessions of the 
 two sons of Ra'iq, Mohammed b. Yaqut, MufliA and 
 Surur, with the exception of their fiefs ; to ‘Abd al- 
 WaAid some of his original possessions were restored, and 
 he and his mother were excused their fines. Baridi was 
 
 1 See above, p. 255. 
 
 2 For the practice of giving this to Moslems see the index to my edition of 
 Sib/ Ibn al-Ta‘awidhi. See further Bliss, Religions of Syria p. 132 and foil. 
 
 3 i.e., Yalbaq. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 293 
 
 again made finance minister of Ahwaz, and order was 
 restored. Qahir bestowed on Yalbaq a robe of honour, 
 
 a couple of collars and a couple of bracelets, studded with 
 gems. 
 
 An order was issued by Qahir for the sale of the Muk- 
 harrim palace which was the official residence of the 
 vizier, having originally belonged to Sulaiman b. Wahb. 1 
 It was divided into lots and sold to a number of persons 
 for a vast sum, as its area occupied 300,000 square cubits. 
 The price was spent on the gratuities given on the occa¬ 
 sion of Qahir's accession. 
 
 News came of the death of Takin the Favourite in 
 Egypt, and Ibn Muqlah advised that 'Ali b. Tsa be sent 
 to inspect the province ; he began to make preparations 
 for the journey, then one evening he went to Ibn Muqlah 
 and finding him disengaged, pointed out to him his 
 advanced age, his difficulty in moving and his failing 
 strength, declared that he appealed to nothing but the 
 vizier s own generosity, and employed no other inter¬ 
 cessor, assured him with solemn oaths of his fidelity, and 
 begged to be excused the journey ; he so far humiliated 
 himself as to bend down for the purpose of kissing the 
 viziers hand.—This the vizier would not permit him to 
 do ; in his reply he showed that he recognized 'Ali b. 
 'Isa's claims, and respected his rank ; and he excused 
 him from taking the journey. ‘Ali b. Tsa returned home 
 after expressing his gratitude. A letter arrived from 
 Takin's son Mohammed soliciting his father's place; 
 his application was granted, and the robes of honour 
 with the deed of investiture were sent out. 
 
 Qahir proceeded to write an autograph to Ibn Muqlah, 
 wherein he called him by his kunyah, assigned him fresh 
 honours and distinctions, and ordered that this should 
 be circulated to all the cities and provinces. This was 
 done*; then he sent him robe after robe of honour as the 
 
 1 Vizier of Mu'tamid, appointed 263. 
 
294 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Caliph's messmate ; and had conveyed to him a silver- 
 gilt dish (259) containing nadd y ambergris and musk, 
 and another containing a crystal vessel holding a rati of 
 old raisin syrup with a crystal glass and decanter and a 
 silver bason.- 
 
 The army in Egypt mutinied against Mohammed b. 
 Takin, and defeated him in battle. 
 
 In this year Mu'nis the Mmaffar, Yalbaq, his son 
 'Ali, and Ibn Muqlah became disaffected towards Qahir 
 and endeavoured to coerce him and his dependents. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason for this was the dislike of the vizier Ibn 
 Muqlah to Mohammed b. Yaqut. He put into the 
 minds of Mu'nis the Mu^affar, Yalbaq, and his son 'Ali 
 that Mohammed b. Yaqut was plotting against them with 
 Qahir, and that 'Isa the physician acted as messenger 
 between Qahir and him. Mu'nis in consequence sent 
 'Ali son of Yalbaq to the Palace, where he asked for 
 'Isa and was told that he was in Qahir's presence ; the 
 retainers of 'Ali b. Yalbaq thereupon rushed in, and 
 finding 'Isa on his feet in the presence of Qahir, arrested 
 him, and took him off to Mu'nis, who straightway 
 banished him to Mausil. Mu'nis, Yalbaq, his son, and 
 the vizier Ibn Muqlah then decided to assault Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut, and to issue a proclamation that his followers 
 were not to remain in Baghdad. 
 
 On Wednesday 1 Jumada ii (May 29, 933) 'Ali b. 
 Yalbaq started with the army, accompanied by Tarif 
 Subkari, for the purpose of assaulting Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut. The latter, hearing of this design, absconded 
 from his camp at the Ashnan parade-ground, and the 
 efforts of ‘Ali b. Yalbaq to discover his whereabouts 
 were unavailing ; for he had gone into Baghdad and 
 concealed himself there ; and his followers had dispersed. 
 'Ali b. Yalbaq returned at once to the Palace, placed 
 
Second VizieratR of Ibn Muqlah. 295 
 
 Qahir under restraint, put Ahmad b. Zairak in charge 
 of the Palace, and ordered him to search every one who 
 went in or came out, man, woman or eunuch, and to 
 search all who went to the Caliph. Ahmad b. Zairak 
 carried out his orders so faithfully that he even examined 
 some milk that was being carried to Qahir, dipping his 
 finger in to see that it (260) contained no letter. ‘Ali b. 
 Yalbaq proceeded to transfer to his own residence the 
 personages who were imprisoned in the Palace, such as 
 the mother of Muqtadir and others ; Qahir was not 
 allowed the money to pay his attendants nor most of 
 what was furnished to him ; and ‘Ali b. Yalbaq de¬ 
 manded that the Caliph should surrencer to him what 
 remained in his possession of the fabrics and furniture 
 which had belonged to Muqtadir's mother and her 
 nephew Harun. These things were surrendered and 
 sold ; the price was then paid in to the Treasury and 
 thence distributed to the troops ; Ibn Muqlah also sold, 
 in order to make up the accession-money, lands and 
 property belonging to the Sultan of which the price 
 amounted to 2,400,000 dinars, including what was 
 realized by the sales effected by Kalwadhani when 
 deputy, prior to the arrival of Ibn Muqlah from Shiraz. 
 The mother of Muqtadir remained with the mother of 
 ‘Ali b. Yalbaq in honour and comfort for ten days, and 
 died on 6 Jumada ii 1 (June 3, 933) owing to the in¬ 
 creasing severity of her illness, and the tortures which 
 Qahir had made her suffer. She was carried to her tomb 
 in Rusafah and buried there. 
 
 In this year ‘Ali b. Yalbaq and his secretary ifASAN 
 b. Harun proposed to institute the cursing of Mu‘awiyah 
 Ibn Abi Sufyan from the pulpits 2 ; the public were 
 agitated by this, and ‘Ali b. Yalbaq ordered the arrest of 
 
 1 If this date is right, she must have been transferred from the Palace 
 before the date given above. 
 
 a This measure was doubtless suggested by the growing power of the 
 Spanish Umayyad 'Abd al-RaAman ii. It had been contemplated by Mu'tadid. 
 
296 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Barbahari, 1 head of the #anbalites, and a number of 
 his chief (261) followers ; they were placed in a closed 
 boat and sent down the river to Basrah. 
 
 And in this year Qahir plotted successfully against 
 Mu’nis the Mazaffar, the plan of Ibn Muqlah to arrest 
 Qahir was frustrated, and instead Mu’nis, Yalbaq, and 
 his son were arrested, while Ibn Muqlah and flasan b. 
 Harun took to flight. 
 
 Account of the frustration of the plot . 
 
 When ‘Ali b. Yalbaq put pressure on Qahir and the 
 latter endured the treatment which has been described, 
 the Caliph began to scheme against Mu'nis and his party. 
 Learning that Jarif Subkari and Bushra were ill- 
 disposed to Yalbaq and his son, as they envied their 
 exalted positions, and knowing that Mu'nis and Yalbaq 
 placed their chief reliance on the Saji troops, whom they 
 had promised, if they entered Baghdad, to put on a level 
 with the ii/ujaris, and that this promise had not been 
 fulfilled, in consequence of which these troops were dis¬ 
 affected towards the two : Qahir entered into communi¬ 
 cation with the Sajis and stirred them up against Mu'nis 
 and Yalbaq, guaranteeing that he would transfer them 
 to the scale of the i/ujaris, who received their pay once 
 in fifty days, whereas the Sajis received once in sixty 
 according to the scale of the slaves, and make them equal 
 to the #ujaris in rations and provender. 
 
 Now there was an old friendship between the 
 Stewardess Ikhtiyar and Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. 
 Qasim b. ‘Ubaidallah, 2 3 and she was in frequent com¬ 
 munication with his mother ; this Stewardess advised 
 Qahir to write to him promising him the vizierate, on 
 consideration of his helping the Caliph in his plot against 
 
 1 The name is said to mean “ dealer in Indian drugs ” in the dialect of 
 
 Basrah. This person’s full name was Abu Mohammed Hasan b. 'Ali b. Khalaf. 
 He died 326. 
 
 3 See above, p. 212. His father had been vizier. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 297 
 
 Mu nis and his party. She further suggested to t his 
 Mohammed b. Qasim to write to Qahir giving him a true 
 account of the designs of Ibn Muqlah and Yalbaq’s son 
 against him. Now this Ikhtiyar was in the habit of 
 going from the Palace to Qahir’s former quarters in the 
 house of Ibn Tahir, ostensibly on the business of Qahir’s 
 women and children ; and when it was night she went 
 to Mohammed b. Qasim and interviewed him. Ibn 
 Muqlah learned that Qahir was strenuously scheming 
 against himself, Mu nis, Yalbaq, his son, and Hasan b. 
 Harun, and in consequence urged them (262) to take 
 action quickly and depose Qahir, whose successor they 
 agreed should be Abu Ahmad son of Muktafi. To 
 Shahmaruz, mother-in-law of Ibrahim b. Khafif, head 
 of the bureau of outgoings, who was on intimate terms 
 with Abu A/zmad, they communicated their plan ; they 
 privately conferred the sovereignty on this prince, and 
 allegiance to him was sworn by Yalbaq, his son, Ibn 
 Muqlah, and Hasan b. Harun. After this they’ told 
 Mu’nis what they had done. He said to them : I have 
 no doubt about the iniquities of Qahir, though you have 
 treated him with too much contempt; you made a 
 mistake in appointing him Caliph. Do not hurry now, 
 but be gentle with him, so that you may quiet his appre¬ 
 hensions ; then, when he feels secure and his mind is at 
 ease, arrest him.—-‘Ali b. Yalbaq and Hasan b. Harun 
 replied that they were the official doorkeepers, and the 
 Palace was in their hands ; the Caliph was like a bird 
 in a cage, so they required the assistance of no-one in 
 arresting him. Hence they were for hurrying the matter 
 on. 
 
 It happened that Yalbaq, riding to the parade- 
 ground, came into collision with one of his servants, 
 and was thrown ; he fell ill and was confined to his house. 
 His son 'Ali got the opportunity of backing Ibn Muqlah, 
 and they proceeded to advocate their plan with Mu’nis 
 and Yalbaq, minimizing the difficulties, until they 
 
298 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 obtained the consent of the two. On Saturday ult. Rajab 
 (July 27, 933 Y when Ibn Muqlah came away from the 
 Sultan’s apartments, he was joined by his clerks, his 
 brother, and other persons who usually ate at his table, 
 among whom was Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah. When 
 he had finished his meal, he turned to Ibn Qarabah and 
 said to him : Your Qarmadan friend has got to Kufah 
 with three thousand mounts, accompanied by his 
 adherent (mentioning some name), has entered the town, 
 and proclaimed a general amnesty to the inhabitants 
 except the adherents of “ the person called Mohammed 
 and entitled Qahir.’’—Ibn Qarabah said : Vizier, this is 
 a fiction ; Ibn Busr of Kufah is my neighbour, and was 
 with me to-day ; pigeons have just arrived assuring him 
 that all there is well.—Ibn Muqlah retorted : Good 
 Lord ! Do you suppose that you and Ibn Busr know 
 better than the minister of public security at Kufah, 
 from whom ‘Ali b. Yalbaq has just received a pigeon ? 
 Moreover I have just been visited by Sa‘id b. #amdan, 
 with a Bedouin, who all but killed (263) himself, and 
 ruined a number of horses, who brings the news of what 
 he himself witnessed. (Ibn Muqlah had previously 
 arranged with Sa‘id b. #amdan that he should confirm 
 this.) Ibn Muqlah then called for an inkstand and a 
 “ third ” of paper, 2 and proceeded to write an autograph 
 letter to Qahir, wherein he stated that the Qarmaiian 
 from Hajar, called Abu Tahir, had come to Kufah with 
 three thousand mounts, and entered the place ; pigeons 
 (he said) have reached me from the finance minister, 
 and ‘Ali b. Yalbaq from the minister of public security, 
 with letters bearing the date of to-day, announcing his 
 arrival with his followers. Yalbaq and I have concealed 
 this intelligence from the commanders and the army, 
 and from the court, for fear it should get about, and 
 
 1 The first day of the next month according to Wiistenfeld. 
 
 * i.e., of a sheet of standard size. Different accounts of this phrase are 
 given by Qalqashandi. 
 
Second Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 299 
 
 discourage our friends. Mu'nis and I have arranged to 
 despatch Ali b. Yalbaq with most of his captains and 
 those of his father to the environs of Kufah, to prevent 
 the Qarmaiian from advancing thence to Baghdad ; he 
 is to start to-morrow morning, moving to Sarsar so as 
 not to pitch a tent near the Gate of Baghdad. There he 
 will be joined by the troops. The sergeants have been 
 sent 1 this evening, and I have instructed ‘Ali b. Yalbaq 
 to present himself to-night at the Palace, to take leave 
 of your majesty. I have arranged to come late, lest the 
 news should be disseminated that I presented myself at 
 the imperial apartment at an unusual hour, and so the 
 plan whereby ‘Ali b. Yalbaq is to start to-morrow 
 morning be spoiled. I am communicating this to your 
 majesty that you may be aware of it, acquiesce in my 
 plans, and grant ‘Ali b. Yalbaq his audience when he 
 presents himself this evening.—After sending this letter 
 the vizier went to sleep.—Qahir sent a written reply to 
 the effect that he approved the vizier's action, and would 
 receive ‘Ali b. Yalbaq when he presented himself.— 
 When Ibn Muqlah woke, without waiting to receive 
 Qahir s reply to his note, he sent a second note to the 
 same effect. When this reached Qahir, since there was 
 no occasion for this note, as the reply to the first had 
 been sent off, his suspicion was aroused, and he scented 
 a plot against himself. Then he learned through Tarif 
 Subkari (by some treachery) of ‘Ali b. Yalbaq's design 
 to arrest him when he had been admitted to an audience, 
 and so took precautions ; he sent for (264) the Sajis, 
 and informed them that ‘Ali b. Yalbaq was about to 
 present himself for the purpose of executing a plot. 
 They remained within call in groups. After the afternoon 
 prayer ‘Ali b. Yalbaq presented himself, somewhat the 
 worse for liquor, with a small number of his retainers 
 armed, in his barge, having sent another band of 
 retainers 2 to the Palace. Mounting from his barge to 
 
 1 To collect the troops. Probably by land. 
 
300 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 the porch, he sent a messenger to Qahir requesting admis¬ 
 sion ; Qahir put him off until all the Sajis were present 
 in. arms. These troops then went out to 'Ali b. Yalbaq, 
 insulted him and tried to arrest him. He was defended 
 by his retainers and his door-keeper Ibn Khandaquqi, 
 who put themselves between him and the Sajis ; calling 
 out to them, he flung himself from the porch into his 
 barge, crossed the river and concealed himself forthwith. 
 Ibn Muqlah, hearing of this, also went immediately into 
 hiding, and the same step was taken by ffasan b. Harun 
 and Ibn Qarabah. Yalbaq, accompanied by all the 
 captains who were in the palace of Mu’nis at the time, 
 went down to the Caliph's Palace, thinking that he would 
 be able to cajole Qahir and make some excuse for his 
 son. As soon as he had reached the Palace he was 
 arrested and imprisoned. Ahmad b. Zairak, and the 
 prefect of Police, Yumn the One-eyed, were arrested also; 
 and the whole army was quartered inside the Palace. 
 
 Qahir then sent a message to Mu'nis, requesting him 
 to come down to him, as he desired to consult him con¬ 
 cerning the course which he should follow, adding : I 
 regard you as a parent, and would fain do nothing and 
 execute no plan except in accordance with your views.— 
 Mu’nis excused himself on the ground of the difficulty 
 that he had in moving, but Qahir insisted, and asked 
 him to make the effort.—Tarif Subkari declared that it 
 would be improper for him to hang back, and urged him 
 to go to the Palace.—When he arrived there, he was 
 arrested and imprisoned. 
 
 Ibn Muqlah had been Qahir's vizier nine months 
 and three days; Qahir now sent for Abu Ja'far 
 Mohammed b. Qasim b. ‘Ubaidallah on Sunday (265) 
 1 Sha'ban (July 28, 933), gave him an audience, and 
 appointed him vizier and chief of the* bureaux. On the 
 following Monday he bestowed on him the robes of office. 
 The same day Qahir sent to summon Tsa the physician 
 from Mausil. The house of Ibn Muqlah at the Bustan 
 
VlZIERATE OF MOHAMMED B. QaSIM. 301 
 
 Shf T S f/T 3, and burned down - and Baghdad was 
 P aged. Mohammed b. Yaqut came out of conceal¬ 
 ment, appeared at the Palace, and for that day 
 
 l C 7 d fl t e functions of Chamberlain ; but finding 
 mmself m disfavour with 7’arif Subkari, the Sajis and the 
 
 • a]a " S ’ he devi , sed a scheme whereby he fled and went 
 nto hiding, and descended the river with the view of 
 joining is father in Fars. He did not however get 
 
 • e ^ nd Arra J an < and did not meet his father. He sat 
 in the boat 1 m the attire of a penman, 2 sailed the sea, 
 
 nded at Mahruban and reached Arrajan at night 
 w ere he became the guest of Abu’l-‘Abbas b. Dinar’ 
 
 S fat , he i r sent him money, clothes and horses, and he 
 proceeded to call m moneys that had been assigned him 
 
 }".fars- H e was joined here by his troops, and received a 
 etter from Qahir allaying his apprehensions and t ellin g 
 im that he acted with undue haste in taking alarm 
 He was appointed minister of public security in the dis- 
 tncts of Ahwaz, remained at Arrajan until he fell ill 
 ns place being bad for his constitution, when he moved 
 to Kamhurmuz. Qahir had previously written to Mar- 
 dawij, bidding him evacuate Ispahan, to be invested 
 with the government of Rayy and the jabal, and so be¬ 
 come an authorized ruler and cease to be a rebel; and 
 this had been accomplished. 3 He also wrote to Wash- 
 magir, bidding him retire from Ispahan, which he did ; 
 the province was left without a ruler for seventeen days’ 
 when Qahir wrote to Mohammed b. Yaqut, appointing 
 him governor of Ispahan, and bidding him go thither; 
 this was after the defeat of his brother Muzaffar b. Yaqut 
 and the retirement of ‘Ali b. Buwaihi from Ispahan. 4 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut made preparations and was 
 en S a g e< i on them when he received news of Qahir’s 
 deposition, and his plans were thrown out. 
 
 1 The text has " in the water." 2 Another account has " of a Sufi, 
 Above, p. 229, this had been done in Muqtadir’s time. 
 
 4 The account of these events comes later. 
 
302 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 When 'Ali b. Yalbaq had gone into hiding and Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Yaqut fled, Qahir made (266) Salamah 
 Tuluni Chamberlain. He proceeded to search for the 
 persons who had gone into hiding. He appointed Abu l- 
 'Abbas Ahmad b. Khaqan prefect of police, who made 
 a search for Abu AAmad son of Muktafi, and discovered 
 him in the house of ‘Abdallah b. al-Fat h. Qahir gave 
 orders that the prince should be placed in a doorway 
 and then built in with cement and brick, he being alive, 1 
 These orders were carried out. He ordered the houses 
 of the Banu Muqlah to be pillaged,/ as also those of 
 tfasan b. Harun and Ibn Qarabah. ‘Ali b. Yalbaq was 
 found in concealment near the gate of the Cemetery ; 
 he was surprised and taken from a bakehouse, which he 
 had entered when he perceived that he had been sur¬ 
 prised, closing the lid upon himself. He had escaped 
 detection, and those who were on the search for him, 
 not finding him, had gone out of the place ; only it hap¬ 
 pened that one of the infantry went back in search of 
 something to take out of the house, and coming to the 
 oven, searched it for dry bread ; when he opened it, he 
 found ‘Ali b. Yalbaq there ; at his shouts his comrades 
 came back, and captured him ; and he was brought to 
 the Caliph's Palace. He was violently beaten in the pre¬ 
 sence of Qahir, and confessed to the possession of ten 
 thousand dinars, which were found and paid into the 
 Treasury. A fresh beating elicited no further money, 
 so he was imprisoned. 
 
 tfusAiN b. Qasim b. ‘Ubaidallah 8 was in hiding ; 
 a message was sent him by his brother the vizier Mo¬ 
 hammed, asking him to show himself, and assist him, 
 and he would make him president of the bureaux of 
 the Sawad, of the army and of outgoings. He would 
 
 1 Other accounts represent him as being put to death by some other bar¬ 
 barous method. 
 
 3 He had been Muqtadir’s vizier in 319, and was exiled to Basrah with a 
 pension. 
 
Vizierate of Mohammed b. Qasim. 303 
 
 appoint as his deputies Kalwadhi, 1 Ibrahim b. Khafif 
 and Uthman b. Sa'id. He swore, in the presence of 
 the intermediary, by God Almighty, and by all the oaths 
 ot allegiance, involving in the event of perjury manu¬ 
 mission of his slaves and divorce of his wives, that he 
 was well-disposed to his brother, (267) and that his 
 inner feelings agreed with their outer expression in these 
 offers. He in addition wrote an autograph letter to the 
 same effect, wherein he invoked the witness of God to 
 what he felt. The intermediary took this document 
 and brought it to ifusain, to whom he narrated the pro¬ 
 ceedings. Mohammed (the vizier) -|kept waiting for his 
 brother till the end of the day. Qasim, son of his brother 
 /zusam, narrated how the vizier came at night to //usain 
 without an attendant, talked to him about showing 
 himself, asked for his personal assistance, and repeated 
 the oaths which he had sworn. Finally JTusain pro¬ 
 mised the vizier that he would come to him next evening. 
 He informed his friends, who rode with him to his 
 brother s. His brother the vizier had prepared for him 
 a covered boat, and when iJusain arrived, the vizier 
 ordered that he should be got into the boat. His 
 mother, learning of this, came and stood on the bank 
 of the Tigris at the place where he would go down to his 
 barge , there was a concourse of people there, and she 
 called on the vizier for help, loosed her hair in his pres¬ 
 ence and showed her breast, and abjured him by every 
 claim she had upon him to release her son. He paid 
 her not the slightest attention, sat down in his barge, 
 and proceeded to the Palace. There was not one of those 
 present but disapproved his action, and cursed him. 
 He went on and told Qahir that he had hunted down his 
 brother Husain and banished him to Raqqah owing to 
 his acceptance of the doctrine of Ibn Abi’l-'Azaqir, 2 
 whence he regarded him as a danger to the dynasty. 
 
 1 More often called Kalwadhani. 
 
 2 See above, p. 123 and Appendix, 
 
304 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 Qahir had the houses of the Banu Bisfam put under 
 surveillance owing to the report that they held the doc¬ 
 trine of Ibn Abi’l-'Azaqir. 
 
 Account of the execution of Mu’nis, Yalbaq , and his son 
 
 ‘ Ali . 
 
 The troops of Mu’nis and Yalbaq raised a disturbance 
 and mutinied, and were followed by the rest of the 
 army ; they went out to the country, and then made 
 for the palace of the vizier Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. 
 Qasim, of which they burned down the porch, calling out 
 the name of Mu’nis—a proceeding which was the cause of 
 his being put to death. Qahir went to the place wherein 
 Mu’nis, Yalbaq and his son were confined ; the throat 
 of 'Ali was cut in Qahir’s presence, and his head was 
 sent to his father, who wept with despair at the sight; 
 (268) then Yalbaq’s throat was cut and his head with 
 that of his son sent to Mu’nis, who when he saw them 
 cursed their slayer. He was dragged by the foot to 
 the gutter, and there slaughtered like a sheep, while 
 Qahir looked on. The three heads were brought out in 
 three basons to the parade-ground, to be seen by the 
 people ; that of Yalbaq’s son 'Ali was carried round the 
 city on both sides, then brought back to the Palace and 
 in accordance with custom placed in the magazine of 
 skulls. 
 
 Thabit states on the authority of Salamah Tuluni 
 the Chamberlain that when the head of Mu’nis was 
 brought to him to dress, he removed the brain and 
 weighed it ; the weight came to six ratls. 1 I heard the 
 same from Juhani, who was present. 
 
 Among the incidents that took place on this occasion 
 were the following. A party of cavalry and infantry 
 caught Abu Bakr Ibn Nubatah al-Daqqaq, the 
 Witness, in Perfume Street, and pretending that the 
 
 1 For the brain-weights of famous men see A. Wilson, Education, Personality 
 and Crime, 1908, p. 73. 
 
Vizierate of Mohammed b. Qasim. 305 
 Sultan had sent them to search for Hasan b Harun 
 
 ovS he heaTo'r *2? 30 000 dina,s - 
 
 H ^ K H ° * he P“ r ty and declared that he 
 was Hasan b. Harun. Affinad b. Khaqan (chief of police) 
 
 mfde him” 5111 / ° f ^ Pe ° ple ’ caught one of the “ an d 
 ade him confess; he gave the names of several of whom 
 
 He^xTcuted^tlm ' m ° ney WaS recovered ' 
 
 He executed those of the robbers whom he caught. 
 
 forh^- In thiS year there Was issued an order of Qahirto 
 forbid singing-women, wine and other liquors ; Ml men 
 
 own as singers, or hermaphrodites, and all sin <nne 
 
 " ere bmished *° Bas “ ah ' 
 
 In SLrf V Sf W! ” ere SOld ’ “ being age. 
 
 bihS te f , , measure s Qahir himself was a wine- 
 
 selected sur^ * ’ ^ f °“ d ° f mUSIC ’ 30 that he 
 
 elected such singing women as he wished. 
 
 was given ab ° ut abu 'abdauah i bn 
 
 wer^ f ’ a , 10 WaS arrested ; in his possession there 
 
 Abu 'Ah” He CUmC f t “ the handwriti ng of his brother 
 Abu All He was taken to the house of the vizier Abu 
 
 stated that ^ ^ Wh ° br ° Ught Mm the letters : he 
 ated that they were transmitted to him bv Abit 
 
 b dallah Mohammed b. ‘Abdus Jahshiyari, who was 
 
 to § ether Wlth his brother, when they were asked 
 what they knew of the doings of Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah 
 
 T hey swore that they had no news of him since he had gone 
 into hiding. Qahir was informed that they were both 
 
 commanders in the Sultan’s army; they were there 
 
 theVu i emen tly, and released ; and they rode to 
 the Sultan s Palace on days of state ceremonies. 
 
 T « J be Vizier Abu J a< f ar further arrested Abu 
 Jafar Mohammed b. Shirzad, the case against 
 
 him being that he had held high offices, and purchased 
 
 numerous estates out of the lands publicly sold; ht 
 
 1 The famous caligrapher. 
 
306 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 revenue had reached a million dirhems a year. Ishaq 
 b. Isma'il mediated, and obtained his bond for twenty 
 thousand dinars ; he was allowed to return to his house 
 the same day. 
 
 Account of the reason for appointing Abu’l- Abbas 
 
 Khasibi vizier. 
 
 After Ibn Muqlah and the others had gone into hiding 
 the Baridis had done likewise ; and their official posts 
 had been bestowed on Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. 
 Qasim Karkhi . 1 Is/jaq b. Isma'il undertook the office 
 of mediator for them, and obtained from the vizier a 
 promise of security for them, in consequence of which 
 they showed themselves. Then Is&aq advised the vizier 
 to speak to Qahir on their behalf and show him that the 
 best plan was to restore to them their revenue-farming 
 in Basrah and Ahwaz. The vizier accepted the sug¬ 
 gestion and spoke to Qahir on the subject, adding that 
 he found fault with Mohammed b. Qasim Karkhi for 
 failure to collect revenue and transmit it; and that the 
 Baridis could do this better. He further held out hopes 
 that the sum guaranteed by the Baridis might be in¬ 
 creased. Qahir put him off, saying he must first consider 
 the matter. He then summoned ‘Isa the physician, 
 and repeated the conversation. ‘Isa the physician 
 disapproved of the vizier Mohammed b. Qasim, because 
 he, having been away at Mausil, had had no voice in his 
 appointment; so he condemned this plan and the 
 vizier himself, advising the appointment of Khasibi. 
 Qahir bade him interview Khasibi and ask him what he 
 thought about the Baridis and others. ‘Isa went to 
 Khasibi and the matter was arranged between them, 
 Khasibi undertakingfto raise enormous sums. 
 
 Through ‘Isa Khasibi wrote to Qahir to the effect 
 that if it became known that he had been appointed 
 
 1 He was mentioned above, p. 207, as having a hereditary right to the control 
 of Ahwaz. 
 
Vizierate of Mohammed b. Qasim. 307 
 
 vizier, the persons in possession of the money which he 
 promised to produce would go into hiding ; it would 
 be better then that the Caliph should order his vizier to 
 arrest a group of persons whom he named, and to do so 
 gradually ; when they were arrested, Qahir should send 
 and have them conveyed to his Palace, where they should 
 be withdrawn from the hand of the vizier but remain 
 for some days in custody. Then the vizier Mohammed 
 b. Qasim should be arrested. Qahir carried (271) this 
 plan out, and ordered Sabur the eunuch to go to the 
 vizier's house and arrest the Baridis and IsAaq b. Isma'il. 
 Sabur sent a confidential agent to the vizier's house to 
 find out whether these persons were there, and bring 
 him back word. The Baridis had however engaged spies 
 to watch Sabur, Salamah and the dependents of Qahir, 
 whence they learned the orders which had been given 
 by Sabur to the agent whom he had sent to find out 
 about them, and so they went into hiding. Sabur's 
 words to his agents had been : I have been told by the 
 Caliph to search the dwelling of IsAaq, since he has been 
 told that IsAaq s slave-girls are concealing a number of 
 singing-girls. He bade these agents get ready to ride 
 with him. IsAaq, hearing of this, did not at once sup¬ 
 pose that any mischief to himself was intended, and so 
 told his slave-girls to put no difficulties in the way of 
 Sabur, if he came to search for singing women, but let 
 him investigate. He himself went down to the residence 
 of the vizier, whither too came Sabur. Finding Is/zaq 
 in his presence, he arrested him and conveyed him to 
 the house of the jailor. 
 
 Qahir sent people to surprise the dwellings of the 
 Baridis, who were not found. Those of IsAaq in the 
 Nubakhti quarter and on the bank of the Tigris were 
 surprised ; his women and children fled and got into 
 safety ; his secretary Az/mad b. ‘Ali Kufi was arrested. 
 Qahir summoned 'Ali b. Tsa and after informing him 
 that his vizier had no authority in the districts of Wasit 
 
308 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 and the Irrigation of the Euphrates, whose revenue had 
 been farmed by Is/zaq, made him governor of these 
 regions and relied on him for the management of public 
 security therein. Qahir gave 'Ali b. 'Isa an autograph 
 deed of appointment which 'Ali b. 'Isa accepted. 
 
 News arrived of the death of Abu 'Ali Ahmad b. 
 Mohammed b. Rustam in Ispahan, and that Muzaffar 
 (272) B. Yaqut had laid hands upon his money and 
 horses, and appropriated them. Muzaffar had charge 
 of public security in Ispahan. Qahir resented this 
 action, and his displeasure extended to his father and 
 brother. Information was given of the whereabouts of 
 Abu Yusuf Baridi, who was surprised, seized and con¬ 
 veyed to the house of the vizier Mohammed b. Qasim, 
 who treated him courteously. Qahir wrote to the 
 vizier, bidding him settle with him his fine and those of 
 his brothers ; he was accordingly summoned by the 
 vizier, who demanded that he should arrive at a settle¬ 
 ment with him.—Abu Yusuf said : If we can be sure 
 that the matter rests with you, and that you are to be 
 confirmed in your office of vizier, we are prepared to 
 arrange it with you ; but as we know for certain that it 
 does not rest with you, and that some one else is going 
 to be vizier, it is not permissible to settle it with you.— 
 On Tuesday 13 Dhu'l-Qa'dah (Oct. 14, 933) 1 there was 
 an eclipse of the moon, and Qahir arrested the vizier 
 Mohammed b. Qasim ; he sent Sabur the eunuch to his 
 house, where he seized him and all who were to be found 
 there, including Abu Yusuf Baridi. They were conveyed 
 to the Palace. Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. Qasim b. 
 'Ubaidallah b. Sulaiman had been vizier to Qahir three 
 months and twelve days. 
 
 Qahir proceeded to summon Ishaq b. 'Ali Qunna’i 
 and 'Abd al-Wahhab b. 'Abdallah Khaqani ostensibly 
 to make one vizier and the other president of the 
 bureaux ; when they presented themselves their hands 
 
 1 The correct Julian date is Nov. 5, 933, 
 
Second Vizierate of Rhasibi. 309 
 
 were kissed by the commanders, and Salamah the 
 Chamberlain seated himself in front of them. Without 
 delay a message came from Qahir ordering them to be 
 arrested and confined in dungeons. Next Sulaiman 
 b. #asan was summoned to be appointed vizier; he 
 presented himself in his barge, and was met by the 
 commanders and the people, who kissed his hand; the 
 ustadhs seated themselves in front of him, in the Palace ; 
 and then Qahir sent to arrest him and confine him in a 
 dungeon. Next he sent for al-Fadl b. Ja'far to be 
 made vizier, but his treatment of Khaqani and Sulaiman 
 had become known, and al-Fa^l went into hiding ; so 
 
 that no appointment to the vizierate was made on that 
 day. 
 
 (273) On the following day Qahir ordered ‘Isa the 
 physician to produce Khasibi on the Thursday, instruct¬ 
 ing him to prepare himself for the vizierate, and to 
 appear in a black robe with sword and belt. Tsa sent 
 a message to him to that effect, and he appeared as 
 instructed; the robes of honour appropriate to the 
 vizierate were conferred upon him, and he rode in them 
 to his residence, where people came to congratulate 
 him. He then looked into the bureaux and assigned the 
 presidencies to those whom he thought suitable. He 
 established a bureau for the sale of public lands, and 
 summoning the holders examined them, and forced them 
 to pay fifty thousand dinars as the difference between 
 the two rates. 1 He wrote out lists of conditions, which 
 he made them sign. He proceeded to fine various persons 
 and arrest others. 
 
 After Abu Yusuf Baridi had been made to endure 
 severe torture, the fine of the Baridis was through the 
 mediation of Tsa and Salamah the Chamberlain fixed 
 at twelve million dirhems. Amnesties were made out 
 for AAmad and ‘Ali Baridi 2 in the writing of the Caliph 
 
 1 See above, p. 200. 
 
 2 Abu Abdallah and Abu’l-iTusain. 
 
310 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 and the vizier ; and these were attested by the Judges 
 and Witnesses. So they showed themselves. Abu 
 Sa'id Ibn Qudaidah and Abu Zakariyya Susi state 
 that Abu 'Abdallah Baridi appeared before Abu'l-'Abbas 
 Khasibi in a hood, turban and shoes, they two being 
 his companions. Baridi - requested that the room be 
 cleared, which was done; he then remonstrated at 
 length with the vizier, reminding him of many claims 
 which he (Baridi) had upon him, and of various services 
 which he had rendered Khasibi at different times when 
 Khasibi's fortunes had been at a low ebb. He ended 
 by saying : In all these services I was counting on your 
 aid in this world, not in the next : and in the matter 
 of the money you have an excuse, as you assert that you 
 were under the orders of the Caliph, whom you are bound 
 to obey ; and so have you in scourging Abu Yusuf, since 
 he was contumacious. But why did you say evil things 
 of Abu Yusuf's mother, who is my mother too ? Why 
 did you think fit to assail her honour ? With all these 
 services of mine might I not claim that you should for 
 my sake spare her from infamous charges ?—Khasibi 
 blushed and said : You are right; I ought to have done 
 so ; only in my anger I lost self-control, and I apologize. 
 (274) Let bygones be bygones. The Caliph insists on a 
 a million dinars ; and I described you thus to the Com¬ 
 mander of the Faithful: Abu Yusuf, I said, is narrow¬ 
 breasted, but his brother Abu 'Abdallah is broad¬ 
 breasted, and will not refuse the Commander of the 
 Faithful. Were it not for this he would have had Abu 
 Yusuf brought over to him, in which case I could not 
 have guaranteed his life ; so I wish you would spare 
 me further trouble in your case ; sufficient for me is my 
 shame for what is past. So give your bond for two 
 million dirhems more.—Abu 'Abdallah said : Vizier, 
 you have made ample amends, and apologized honour¬ 
 ably.—The vizier said : Write the bond, I adjure you.— 
 He said : I will write it, but I demand immunity for 
 
Second VizieraTe of Khasibi. 311 
 
 what I am going to say. Neither I nor my brothers own 
 this sum ; but if God turn the heart of the Caliph and 
 your heart towards us, we shall be put in office, and shall 
 be able to pay. If we are not so fortunate, then we 
 shall postpone execution for a time. For God has 
 ordinarily delivered us, and we hope for His mercy.— 
 Khasibi said (there being no-one present in the room but 
 Abu Zakariyya and Ibn Qudaidah, Khasibi's collector) : 
 Abu 'Abdallah, you have suggested two alternatives and 
 
 shown yourself equal to either- 1 He laughed ; his 
 
 bond was taken for an additional couple of million dir¬ 
 hems and he went off. 
 
 Now Abu 'Abdallah Baridi had made a friend of 
 Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Ra'iq, who in turn had paid 
 him extreme honour. Abu Bakr now instructed him to 
 call in the moneys allotted to him (Ibn Ra'iq) and his 
 troops from the revenues of Ahwaz, and for this purpose 
 to go and conquer the region. He departed from Basrah 
 in order that his plan might not be accomplished while 
 he remained with Ibn Ra'iq in which case it might be 
 ascribed to him (Baridi) ; and when he reached Wasit, 
 he found 'Ali b. 'Isa there, having brought it into a 
 prosperous condition ; it was now assigned to him by 
 Qahir (whose agent he was and not the vizier's) for 
 thirteen million dirhems. 'Ali b. 'Isa gave the contract 
 to Baridi in the presence of witnesses, and Baridi 
 appointed as his deputy Abu’l-TTasan Mohammed b. 
 Haud b. #amdun of Wasit; he stayed fifty days at 
 Numaniyyah to attend to the district of the Muwaf- 
 faqi canal, and then departed to Baghdad. (275) One 
 day when he and his brothers were riding to the Tuesday 
 Bazaar to await the exit of Khasibi, he received a 
 message from 'Isa the physician to the effect that Qahir 
 was proposing to arrest them. They dismounted, dis¬ 
 guised themselves, and went into hiding, not venturing 
 
 1 Some words are lost. 
 
312 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 to show themselves until Qahir had been deposed and 
 Ra^i been appointed Caliph. 
 
 On Monday 4 Dhu'l-#ijjah (Nov. 25, 933) there came 
 a despatch from 'Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab to Khasibi 
 stating how one of the chief Dailemite captains who had 
 been in the service of Mardawij, named 'Ali b. Buwaihi, 
 had advanced to the district of Arrajan. This person, 
 he asserted, had farmed the revenue of the district Mah 
 al-Basrah for Mardawij and defaulted ; fearing the wrath 
 of Mardawij, he had rebelled, marched with four 
 hundred Dailemites to Arrajan and made himself master 
 of the place. 
 
 Account of the causes which led to the rise of'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 and the coincidences which helped towards th'e 
 foundation of his empire. 
 
 ABXJ’L-VlASAN 'ALI B. Buwaihi and his brother 
 Abu 'Ali 7/asan b. Buwaihi were among the captains 
 in the service of Makan b. Kaki. The relations 
 between Makan and Mardawij continued to be cordial 
 from the time when they had agreed to attack Asfar 
 b. Shirawaihi and he had retired from the fortress 
 Samiran in Tarm. 1 They were in the habit of sending 
 each other presents and courtesies, until Mardawij put 
 Asfar to death as we have previously recorded, 2 and 
 made himself master of the region of Rayy and the 
 Jabal. His power then increased and he multiplied his 
 treasures and his forces. Meanwhile Makan invaded 
 the region of Amul and Tabaristan,and obtained posses¬ 
 sion of it. His dominion extended to Nisabur, when the 
 latter had been evacuated by Nasr b. Ahmad prince 
 of Khorasan, who was occupied with the rebellion of his 
 two brothers; but when he had restored order in 
 Khorasan, he returned to Nisabur, and sent a message 
 to Makan, requesting him to abandon the place, and 
 
 1 This story is told, but somewhat obscurely, by Mas'udi, ed. B. de Meynard, 
 ix. 16 foil. 
 
 a Above, p. 162. 
 
Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 313 
 
 maintain friendly relations. Makan agreed, and retired 
 to Jurjan and Tabaristan. 
 
 (276) The relations between Makan and Mardawij 
 now began to become strained through mutual jealousy 
 and injuries ; Mardawij presently summoned his lieu¬ 
 tenants in the Jabal, Ispahan, and all his territories, 
 collected his armies, and marched against Makan. 
 Makan resisted, but Mardawij was too strong for him, 
 routed him, and obtained possession of Tabaristan, 
 where he installed Balqasim b. Balhasan who had been 
 his commander-in-chief, a brave man and a good general. 
 He then proceeded to Jurjan, where Makan’s lieutenant 
 was Shirzil b. Sallar with Ba'ali b. Turki ; they fled 
 and Mardawij took possession of the province, where 
 he installed Sarkhab b. Ballus as deputy of Balqasim 
 b. BalAasan, of whose children’s mother he was the 
 brother ; thus Balqasim was governor of both Jurjan 
 and Tabaristan. Mardawij then returned to Ispahan 
 triumphant and with booty. Meanwhile Makan applied 
 for help to Abu’l-Fadl The Avenger, 1 who received him 
 with honour, and in person accompanied him on an 
 expedition against Tabaristan, where Balqasim b. Bal- 
 Aasan was prepared for them. He went out to meet 
 them and in the battle which ensued both the Avenger 
 and Makan were routed. The Avenger returned to his 
 home in the Dailemite country, whereas Makan pro¬ 
 ceeded along the coast with his routed and enfeebled 
 force till he reached Jurjan, whence he turned off towards 
 Nisabur, seeking Ahmad b. Mohammed b. Muhtaj, 
 commander of the army of Khorasan, into whose service 
 he entered and whose help he solicited. Balqasim b. 
 BalAasan remained in Jurjan 2 until he was informed 
 that Abu ‘Ali A/rniad b. Mohammed b. MuMaj was about 
 to march against him with Makan. He wrote to 
 Mardawij demanding help, and Mardawij in answer sent 
 
 1 He appears to have been in Gilan at the time. 
 
 3 Probably he had come there in pursuit of Makan. 
 
314 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 the bulk of his army with his chief followers, making a 
 great effort to support him. (277) When Ibn MuAtaj 
 and Makan arrived, they were met by Balqasim b. 
 Bal/^asan, who defeated them in battle, and forced them 
 to retire to Nisabur. Makan however made a fresh 
 effort against the region of Damaghan, of which he was 
 anxious to obtain possession. Mardawij's lieutenant 
 there was al-Jaish b. Umedwar, who was joined by 
 Balqasim b. BalAasan, with the view of resisting Makan, 
 who was again routed, and despairing of conquering 
 these provinces was despatched by the prince of Khorasan 
 to Kirman to be its governor. Here Abu 'Ali 
 Mohammed b. Alyas b. Alyas a' was in possession; he 
 was attacked and defeated by Makan, who became ruler 
 of Kirman subject to the prince of Khorasan. 
 
 Now Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali b. Buwaihi and his brother 
 Abu 'Ali Hasan had on the occasion of Makan’s first 
 defeat, when his fortunes were low, solicited his permis¬ 
 sion to desert to Mardawij, urging that it was best for 
 him that the\ should quit him, and so lighten the 
 burden which had to support and let it fall on some 
 one else. They promised to come back when his luck 
 had improved. He gave them permission, and the 
 example of 'Ali b. Buwaihi was followed by many com¬ 
 manders, when he and his brother were received by 
 Mardawij with honours, and had robes bestowed upon 
 them. Mardawij proceeded to place each of Makan's 
 commanders in control of one of the districts of the 
 Jabal; to ‘Ali b. Buwaihi he gave Karaj, to Lashkari 
 b. Murdi his former province Dinawand, to Sulaiman b. 
 Sarkalah Hamadhan. And similarly with the other 
 commanders. 
 
 Account of the reason why 'Ali b. Buwaihi s appointment 
 materialized , whereas the others were cashiered before 
 they had reached their provinces. 
 
 The cause of the rise of 'Ali b. Buwaihi and his attain¬ 
 ing what he did was his natural munificence and 
 
315 
 
 Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 
 
 liberality. With this noble quality there was united 
 another yet more noble, viz., perfect valour. To these 
 there were added certain lucky coincidences and an 
 auspicious horoscope. Thus when he was given control 
 of Karaj, and others who had deserted with him were 
 appointed to the provinces which have been mentioned, 
 (278) and when their deeds of investiture had been drawn 
 up, they all proceeded to Rayy. There Washmagir 
 was in control with Abu 'Abdallah #usain b. Mohammed, 
 who had the title al-'Amid, the father of Rukn al- 
 daulah’s vizier Abu'l-Fadl Ibn al-'Amid, and supervised 
 the administration of the place. This al-'Amid was 
 shown a handsome mule belonging to ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, 
 who wanted to sell it and make use of the money. The 
 price required was three thousand dirhems, equal to 
 two hundred dinars. Al-'Amid bought it, and trans¬ 
 mitted the money to the owner ; but when 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi learned that it was being purchased for al- 
 'Amid, he himself led the mule to him, and vowed that 
 he would take no money for it. He followed the pro¬ 
 ceeding with various other attentions, overwhelming 
 al-'Amid with kindness. Presently the plans of Mar- 
 dawij made it necessary for him to countermand the 
 order which he had issued putting the commanders in 
 control of the provinces. He accordingly wrote to his 
 brother Washmagir and to Abu 'Abdallah al-'Amid, 
 bidding them prevent the departure of these commanders 
 from Rayy ; and if any of them had already left, the 
 remainder were to be prevented. Now the official letters 
 went first to al-'Amid, who acquainted himself with 
 their contents, and then presented a summary to 
 Washmagir. When al-'Amid had perused this letter, 
 he gave secret instructions to 'Ali b. Buwaihi to hasten 
 to his province. He started at once and did not rest 
 at the stations. Next morning al-'Amid rose and ex¬ 
 hibited the correspondence, but by the time it was put 
 before Washmagir 'Ali b. Buwaihi was already a long 
 
316 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 distance oft, whereas those commanders who had not 
 started were detained. Thus 'Ali b. Buwaihi secured 
 that post which led the way to his conquests and his 
 sovereignty. Next to the divine decree the only cause 
 of this known was his freehandedness and liberality. 
 
 When he reached Karaj he began to deal liberally with 
 the troops and treated the governor of the town with 
 courtesy; so the governor wrote thanking him for this and 
 for the care with which he administered and protected the 
 place. It so happened that he stormed certain fortresses 
 in the neighbourhood which had been in the hands of the 
 Khurramites 1 ; disputes arose between the commanders 
 of these fortresses, some of whom deserted to him, and 
 showed him certain hidden treasures ; all of which he 
 proceeded to expend in winning the affection of the 
 troops and others. When Mardawij returned to Rayy, 2 
 he imposed the payment of certain of (279) his com¬ 
 manders upon the district of Karaj. Among these 
 commanders was Ibrahim b. Siyarhai called Kasak, 
 with others more important than he. 'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 conciliated them and was so liberal with them that all 
 felt obliged to be loyal to him. News of this reached 
 Mardawij, who was alarmed, and regretted that he had 
 sent these important officers out to him ; so he wrote to 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi bidding him come back to him, and sent 
 similar orders to the commanders. ‘Ali b. Buwaihi put 
 him off with various excuses and civil messages until he 
 had obtained solemn assurances of fidelity from these 
 commanders, who, he knew, had taken fright, and whom 
 he warned of Mardawij’s treachery and violence. He 
 then started at their head from Karaj, collecting as 
 much money as he could. A Dailemite commander 
 Shirzad deserted to him from Jarbadhaqan with forty 
 men, and this gave him courage ; mustering his troops 
 
 1 A sect supposed to be atheistic of which much is heard in the history of 
 the third Islamic century. 
 
 3 See above, p. 265. 
 
Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 317 
 
 he found that they were a little over three hundred men, 
 but they were picked champions, well armed and 
 equipped; So he took the direction of Ispahan, where 
 was Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar Ibn Yaqut with some ten 
 thousand troops, with Abu 'Ali Ibn Rustam as 
 minister of kharaj. 'Ali b. Buwaihi sent before him a 
 series of civil letters, wherein he assured them that he 
 was deserting to them and desired to enter the service 
 of the Sultan. They put him off with a vague reply ; 
 for Abu 'Ali Ibn Rustam had the greatest dislike of 'Ali 
 b. Buwaihi and most strongly disapproved of his coming. 
 It so happened that Abu ' Ali Ibn Rustam died at the time 
 when Abu’l-FatA Ibn Yaqut marched out to a distance 
 of three parasangs from Ispahan. Among his followers 
 there were a number of Dailemites and Jilites, some six 
 hundred ; they, having heard of the liberality, bounty, 
 and free-handedness of 'Ali b. Buwaihi, deserted to him. 
 'Ali b. Buwaihi then gave battle, and Ibn Yaqut took to 
 flight having been weakened by these troops' desertion, 
 and having become aware of the stedfastness of the 
 Dailemites and the disorder of his own followers. He 
 fled to Fars. 'Ali b. Buwaihi became master of Ispahan, 
 and acquired fame and importance as having defeated 
 thousands and thousands of the troops of the Sultan 
 with some hundreds of his own followers. Mardawij, 
 when he heard the news, was alarmed, and devised a 
 plan for dealing with them which was not to succeed. 
 
 (280) Account of this unsuccessful scheme. 
 
 Mardawij was afraid that his followers would desert 
 to 'Ali b. Buwaihi owing to what they heard of his 
 fortune and the fame of his liberality ; whereas the 
 conduct of Marwadij himself was vexatious, and such 
 as could be endured and tolerated by no self-respecting 
 man. So he thought fit to send to 'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 messages of friendly remonstrance with which he hoped 
 the other would comply, offering terms which a man 
 
318 A.H. 321. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 would be eager to obtain. At the same time he sent in 
 'Ali's track a mighty and numerous army under his 
 brother Washmagir. ‘Ali was aware that the message 
 was inconsistent with the armed preparation, so he took 
 warning and evacuated Ispahan after collecting its 
 revenues for a month. He directed himself towards 
 Arrajan, where was Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Yaqut. 
 The latter fled before 'Ali b. Buwaihi to Ramhurmuz 
 without a fight. 1 'Ali b. Buwaihi thereupon entered 
 Arrajan and obtained thence a large sum which 
 strengthened his hands. 
 
 Here letters reached him from Abu Talib Zaid b. 
 ‘Ali of Nubandajan, 2 who invited him, and suggested to 
 him to march against Shiraz, assuring him that there 
 was little to fear from Yaqut 3 owing to the latter's 
 ruthless exactions, the extravagance of himself and his 
 army, and their oppression of the people, added to their 
 own slackness and want of discipline. 'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 was however afraid to meet Yaqut, who was a famous 
 general commanding numerous troops and great re¬ 
 sources, and whose son Abu Bakr was on 'Ali's rear; so 
 he declined the suggestion of Abu Talib. Abu Talib 
 however encouraged him and pointed out that, if he 
 halted, it was quite possible that Yaqut and Mardawij 
 might come to an agreement and unite against him. 
 His enemies were, he said, numerous; should they 
 combine, he would have no chance against them ; as 
 time went on they would find some way of dealing with 
 him; possibly too they would be reinforced from head¬ 
 quarters, and in that case armies would be gathering 
 against him from every side. For a person in his situa¬ 
 tion the right course was to be quick, to hurry forward 
 and not wait for the enemies to muster and devise 
 schemes.—Abu Talib continued to send messageb to 'Ali 
 
 1 Above 265 his action is apparently due to climatic considerations, 
 
 2 See above, p. 147. 
 
 5 He was now governor of Fars, 
 
Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 319 
 
 b. Buwaihi, showing that his progress was easy, if he 
 hurried; difficult, (281) if he procrastinated. Finally 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi advanced to Nubandajan. He was anti¬ 
 cipated by the vanguard of Yaqut, consisting of some 
 two thousand men, among v horn were the Gravest of 
 his followers, such as Kurmard of Xhorasan and Ibn 
 Khargosii, both of them renowned for gallantry, with 
 other champions not inferior to them. They were met 
 by 'Ali b. Buwaihi on the read to Nubandajan, and made 
 little resistance, fleeing to Kurkan. Here they were 
 joined by Yaqut and his followers. Abu Talib of 
 Nubandajan instructed his stewards and agents to 
 minister to 'Ali b. Buwaihi, while he himself retired to 
 an estate by way of deceiving Yaqut, to whom he wrote 
 that he had been forced to run away by the fright that 
 had overtaken himself and the inhabitants ; and solicited 
 his advice. Meanwhile he was doing his utmost to abet 
 'Ali b. Buwaihi and show him the most advantageous 
 courses, while he furnished him also with intelligence 
 and guidance to passes and routes. He also appointed 
 persons to supply all his wants both in money and kind, 
 entertaining him and his whole force forty days, at an 
 estimated cost of two hundred thousand dinars. 'Ali 
 b. Buwaihi sent his brother Abu 'Ali #asan to Kazarun 
 and other districts of Fars, whence he extorted vast sums, 
 and unearthed great treasures that had belonged 
 to the Kisras, and had been inherited by certain families 
 there; he (the future Rukn al-daulah) raised more 
 money than his brother had raised. Yaqut sent a 
 mighty army against #asan b. Buwaihi, who met it 
 with a handful of troops, routed it, and joined his brother 
 'Ali in triumph. 
 
 It now happened that the league between Yaqut 
 and Washmagir with Mardawij against 'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 was an accomplished fact, and the news of this reaching 
 ‘Ali compelled him to march in the direction of Kirman. 
 Leaving Nubandajan he moved to Istakhr, and thence 
 
320 A.H. 322. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 to Baida, being closely followed by Yaqut with his 
 whole army. Finally ‘Ali b. Buwaihi came to a bridge 
 over which the road to Kirman passed ; Yaqut had got 
 to the bridge before him, and interfered with his 
 passage ; so ‘Ali was compelled to fight. 1 
 
 Year 322. 
 
 (282) The battle began on Tuesday—13 Jumada ii 
 (June 2, 934), and was at its fiercest on Wednesday ; 
 the night preceding the Thursday ‘Ali called his followers 
 and informed them that he would dismount with them 
 and fight like one of their number ; he made lavish 
 promises and obtained from them solemn assurances 
 that they would hold out and do their best. 
 
 Account of an an incident that favoured ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 and seriously hurt Yaqut , coupled with undue 
 precipitation on Yaqut's part. 
 
 The bad policy precipitately adopted by Yaqut was 
 the following. Two Dailemite chieftains who were 
 among ‘Ali b. Buwaihi’s followers deserted to him ; no 
 sooner had he cast eyes on them than he ordered them 
 to be beheaded. The Dailemites being convinced that 
 they had no chance of pardon from him, took good heed 
 and fought with the resolution of martyrs. The incident 
 was this. He started battle early on the Thursday 
 morning by stationing in front of his line a number of 
 foot-soldiers who fought with instruments for discharging 
 naphtha and flame. The wind shifted and being violent 
 caused the flame to reach some of Yaqut’s lines, while 
 the Dailemites fell upon those foot-soldiers and 
 slaughtered them. The cavalry then took to flight 
 pursued by the Dailemites in complete order. 
 
 1 See infra pp. 295 foil., where the account given differs in many details. 
 
Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 
 
 321 
 
 Account of an expedient tried by Yaqut at the time oj 
 the rout, which however was ineffective, as ( Ali b. 
 Buwaihi had taken precautions which led to victory. 
 
 When the Dailemites were within sight of the baggage 
 of Yaqut during his rout and that of his followers, Yaqut 
 made for a high hill which was on his road, and ascended 
 it; there he planted his standard and he was joined by 
 some four thousand men. He expected the Dailemites 
 to make a rush for his stores, and while engaged on 
 plunder (283) to get into disorder, when he would be able 
 to counterattack—a device which often enough has led 
 to victory after a force has been routed. So he told his 
 followers not to separate, but hold themselves in readi¬ 
 ness for a counterattack. ‘Ali b. Buwaihi however per¬ 
 ceived this, and showing himself in front of his line called 
 to his followers, and bade them keep together and main¬ 
 tain their order ; for, he said, the enemy is standing and 
 waiting for you to be occupied with plundering when he 
 will counterattack. But that is the only stratagem that 
 he has left.—He then informed them that the plunder 
 would not be lost. So when Yaqut saw how firmly they 
 stood and refrained from pillaging in order to protect 
 themselves from his stratagem, he made a headlong 
 retreat, and ‘Ali b. Buwaihi took possession of all his 
 baggage. Boxes were found belonging to Yaqut con¬ 
 taining burnouses, fetters and similar articles which had 
 been got ready for the captives, and which some of ‘Ali 
 b. Buwaihi's officers suggested should be used for Yaqut’s 
 troops, the burnouses to be placed on their heads and the 
 fetters on their legs ; and in this condition they should 
 be paraded first in the camp and then in the town. ‘Ali 
 b. Buwaihi declined this suggestion, saying No ! Let 
 us rather pardon the enemies whom God has put into 
 our power, and thank Him for this mercy. Thus shall 
 we be more likely to obtain an increase, and avoid 
 arrogance and impiety.— 
 
322 A.H. 322. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 On the Friday he advanced to Qurqan and on Satur¬ 
 day to Dinakan, being joined the whole way by a pro¬ 
 cession of deserters, men from the garrisons and persons 
 of eminence. He received them all with kindly words 
 and acts, pardoned all who had been reported to him as 
 having used ill language about him or done him harm, 
 and conducted himself so excellently that all fear of him 
 even on the part of his enemies was allayed. He en¬ 
 camped outside Shiraz, and there issued a proclamation 
 that justice was to be distributed, and that the inhabi¬ 
 tants were to be secure from all annoyance, and the 
 people were told to go about their employments and 
 business without fear. And they did so. 
 
 Presently owing to the exorbitant demands of the 
 army he was compelled to adopt another policy, and came 
 to what we hope presently to describe in due course. 
 
 (284) This year there came a despatch from Abu 
 Ja'far Mohammed b. Qasim of Karkh, who was minister 
 of kharaj and estates in Basrah and Ahwaz, dated Tuesday 
 4 Muharram (Dec. 24, 933), 1 to the effect that he had 
 received letters announcing the entry of Mardawij’s 
 followers into Ispahan ; and that an important com¬ 
 mander in the service of Mardawij, who had been in 
 charge of Mah al-Basrah, and acquired a vast sum of 
 money, named ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, had left him and fled to 
 Arrajan, whence he had written to assure him that he 
 was loyal to the Sultan, and requested permission from 
 the vizier to come to the capital or else to proceed to 
 Shiraz to join forces with Yaqut, the freedman of the 
 Commander of the Faithful. 
 
 This year the followers of Abu Tahir the Qarmadan 
 came to the regions of Tawwaj and Siniz in boats, and 
 landed. When they had got some distance from their 
 boats these were burned by an agent of Yaqut who was 
 in control of the place. He then assembled the people 
 
 1 According to Wustenfeld 3 Mviharram, 
 
Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 323 
 
 of the place and attacked the Qarmadans, killing some 
 and taking prisoners eighty men, among whom was one 
 called Ibn al-Ghamr. A messenger of Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut brought these prisoners to the capital in triumph, 
 with horns attached to the head of Ibn al-Ghamr, and 
 the whole party mounted on camels with satin vests and 
 burnouses. In this guise they entered the Palace, where 
 they were put into confinement. 
 
 In this year too Qahir put to death IsAaq b. Isma'il 
 and Abud-Saraya Nasr b. #amdan. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason for his putting Is/zaq to death was that 
 before his accession he had wished to purchase the slave- 
 girl called Zinah, who had been described to him as a 
 beauty and a singer ; but IsAaq had outbid him and 
 secured her. The reason for his putting Abud-Saraya 
 to death was that before his accession he had wished to 
 purchase another slave-girl, and been outbid by him. 
 Thabit on the authority of a servant who was present 
 at the executions records how (285) Qahir came and stood 
 over a well in a place which he mentions, bade IsAaq be 
 brought, and when he was brought in fetters ordered him 
 to be thrown into the well; " so we threw him in, fetters 
 and all, while he was still alive. Then he ordered Abud- 
 Saraya to be brought, and we produced him also in 
 fetters ; the Caliph ordered him to be flung into the 
 same well; Abud-Saraya kept supplicating and begging 
 for pardon, but the Caliph paid no attention, and when 
 he hung on to the branch of a palm-tree that was near 
 the well, the Caliph bade us hit his hand, which we did ; 
 so he let go the palm-branch and we pushed him into 
 the well. Then the Caliph commanded us to fill in the 
 well, so we flung earth in until it was full; while he 
 stood.”—Praise be to Almighty God ! How wonderful 
 is fate ! When Muqtadir was killed, Mu’nis wanted to 
 
324 A.H. 322. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 appoint as his successor his son Abu'l-'Abbas, and IsAaq 
 b. Isma'il strained every nerve to make them appoint 
 Qahir instead, 1 not knowing that he was designing his 
 own death, in order that what was foreordained should 
 be accomplished. 
 
 In this year Abu Bakr Ibn Muqassam was brought 
 to the apartment of the Chamberlain Salamah charged 
 with having invented unknown Qur’anic readings ; Ibn 
 Mujahid and the judges were summoned to examine 
 him. He confessed his sin and repented ; his books 
 were burned. 
 
 In this year 2 a rebel called Abu ‘Ali Mohammed b. 
 Alyas coming from Sogdia passed through Kirman and 
 arrived at the gate of Istakhr, where he informed Yaqut 
 that he wished to seek his protection ; Yaqut presently 
 learned that this was a pretence, and went out to meet 
 him with force; Ibn Alyas did not resist, but retreated 
 to Kirman, where Makan b. Kaki the Dailemite was 
 sent against him by the prince of Khorasan. In the 
 battle which followed Ibn Alyas was routed, and fleeing 
 into the territory of Fars was attacked by (286) Yaqut 
 and routed again. 
 
 In this year the Hujari and Saji troops were dis¬ 
 pleased with Qahir, and successfully plotted his arrest. 
 
 Account of the reason for Qahir s arrest. 
 
 The reason of it was that Abu 'Ali Ibn Muqlah from 
 his hiding place kept sending messages to the Saji and 
 Hujari troops, setting them against Qahir and arousing 
 their suspicions of him. The like was done also by 
 Hasan b. Harun, who used to meet them at night attired 
 as a mendicant, with a wallet in his hand, and sometimes 
 as a woman, and ultimately succeeded in exasperating 
 them and making them conspire to assault the Caliph. 
 He warned them that the Caliph was building dungeons 
 
 1 See above, p. 242. 
 
 2 This must have been before Yaqut’s defeat by ‘Ali b. Buwaibi. 
 
Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 325 
 
 for them; and he got hold of an astrologer in the employ 
 of Sima, whom he suborned to announce to Sima on the 
 authority of the stars that danger threatened him from 
 Qahir of whom he should beware. #asan b. Harun 
 gave this astrologer two hundred dinars, which induced 
 him to impress on the mind of Sima this fear of Qahir; 
 and Sima, who used to admire this astrologer's successful 
 predictions, was duly impressed. The astrologer pro¬ 
 ceeded to make further suggestions on the authority of 
 dreams, which he professed to have seen, which increased 
 Sima's fear of Qahir. 
 
 On Monday 4 Rabi'ii (March 24, 934) a dispute arose 
 between the iZujari and the Saji retainers, and the Sajis 
 were told that Qahir meant to lay hands on Sima, who 
 was their commander. Sima fled in haste from the 
 Palace to his own house, where he was joined by the 
 whole body of Sajis with their officers in arms ; they 
 remained with him till the end of the day, when they 
 went away, to return early next morning. Then the 
 officers of the Sajis met those of the #ujaris and swore 
 to act in common, after which they took an oath from the 
 rest of both regiments to do the same. News of this 
 reaching Qahir, the vizier and the Chamberlain, they 
 sent to enquire into the cause of their alarm. (287) 
 The reply was : We have ascertained that Qahir means 
 to arrest Sima and confine us in the dungeons which he 
 has been building for us.—Now al-Fa^l b. Ja'far had 
 undertaken the building of certain subterraneous 
 chambers out of his own money to be reckoned against 
 his fine. Qahir being informed of the men's reply 
 ordered Salamah to go out to them, after swearing to him 
 that he had no such plan or notion, and that he was 
 merely building baths for the women of the Palace. 
 Salamah accordingly went out with this message 
 
 Khasibi and Tsa the physician had now a private 
 audience of Qahir, whom they assured that the source 
 of this mischief could only be al-Fa^l b. Ja‘far, who must 
 
326 A.H. 322. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 have told the Sajis and #ujaris this, since no-one else 
 knew of it. Now Salamah had suggested the remission 
 of al-Fadl’s fine, being anxious to do him a service, and 
 restricted it to the amount to be spent on the subter¬ 
 raneous chambers. Qahir now ordered the arrest of 
 al-Fa^l b. Ja'far, and Khasibi the vizier in the presence 
 of 'Isa the physician demanded of him 300,000 dinars. 
 Al-Fail replied : Were I possessed of money, I should 
 have estates, houses, servants, and style to match.— 
 Khasibi was angered, thinking that al-Fadl was alluding 
 to himself. He addressed al-Fadl with harshness, and al- 
 Fail gave as good as he had got. Khasibi the vizier 
 wanted to inflict torture ; but Sabur the eunuch said 
 he had been ordered to protect him and prevent harm 
 from happening to him.—So he was sent back to the 
 Palace and confined in the place where IsAaq b. Isma'il 
 had been imprisoned. 
 
 On Tuesday 5 Jumada i (April 22, 934) despatches 
 arrived from Abu Ja'far of Karkh and Abu Yusuf 'Abd 
 al- Rahman b. Mohammed, formerly secretary to the 
 Queen-mother, to the effect that the followers of Ibn 
 Ra'iq had seized Suq al-Ahwaz and made themselves 
 masters of the whole district of Ahwaz. 1 All the 
 ministers of public security in the Ahwaz district were 
 now creatures of Ibn Ra’iq with the exception of Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Yaqut, minister of public security in Sus and 
 Jundaisabur, who declined to recognize IbnRa’iq’s autho¬ 
 rity, as being his equal. Khasibi wrote an account of 
 this to Qahir. (288) Qahir had already commenced his 
 potations, so he called Salamah, made him read the 
 letter, and bade him meet Khasibi and devise a scheme 
 for dealing with this matter. He then returned to his 
 cups.—Salamah accompanied by 'Isa went to Khasibi, 
 but though their deliberations were continued until 
 midnight, they could not arrive at any resolution. 
 Salamah then departed to his residence, knowing that 
 
 1 See above, p. 274. 
 
327 
 
 Second Vizierate of Khasibi. 
 
 Qahir was intoxicated by this time, and would be fit for 
 nothing for the rest of the night. When morning came, 
 Salamah paid an early visit to Khasibi, with whom he 
 found ‘Isa the physician ; they were informed that the 
 Sajis and JTujaris were conspiring to attack the Palace. 
 Khasibi bade ‘Isa go at once to the Palace and inform 
 Qahir, so that he might be on his guard. If he found 
 the Caliph asleep, he was to wake him. ‘Isa went and 
 tried hard to rouse Qahir, but found it impossible , he 
 was told that the Caliph had continued drinking till 
 sunrise, and that even if he were woke, he was too drunk 
 to understand what was told him. 
 
 Now the ffujaris and Sajis had been holding a 
 meeting at the house of Sima, where they had conspired 
 to seize the Palace and arrest Qahir. Sima said to them : 
 If you are really resolved on this course, let us arise and 
 execute it at once.—They said : No, let us put it off till 
 to-morrow, when there is a state ceremony, at which he 
 will appear, so that we can arrest him.—Sima said: If you 
 separate now, and put the matter off to another hour, 
 he will hear of it, be on his guard and counterplot us , 
 and he will ruin us all.—So they accepted his suggestion, 
 and rode with him armed to the Palace. At each gate 
 Sima placed a Saji retainer and a #ujari retainer, with 
 an adequate company of both forces ; and when he had 
 secured the gates, he stationed his own force at the 
 Public Gate, and bade them charge. They then charged 
 from all the gates at once. The news reached Salamah 
 and Khasibi who were holding a meeting in the residence 
 of the latter. Khasibi left his house in womens attire 
 and went into hiding; Salamah went down stream to 
 Saj Wharf and did the like. 
 
 (289) When the Sajis and ffujaris broke into the 
 Palace, Sima did not enter it with them, but remained at 
 his post in the Public Gate until Qahir had been arrested. 
 
 He then went in. 
 
328 A.H. 322. Second Caliphate of Qahir. 
 
 When Qahir learned of the invasion of the Palace by 
 the retainers, he woke up, was sobered, and fled to the 
 roof of a bath in the women’s apartments ; there he 
 hid ; and when the retainers entered the room wherein 
 he had been, they did not find him. So they seized 
 those who were near, e.g., Zairak the serving-man, ‘Isa 
 the physician, and Ikhtiyar the stewardess, and put 
 them in custody. Then a young eunuch fell into their 
 hands, whom they beat with clubs till he showed them 
 the Caliph’s hiding-place. Entering they found him 
 on the roof of the bath with a Dabiqi 1 kerchief on his 
 head, and a drawn sword in his hand. They tried hard 
 to make him come down to them, speaking gently : We 
 are thy slaves, they said, and would not harm thee ; we 
 only seek assurance of our own lives.—He firmly refused 
 nevertheless to come down, until one of them aimed an 
 arrow at him, saying : If thou come not down, I plant 
 this in thy breast.—Then he came down, and was 
 arrested ; the time was the early forenoon of Wednesdaj 
 6 Jumada i, 322 (April 22, 934). They took him to the 
 prison cells, making for the room wherein 7'arif Subkari 
 was confined. 2 This was opened, and fin ding 7'arif 
 therein they broke off his fetters, and released him ; 
 putting Qahir into confinement in his place. At the 
 door they posted a guard of Sajis and Hujaris. The 
 pillage of Baghdad began, and the Caliphate of Qahir 
 ended. 
 
 1 Said to be named from a place in Egypt, and to be a silken fabric inter¬ 
 woven with silver and gold. 
 
 2 We have not been told why he was arrested. 
 
Chapter III. 
 
 Caliphate of al-Radi Billah Abu’l-'Abbas Mo¬ 
 hammed son of Muqtadir in the Year 322. 
 
 When the Saji and #ujari retainers had arrested Qahir, 
 they found their way to the place (290) wherein Abu’l- 
 'Abbas son of Muqtadir was housed, their guide being a 
 deputy of Zairak the serving-man. Opening the door, 
 they entered and saluted him as Caliph ; they then 
 brought him out and set him upon the throne ; allegiance 
 was sworn to him by the officers of the Sajis and 
 ifujaris, and by Tarif Subkari and Badr Kharshani. 
 He took the title al-Radi Billah (The Satisfied with 
 God). He ordered 'Ali b. Tsa and his brother ‘Abd al- 
 RaAman to be summoned ; they were brought, admitted 
 to his presence, and consulted, as the Caliph relied on 
 them for counsel. 'Ali b. Tsa informed him that in 
 accordance with custom he ought to tie a banner for 
 himself; so he ordered the banner to be brought, tied 
 it with his own hand and commanded that it should be 
 preserved. 'Ali b. Tsa then advised him to secure the 
 Seal of Sovereignty, and this was delivered by the person 
 who had it in his possession ; 1 it is a silver ring with 
 bezel of Chinese iron ; the legend is in three lines : 
 
 Mohammed 
 Apostle 
 of God. 
 
 He also advised him to secure the Seal of Caliphate from 
 Qahir ; so Ra^i sent some one who opened the door of 
 his cell and demanded the ring, which Qahir surrendered ; 
 the gem was a red ruby, with the legend In God 
 Mohammed the sovereign Qahir Commander of the 
 
 1 The Prophet’s seal is the subject of numerous and conflicting traditions ; 
 see Mawahib Laduniyyah, ed. Qas/alani, v. 38 foil. It was said to have been in 
 the keeping of some one else 
 
330 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 Faithful trusts. The messenger brought it to Ra^i, who 
 ordered a skilful artist attached to the Treasury to 
 remove this legend, which was done. Another seal was 
 then inscribed with the legend al-Radi billah. 
 
 'Ali b. Tsa then ordered the summoning of the qarfis 
 Abu'l-#usain 'Umar b. Mohammed, Abu Mohammed Ibn 
 Abi’l-Shawarib, and Abu Talib al-Bahlul, with a number 
 of Witnesses and courtiers, who presented themselves ; 
 the qa^i Abu’l-#asan Mohammed b. Salih Hashimi, 
 son of Umm Shaiban, narrated how (291) when the qadi 
 Abu’l-iJusain was summoned on the occasion of Qahir’s 
 arrest, he was bewildered ; he gathered his household, 
 took with him fifty dinars in the belt of his drawers as 
 a resource, and left him (the narrator) in his place in his 
 house, before leaving. “ After most of the night had 
 passed he returned home, and said to me : I am sure 
 you have felt anxious and been longing to know what 
 had happened to us, so now let me tell you.—I went 
 and was taken into a chamber in which Qahir was, there 
 being with me three Witnesses and Tarif Subkari. 
 Tarif said to him : Will you say it, Sire ? This he re¬ 
 peated several times.—Qahir then said : Wait, and 
 turning to me said : Don’t you know me ?—I replied : 
 Certainly I do.—Then he said : I am Abu Mansur Mo¬ 
 hammed son of Mu'ta^id (on who God have mercy), and 
 besides al-Qahir billah ; my allegiance is on thy neck 
 and the necks of my family and of all the officers. I am 
 not going to absolve or discharge you therefrom on any 
 consideration. So go !—We rose, and when we had got 
 a little way off, I severely upbraided Tarif, asking him 
 what use it was to summon us to a man who had not been 
 forced to submit, nor given his signature, attested by the 
 public scribes and the army ? This ought to have been 
 done first, and then you might have summoned us for 
 the business.—So he took us to ‘Ali b. Tsa, who asked 
 what had happened, and when we told him, frowned 
 and said : He must be deposed without hesitation, for 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 331 
 
 his conduct is notorious, and there is no secret about 
 what he deserves.—I said : It is not for us to establish 
 dynasties; that is accomplished by the men of the 
 sword. We are only suited and required for attestation 
 and the obtaining of assurances. I heard the man say 
 what I repeated to you, and it was not proper to confront 
 us with him until the matter had been fully settled.— 
 He exhibited vexation, and as the time for prayer had 
 come, we rose.”—The qadi Abu'l-#asan Mohammed b. 
 Salih says : I heard him tell this, and next morning we 
 went to the Palace. We were told that Qahir had been 
 blinded the day before. 
 
 (292) He continues : When Abu 'Ali Ibn Muqlah 
 presented himself, we were summoned, there being with 
 the qadi Abu'l-idusain besides myself three Witnesses. 
 We were assembled in the presence of Radi, who made 
 a sign to MufliA the negro, who produced three of the new 
 C ali ph's brothers and gave them seats on the Caliph's 
 right. Ibn Muqlah then produced a paper from his 
 sleeve which he proceeded to unfold. He then made the 
 Caliph's brothers swear allegiance. Radi then made a 
 second sign to MufM, who introduced two other brothers 
 of the Caliph, who were made to sit at the Caliph's left. 
 They also were sworn. Then Ibn Muqlah gave the paper 
 to the qadi Abu'l-idusain and swore him. After attest¬ 
 ing the oaths on that paper we withdrew. 
 
 Sima had suggested the blinding of Qahir that night, 
 and Radi had concealed the matter from ‘Ali b. Tsa. 
 Summoning Bakhtishu' b. Yahya the physician, he 
 had asked him for the name of a competent operator. 
 The physican gave a name ; the man was fetched, and 
 blinded Qahir. 
 
 The whole of the Wednesday until nightfall ‘Ali b. 
 Tsa continued to receive oaths of allegiance to Radi from 
 judges, commanders, army officers, bureau clerks and 
 retainers. Radi demanded that he should undertake the 
 
332 
 
 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 vizierate, but he declined, alleging that he would not 
 prove equal to the office. Sima nominated Abu 'Ali Ibn 
 Muqlah, saying that he undertook to defray all expenses. 
 'Ali b 'Isa said that he had already nominated him to 
 the Commander of the Faithful, and that no-one was 
 fit for the present time save him.—Now 'Ali b. 'Isa had 
 been pleading for (293) al-Fadl b. Ja'far, and he was 
 released in consequence of his appeal. 1 Ra^i then sent 
 an order to Ibn Muqlah, who presented himself on 
 Thursday 7 Jumada i (April 24, 934), when 'Ali b. 'Isa 
 and his brother 'Abd al-Ra/mian also presented them¬ 
 selves and stationed themselves in front of him, to take 
 his oath. Al-Fa^l b. Ja'far and #asan b. Harun delayed. 
 The robes of honour which indicated the vizierate were 
 bestowed on Ibn Muqlah, and with him rode Sima, Tarif 
 Subkari, and the other commanders, retainers and court- 
 attendants. #asan b. Harun and Abu Bakr Ibn 
 Qarabah then showed themselves and after visiting Ibn 
 Muqlah returned to their homes. 
 
 Ibn Muqlah now started on a virtuous line of conduct, 
 saying : (294) When I was in hiding I promised God 
 that I would not harm any one, and made various vows 
 to that effect.—This promise he kept, as he released all 
 the civilians and soldiers who had been imprisoned by 
 Qahir, and besides 'Isa the physician and Is/zaq b. 'Ali 
 Qunna’i, who had been sent to him by Ra^i. Presently 
 he changed his mind about 'Isa, and imposed a fine upon 
 him. 
 
 (295) Qahir had acknowledged possession of a deposit 
 of gold, silver and perfume which had been entrusted to 
 his keeping by Ibn Muqlah ; and the latter now 
 demanded the return of the whole. He pleaded with 
 Ra<ii the cause of Abu’l-'Abbas Khasibi, and an auto¬ 
 graph amnesty was made out for him by Ra^i. This 
 was taken by Ibn Muqlah, who enclosed it in an auto- 
 
 1 See above, p. 287, for his imprisonment. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 333 
 
 graph letter of his own, wherein he addressed Khasibi in 
 the most courteous style. So Khasibi showed himself, 
 and was given charge by Ibn Muqlah of the bureaux of 
 the Private and the New Estates, as well as those which 
 had belonged to 'Abbas and Ibn al-Furat, and those 
 which had been acquired by confiscation from Umm 
 Musa, Nadhir, Shafi' Ludu’i, and the Rebels, 1 the estates 
 devoted to charity, and those which had belonged to the 
 Queen-mother, i.e., the mother of Muqtadir ; further 
 the bureaux of control of the East and the West. He 
 assigned him a stipend of a thousand dinars a month for 
 himself, exclusive of the stipends of the clerks employed 
 in these bureaux. 
 
 Radi appointed Badr Kharshani prefect of police 
 in Baghdad. 
 
 At the time when Radi was appointed Caliph de¬ 
 spatches arrived from Abu Ja'far of Karkh and Abu 
 Yusuf, formerly secretary to the Queen-mother, to the 
 effect that they had escaped from Ahwaz to the neigh¬ 
 bourhood of the Dwellings of Rasibi, and were fleeing 
 from Mohammed b. Ra’iq. The Baridis were hiding in 
 the canals of Ahwaz, exchanging one canal for another. 
 The news reached Mohammed b. Yaqut, 2 who was in 
 Basiyan, that Qahir had been deposed, and Radi made 
 Caliph ; and that he himself had been summoned to 
 become Chamberlain. So he returned to Wasit, and 
 did not enter Basrah; thither Abu Ja'far of Karkh 
 returned, but presently he went back to his post in 
 Ahwaz, and attended to the business until Ibn Muqlah 
 gave the Baridis the revenue-farming of Ahwaz. 
 
 Account of the commencement of the power of Abu’l-Hasan 
 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi the Dailemite. 
 
 We have previously narrated how Abu’l-Tdasan 'Ali 
 b. Buwaihi attached himself to Mardawij when the latter 
 
 1 i.e., Mu'nis, Yalbaq and their followers. 
 
 2 The text has Ra'iq, but this is an obvious error. Basiyan is fairly close to 
 Basrah, 
 
334 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 was on the frontier of Tabaris tan, and was given a com¬ 
 mand by him, with a body of troops. Now when Mar- 
 dawij sent him to Rayy, where his brother Washmagir 
 was his deputy, it happened that the governor of Karaj 1 
 wished to appropriate its revenues, so he sent ‘Ali b. 
 Buwaihi to set that matter straight. He had under him 
 fewer than a hundred men, but in the course of his resi¬ 
 dence at Karaj (296) various Dailemites from different 
 regions attached themselves to him, so that his numbers 
 swelled to about three hundred. Mardawij suspected 
 his intentions, and wrote recalling him ; but he delayed, 
 and further messages were met with fresh excuses. He 
 had in a short period obtained revenue from Karaj to 
 the amount of half a million or more ; Mardawij, taking 
 alarm, threatened him, so that he took fright. Mar¬ 
 dawij and Washmagir then plotted to arrest him. 
 
 Now ‘Ali b. Buwaihi had, when he left Rayy, where 
 Washmagir was in residence, appointed as his repre¬ 
 sentative his door-keeper Ahmad, father of Abu Is^aq 
 Tabari the Witness, who wrote to him about the dis¬ 
 cussions which Mardawij and Washmagir were now 
 having concerning himself; for indeed Mardawij had 
 come to see his brother in Rayy on this account, and 
 with the view of despatching armed forces against ‘Ali 
 b. Buwaihi. So ‘Ali left Karaj in alarm with the inten¬ 
 tion of putting himself under the protection of Muzaffar 
 b. Yaqut in Ispahan, who had in his army at the time 
 seven hundred Dailemites, 2 under the command of 
 Fannakhusrah, father of Hasan the Dailemite, who had 
 been inspector of police in Baghdad. When ‘Ali b. 
 Buwaihi approached Ispahan, Muzaffar went out to 
 prevent his entry; he was at the head of some four 
 thousand men, 3 but his followers played each other false, 
 
 1 Above p. 278 this was not mentioned. Miskawaihi seems to have neglected 
 making an attempt to harmonize his authorities. 
 
 2 Above p. 279 six hundred Jilites and Dailemites. 
 
 3 In the account of the affair given above, p. 279 the number is ten thousand. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 335 
 
 and a dispute broke out between his Dailemite troops, 
 as Fannakhusrah had a rival among the Dailemites, who 
 opposed him. The home-born 1 troops also were slack, 
 and divided amongst themselves. Hence Muzaffar fled 
 to Fars where his father Yaqut was governor. Some 
 four hundred of his Dailemites deserted to ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, 
 making his numbers up to seven hundred. But he 
 became master of Ispahan with three hundred. 
 
 When the news reached Mardawij, he sent his brother 
 Washmagir immediately in pursuit. When Washmagir 
 approached Ispahan, ‘Ali b. Buwaihi evacuated it, and 
 went to Arrajan, a place of which he had been afraid, 
 owing to its bringing him between Yaqut, who was in 
 Fars, and his son Mohammed who was in Ramhurmuz. 
 Still the latter had been described to him as contemp¬ 
 tible, both his mind and his troops being undisciplined. 
 So he entered Arrajan, and established himself there. 
 He wrote thence to (297) Yaqut, but at the same time 
 collected kharaj from the district to the value of about 
 two million dirhems ; and besides got access to various 
 deposits. He made his arrangements to march to 
 Kirman, where was Makan b. Kaki the Dailemite, whose 
 protection he meant to seek. Yaqut made no reply to 
 his letter, and would not accept his offer of service ; for 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi had written addressing him as Prince 
 and describing himself as his slave, and stating that he 
 wanted one of two things : either to be received into 
 Yaqut's force, or to have Yaqut's permission to proceed 
 to the Sultan's gate. When Yaqut would have none of 
 him, and marched against him with his son Muzaffar, 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi proceeded to Nubandajan, where he 
 supposed the battle would be fought; but he first wrote 
 to Yaqut, asking for amnesty, and deprecating war. 
 Yaqut however was on his guard against him, fearing 
 an assault from him, and indeed he had been told that 
 
 1 Apparently they are opposed to the mercenaries, but the meaning of the 
 phrase is not clear, 
 
336 
 
 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi meant treachery ; his purpose being to 
 get into Fars and then cajole him, Yaqut, out of it. 
 Now during the time of ‘Ali b. Buwaihi’s residence in 
 Kazarun and Balad Sabur, after his departure from 
 Arrajan, he had procured about half a million dinars 
 besides various treasures which he discovered; 
 strengthened by these he had increased his forces, and 
 when he came to Nubandajan he was supported by Abu 
 Talib Zaid b. ‘Ali, who financed him, undertaking a 
 charge of five hundred dinars a day. 1 He remained some 
 time with this person ; and when Yaqut came out 
 against him, he was in great fear of Yaqut, whose force 
 was seventeen thousand men of all classes, Sajis, #ujaris, 
 the Masaffi infantry, 2 etc., some Dailemites, and some of 
 other races ; while ‘Ali b. Buwaihi commanded eight 
 hundred men. He therefore asked Yaqut to leave the 
 roa,d free for his retreat, so that he might pass where he 
 chose to go; but Yaqut refused, and was anxious to 
 engage him, his numbers being so small and the treasure 
 which he had amassed being so great. ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 did not attempt to resist, but retreated to Bai^a ; his 
 progress was stopped by Yaqut who engaged him by 
 the gate of Istakhr in a battle which lasted two days, 
 and went favourably to Yaqut. This increased the 
 ardour of Yaqut, and the fear of ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, who 
 urgently entreated him to leave the road free for his 
 retreat, which Yaqut refused to do. So on Thursday 
 —12 Jumada ii, 322 3 he entered on a death struggle 
 with him. 
 
 I was informed by one of the Dailemites present at 
 the battle that six (298) Dailemites dismounted, placed 
 their shields in line, and advanced to the attack. 
 The followers of Yaqut who were facing them retreated ; 
 
 1 Above, p. 281 the total came to 200,000 ! 
 
 3 These had been destroyed in 318, pp. 202, 203. 
 
 3 Above, p. 282, the battle is said to have commenced on Tuesday—13. 
 According to Wiistenfeld the last day of Jumada ii was a Monday ; —13 would 
 therefore be a Tuesday, coinciding with June 3, 934, 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 337 
 
 the Dailemites uttered their war-cry and advanced, 
 Abu l-#usain Ahmad b. Buwaihi charging with some 
 thirty'men. Yaqut with all his followers took to flight 
 at noon of that day in the direction of Shiraz. ‘Ali b. 
 Buwaihi supposing this to be a feint, not a real rout, 
 remained in his place and did not pursue until the after¬ 
 noon ; but when he ascertained that it was an actual 
 rout, he proceeded towards Shiraz. His first encamp¬ 
 ment was at a village called Zurqan (at a distance of six 
 parasangs from Shiraz), whence he departed on the 
 morning of the Saturday (June 7, 934) and encamped 
 at a village called Dinakan ; he expected that Shiraz 
 would be defended and that he would have to fight for 
 the possession of it, for the army which he had routed 
 had retired intact, as they had neither fought him nor 
 made any resistance. 1 So he encamped at the distance 
 of a parasang from Shiraz, where he learned that Yaqut 
 and ‘Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab had evacuated the citv, 
 leaving it without government. So he despatched a 
 number of Dailemites and other elements of his army 
 to occupy the place and maintain order ; on these the 
 rabble of Shiraz with some of the negro infantry and the 
 slaves of the farmers precipitated themselves, when the 
 Dailemites were scattered about the bazaars, and killed 
 some seventy of them. Hearing of this, ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 sent his brother Abu , l-#usain AAmad, at that time a 
 beardless lad of nineteen, whose hands were as yet un¬ 
 injured, 2 with eighty Dailemite troops, and these put to 
 death about a thousand of the negroes. He then issued 
 a proclamation that no follower of Yaqut or soldier of 
 his army was to remain in the town, and that of any of 
 them found there after the proclamation the life and 
 goods were forfeit. In consequence none of them 
 remained. 
 
 1 This absolutely contradicts the account given above, p. 283. 
 
 1 This is explained later. 
 
338 
 
 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 'Ali b. Buwaihi now entered Shiraz, and enjoyed a 
 series of strokes of wonderful good luck which served to 
 maintain his dominion. Thus once when his followers 
 assembled to demand their money from him, and the 
 amount at his disposal was not sufficient for their 
 demands, so that his position was insecure, he became 
 ( 299 ) exceedingly anxious : lying on his back in the 
 chamber of the palace which Yaqut had formerly occu¬ 
 pied, and where he had gone to meditate in solitude, he 
 noticed a snake issue from a place in the ceiling of the 
 room and enter at another place. Fearing that this 
 snake would drop on him while he was asleep, he ordered 
 the bedmakers to bring a ladder to remove the snake. 
 They did so ; and when they mounted and searched for 
 the creature, they found that the ceiling led to a chamber 
 between two rooves, about which they told him ; he 
 ordered them to open it, and in it there were found boxes 
 containing cash and gems to the value of half a million 
 dinars. He sat down and this wealth was brought to 
 him ; overjoyed, he spent it on his troops, and so his 
 position which had been tottering was rendered stable. 
 
 Abu Ahmad al-Fadl b. 'Abd al-Rahman of Shiraz 
 narrated how 'Ali b. Buwaihi wanted some clothes to be 
 made, and enquired for a skilful tailor ; one who had 
 been YaquFs tailor was recommended, so 'Ali ordered 
 him to be fetched. The man was deaf, and got the idea 
 that 'Ali had been informed about a deposit committed 
 to his care by Yaqut, and that he had been summoned in 
 connexion with it. When 'Ali addressed him, he swore 
 that all he had was a set of twelve chests, of whose 
 contents he was ignorant. 'Ali b. Buwaihi was surprised 
 by this answer, and sent some people with him to fetch 
 them. He found therein a vast amount of cash and 
 wearing apparel. 
 
 At that time 'Ali b. Buwaihi's secretary was a 
 Christian from Rayy named Abu Sa'd Isra’il b, Musa ; 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 339 
 
 he was afterwards put to death by ‘Ali for a reason to 
 which a section shall be devoted. He appointed in his 
 place Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad b. Mohammed of Qumm 
 called #annat “ the embalmer.” 
 
 After obtaining possession of the town ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 negotiated with the view of obtaining it as a fief from 
 the government, and proposed that he should receive 
 investiture from Ra^i; the Caliph agreed to this proposal 
 and expressed himself satisfied with the sum offered by 
 'Ali b. Buwaihi, viz. eight million dirhems net after 
 payment of all charges and expenses current or extra¬ 
 ordinary, He wrote to the vizier Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah, 
 declaring ( 300 ) with the most solemn oaths his loyalty 
 and attachment to the vizier Ibn Muqlah and his son 
 ABu'L-iiusAiN ; he emphasized this in every possible 
 way. In Shawwal of the year 322 (Sept.—Oct. 934) 
 the vizier Ibn Muqlah despatched to him the robes of 
 honour and the standard, with orders to the envoy, Abu 
 ‘Isa Yahya b. Ibrahim Maliki the clerk, not to deliver 
 them till after he had received the money about which 
 they had agreed. When Maliki was nearing the city, 
 he was met by ‘Ali b. Buwaihi at some distance from it, 
 and the latter rode with him to the outskirts of Shiraz. 
 There ‘Ali b. Buwaihi demanded the delivery of the robes 
 and the standard, and the envoy explained what were 
 his instructions, viz. that he was not to surrender them 
 until he had received the sum agreed on. ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 proceeded to threaten and browbeat him till he delivered 
 the robes, which the former then put on ; clad in them 
 and with the standard in front of him he entered Shiraz. 
 Maliki remained for a time demanding the money, no 
 coin of which was paid him ; all he secured was promises, 
 delays and procrastinations ; finally he fell ill and died 
 in Shiraz. His coffin was brought to Baghdad in the 
 year 323. 
 
 Various resources and deposits were tapped by ‘Ali 
 b. Buwaihi, while Abu Sa‘d the Christian was his vizier, 
 
340 
 
 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 The residual revenues of the year were farmed for him 
 by Abu’l-Fadl 'Abbas b. Fasanjas, Ibn Mirdas, Abu 
 Talib Zaid b. 'Ali and other eminent men of the place 
 for four million dirhems ; and he obtained access to the 
 hoards and deposits of 'Amr b. Laith, Ya'qub b. Laith, 
 Yaqut, his son, 'Ali b. Khalaf, and the officers of the 
 Sultan. So the wealth of 'Ali b. Buwaihi increased, and 
 his coffers overflowed ; the soldiers of Makan b. Kaki 
 deserted to him from Kirman, his army grew, and he 
 became a mighty power. An account of him reached 
 Mardawij, who was exceedingly vexed, and proceeded to 
 Ispahan, where was his brother Washmagir, who had 
 been sent back thither by Mardawij when the place had 
 remained without a governor for seventeen days, after 
 Qahir had been deposed and Mohammed b. Yaqut 
 delayed his arrival. 1 ( 301 ) But when Washmagir was 
 settled there, and Mardawij had come there to plan 
 how to deal with 'Ali b. Buwaihi, who was now in 
 rebellion, Mardawij sent his brother back to Rayy to be 
 his deputy there ; and despatched his commander-in¬ 
 chief Shiraj b. Laila with his Chamberalin Shabushti a 
 at the head of 2,400 men, Jilites and Dailemites, with 
 his chief commanders such as Bakran and Isma'il the 
 Jilite, to Ahwaz ; his object being to take possession of 
 it, and thereby bar the road between 'Ali b. Buwaihi and 
 the Sultan : so that if, after seizing Ahwaz he, Mardawij, 
 were to attack 'Ali b. Buwaihi, the latter would have no 
 egress except to the frontiers of Kirman, Tiz, Mukran 
 and the land of Khorasan. 
 
 When the Jilite army reached Idhaj, Yaqut was afraid 
 lest he might find himself between them and 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi; so he went, accompanied by his son, to Ahwaz, 
 where the Sultan made him minister of war and public 
 security. Abu 'Abdallah Baridi received the title of 
 
 1 See above, p. 265. 
 
 2 Ibn Khallikan tr. De Slane ii. 263, supposes that this is a Dailemite word. 
 He adds that this personage died in 326, 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 341 
 
 secretary to Yaqut in addition to the ministries of kharaj 
 and Estates in Ahwaz which he already held. Both he 
 and Yaqut were represented in the capital by Abu 
 Abdallah s brother Abu'1-.Husain. On the first day of 
 Shawwal 322 (Sept. 14, 934) the troops of Mardawij 
 arrived in Ramhurmuz, where they celebrated the Feast 
 of the day, and the name of Mardawij was mentioned in 
 the sermon. They then advanced to Ahwaz. Yaqut 
 encamped by the bridge of Arbaq, 1 which he cut; the 
 water which flows under this bridge has a swift current; 
 and the troops of Mardawij remained opposite Yaqut 
 for forty days, unable to cross. Muzaffarb. Yaqut 2 then 
 marched to Baghdad via Dur al-Rasibi, while 'Ali b. 
 Khalaf b. Tinab went by sea to Basrah, having reached 
 the coast at Mahruban. The army of Mardawij also 
 departed from the Bridge of Arbaq, a party of boatmen 
 having undertaken to get them across, to the Masruqan 
 at 'Askar Mukram, in order that the road between them 
 and Ahwaz might be free from obstacles ; so they turned 
 off in that direction. Baridi and Yaqut now met and 
 held a consultation, and decided to send Yaqut’s re¬ 
 tainer Mu'nis ( 302 ) with four thousand men to 'Askar 
 Mukram to prevent the enemy from crossing the Mas¬ 
 ruqan ; thinking that the enemy after their forty days' 
 delay had gone away out of weariness, and would not 
 remain in 'Askar Mukram more than two or three days. 
 But when the troops of Mardawij got there, they made 
 rafts of wood and shash 3 of bamboo, and on these fifty 
 men crossed ; Mu'nis fled precipitately, and returning 
 to his master, told him the news. He had by this time 
 received reinforcements from Baghdad, including a great 
 number of cavalry ; two days after the cavalry had 
 joined him he quitted the Bridge of Arbaq, and the whole 
 
 1 Probably the river is that which appears in some maps as the Gopal. 
 
 8 The text has Yaqut. But this is contradicted by the sequel: whereas 
 p. 318. Mu-zaffar is found in Baghdad. 
 
 3 Probably some kind of raft. 
 
342 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 army marched to Qaryat al-Ri/j " Wind-village,” and 
 indeed the whole result of their efforts was “ wind.” 
 Yaqut and his followers, who were a large host, proceeded 
 to Badhaward, and thence to Wasit; the western side 
 of which was evacuated by Mohammed b. Ra’iq, 1 so that 
 Yaqut and his army took up their quarters there. 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, learning of the occupation of Ahwaz by 
 Mardawij, with a detailed account of the events, 
 humiliated himself before the secretary of Mardawij 
 and conciliated him; he had the name of Mardawij 
 mentioned in public prayer, agreed to pay him a sum of 
 money, and send him a hostage. Mardawij acquiesced, 
 and ‘Ali b. Buwaihi made Ibrahim b. Kasak 2 governor 
 of Arrajan after it had been evacuated by Mohammed 
 b. Yaqut and ‘Ali b. Khalaf. 
 
 Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi remained secretary to Yaqut ; 
 being in Basrah in the Orchard of Muamma, and about to 
 start for Wasit in his barge, he learned of the murder of 
 Mardawij in his bath at Ispahan. He immediately 
 despatched Abu ‘Abdallah b. Jinni Jarjara'i to 
 Ahwaz to represent him there, with orders to make for 
 the outskirts of the town, or rather to halt at the distance 
 of one parasang from it, and only to enter when he had 
 ascertained that the Dailemites and Jilites had evacuated 
 it; when you enter, he added, let the cavalry and 
 infantry remain in their places, for I am about to send 
 from Wasit Abu'l-Fath Ibn Abi Tahir and Abu 
 Ahmad Justani with a thousand men to keep order 
 there and in the districts of Ahwaz. Presently there 
 arrived Abu ‘Ali, retainer of Baridi’s secretary Judhab, 
 by water, and Ibn Abi Tahir established himself in 
 Ahwaz, while Abu AAmad Justani established hims elf 
 at ‘Askar Mukram. When Ahwaz had been evacuated, 
 Ibrahim b. Kasak, anxious to seize it, advanced from 
 Arrajan to Ramhurmuz; but ‘Ali b. Buwaihi ( 303 ) 
 
 1 See above, p. 287. 
 
 2 See above, p. 279. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 343 
 
 wrote ordering him to halt and not to advance further 
 until he, 'Ali, had reinforced him. Before however this 
 army arrived, Yaqut had proceeded to 'Askar Mukram 
 through Sus ; and when Ibrahim b. Kasak heard of his 
 arrival, he evacuated 'Askar Mukram and returned to 
 Arrajan. 
 
 In Yaqut's army there were companies of Dailemites, 
 Turks and Khorasanites, who would, he supposed, be 
 steadfast, and on whom he relied for victory ; at 'Askar 
 Mukram he was joined by Abu 'Abdallah Baridi, who 
 distributed to Yaqut and his troops 300,000 dinars 
 through the paymasters Ibn Balwa and Ibn Suraij. 
 Yaqut led his forces towards Arrajan, but was met by 
 'Ali b. Buwaihi, who inflicted on him a second defeat 
 after which he never prospered, and from which he never 
 recovered ; his crowds of Persians and Dailemites were 
 of no avail; and we must not wonder at the work of 
 God ! He was pursued by 'Ali b. Buwaihi to Ramhur- 
 muz, and it was feared that 'Ali might seize Ahwaz. 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi sent to negotiate peace, to which 
 'Ali b. Buwaihi agreed ; and he sent a copy of the terms 
 to the vizier Ibn Muqlah, who showed them to Radi, 
 who passed them. 'Ali b. Buwaihi then returned to 
 Shiraz, and the government of Fars was assigned him 
 as has been recorded ; Abu 'Isa Maliki was despatched 
 to him with the standard and the deed of investiture, 
 with the results which have been stated. 
 
 Abu'l-flasan 'Ali b. Buwaihi put to death his secre¬ 
 tary Abu Sa'd Israel in this year. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason for this was the following. Abu Sa'd 
 was in high favour with 'Ali b. Buwaihi, who considered 
 him a lucky man, and highly honoured him ; he com¬ 
 manded the army, and had Turkish retainers of his own, 
 and wore the qaha , the sword and the belt. He had on 
 
344 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 occasion fought against and defeated Yaqut. Now 
 Abu l-‘Abbas //anna t of Qumm was constantly endeav¬ 
 ouring to prejudice the mind of his master against Abu 
 Sa'd, but without success, for his master forbade him 
 to mention Abu Sa'd’s name ; Abu’l-‘Abbas however 
 persisted, and one day when he had made a strenuous 
 attempt to rouse ‘Ali b. Buwaihi against Abu Sa'd, his 
 master said to him : My friend, this man was my ad¬ 
 herent when I was of humble station, and now that I 
 have reached the position which (304) you see, I cannot tell 
 whether it is my luck or his which has brought me there. 
 His position is not to be shaken, so beware how you 
 approach me again on this subject.—This prohibition 
 was however unavailing, and Abu’l-'Abbas did not cease 
 attacking and abusing him. 
 
 Now between this Abu Sa'd and a chamberlain of 
 ‘Ali b. Buwaihi named Khutlukh, who was both cham¬ 
 berlain and commander-in-chief, there was enmity. 
 It happened that Abu Sa'd gave a great banquet, to 
 which he invited ‘Ali b. Buwaihi and the commanders, 
 spending a great deal of money upon the robes of honour 
 and the .gifts. He invited Khutlukh, but he did not 
 accept; Abu Sa'd tried hard to get him to come, but it 
 was useless. The day after the banquet Abu Sa'd rose 
 and worked at his business, and then invited some people 
 to keep him company. Khutlukh woke up that day in a 
 state of indignation, with the idea that he must ride 
 over to Abu Sa'd and put him to death ; for in a dream 
 he had seen Abu Sa'd .intending to kill him. Khutlukh’s 
 staff urged him to delay his project, but he declined, 
 took a dagger in his boot, and mounted. Abu Sa'd 
 was told that Khutlukh was on his way to him, at which 
 Abu Sa'd took alarm, because Khutlukh had declined 
 the invitation to come, and Abu Sa'd knew of no reason 
 why he should want to come without invitation; so he pre¬ 
 pared to resist, and told his retainers to have their battle- 
 axes ready, and to be in concealment in the surrounding 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 345 
 
 apartments ; if he noticed anything suspicious in the 
 conduct of Khutlukh, he would call out, and they were 
 to lay hands upon him. Khutlukh appeared, and was 
 met by Abu Sa‘d ; he entered, sat down, and began to 
 complain and to brawl, and presently stuck his hand in 
 his boot and produced the dagger. Abu Sa'd shouted 
 to his retainers, and they came out armed with battle- 
 axes and bludgeons ; they attacked Khutlukh, and a 
 bludgeon falling on his head stunned him, and he fell. It 
 was supposed that he was dead ; he was carried to his 
 house, where he lived two days, after which he died. 
 Abu’l-‘Abbas #anna£ immediately hurried to the Prince 
 (‘Ali b. Buwaihi), and finding that he was asleep, 
 bade his retainers wake him ; they did not venture to 
 do so, so he himself shouted and cried till he had roused 
 ‘Ali, into whose presence he then entered to tell him 
 that Abu Sa‘d had murdered his Chamberlain Khut¬ 
 lukh. ‘Ali did not believe this, and scolded him, to 
 which his reply was : Send and see.—Confirmation of 
 the story then reached him, and it shocked him ; for a 
 time he was bewildered. Abu Sa‘d then presented 
 himself, and ‘Ali b. Buwaihi (305) did not show that he 
 disapproved, or felt aggrieved, but merely asked Abu 
 Sa‘d the reason for his action. Abu Sa‘d explained the 
 situation, and called upon those who were present to 
 attest what he said; and ‘Ali b. Buwaihi declared 
 himself satisfied. Abu Sa‘d however was in fear, and 
 Abul-‘Abbas tfanna* found his opportunity, and started 
 a rumour that Abu Sa‘d was obtaining promises of allegi¬ 
 ance from the army commanders, and meant without 
 doubt to rebel.—The prince now sent to Abu Sa d, 
 endeavouring to allay his apprehensions, and swearing 
 solemn oaths that he placed confidence in Abu Sa d, 
 and that no mischief should ever befall Abu Sa‘d from 
 him.—It so happened that Abu Sa d had his chests 
 brought out of the rooms of his house into the court, 
 with the intention of concealing them somewhere as a 
 
346 
 
 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 resource in case of emergency ; and he held a private 
 consultation with Musa Fayadhah. Ha.nna.t went off 
 to 'Ali b. Buwaihi and informed him that Abu Sa'd had 
 been swearing-in the prince's officers, and last of all 
 Musa Fayadhah ; he has, he added, brought out his 
 chests, and is going to start his rebellion at once.—The 
 Prince sent some one to find out the facts, and this 
 messenger, seeing the chests and Musa Fayadhah coming 
 out from the interview, reported accordingly ; ‘Ali b. 
 Buwaihi had no longer any doubt of the truth of 
 Ha.nna.fs statements, arrested Abu Sa'd, seizing all his 
 goods of every description, and put him in confinement. 
 He remained in confinement until the arrival of a certain 
 Turkish captain from one of the districts of Fars, whom 
 Ha.nna.t suborned to appear at the palace with his fifty 
 followers with their garments rent and their faces 
 blackened, lamenting the treatment of Khutlukh by 
 Abu Sa'd, and threatening vengeance if he were not 
 executed. The captain carried out his instructions, 
 and presented himself before the prince when the latter 
 was drinking ; and the prince gave the order for Abu 
 Sa'd's execution. When he was sober and it was too 
 late, he repented. The prince made Abu'l-'Abbas his 
 secretary after this, and he remained with the prince 
 till the latter's death. 
 
 We now return to the events of the capital. When 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut reached Baghdad, and obtained 
 the offices of Chamberlain 1 and commander-in-chief, 
 he began to meddle with the management of the kharuj 
 and the Estates, and attended to the business to which the 
 vizier normally attended. He demanded that the heads 
 of the bureaux should come to his office, and that they 
 should accept no deed of appointment, dismissal, or any¬ 
 thing else, save (306) after it had received his signature. 
 Ibn Muqlah put up with this as best he could, and 
 
 1 A letter of congratulation to him on this occasion is preserved by Qal- 
 qashandi ix. 14. Its author is Husain b. Sa‘d. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 347 
 
 exercised sufficient self-restraint to go personally 
 to Mohammed b. Yaqut, who visited him once for 
 the vizier's twice. Ibn Muqlah was like an official 
 in retirement, who had nothing to do but remain at 
 home, where he was visited by Abu Ishaq Qarariti, 
 secretary to Ibn Yaqut, who informed him of what was 
 going on and what he was to do. 
 
 And in this year Harun b. Gharib, mother's 
 brother to Muqtadir, was killed. 
 
 Account of the cause of his death. 
 
 The reason for it was the following. When Harun 
 b. Gharib learned of Radi's accession to the Caliphate, 
 he was residing in Dinawar, which is the chief town of 
 the district Mah al-Kufah, he being minister of public 
 security, kharaj and Estates for Mah al-Kufah, Masa- 
 badhan, Mihirjanqadhaq, and idulwan. 1 These were 
 the only regions out of the Eastern provinces which re¬ 
 mained in the hands of the Sultan after the conquests 
 of Mardawij. Harun b. Gharib supposed himself to 
 have a better right to be ruler than any one else ; so he 
 wrote to all the commanders in the capital promising 
 that if he came to the capital and were made commander- 
 in-chief and administrator-general, he would remit to 
 them their pay intact, and keep none of it back. He 
 started for Baghdad and reached Khaniqin ; this gave 
 great offence to Ibn Muqlah, Mohammed b. Yaqut, the 
 Saji, idujari, and Mu'nisi troops ; these all made repre¬ 
 sentations to Radi, who replied : I dislike the man ; 
 prevent him from entering Baghdad, fighting him, (307) 
 if he make it necessary. 
 
 On Saturday 2 7 Jumada i, 322 (April 24, 934) Abu 
 Bakr Ibn Yaqut summoned Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad, 
 and introduced him to Radi, who made him the bearer 
 of a message to Harun b. Gharib, bidding him return 
 
 1 See above, p. 254. 
 a A Sunday according to Wiistenfeld. 
 
348 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 to Dinawar; he sent with him a letter also. Ibn 
 Shirzad started at once, and found that Harun had 
 advanced to the bridge of Nahrawan. He repeated the 
 message and delivered the letter. Harun replied that 
 the revenue of his province was not sufficient for the 
 troops who had now joined him.—Ibn Shirzad took this 
 message and delivered it to Ra^i in the presence of the 
 vizier Ibn Muqlah and the Chamberlain Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut. They offered to give him the administration 
 of the whole Khorasan Road, and to let its revenue be 
 devoted to his needs in addition to what he already 
 received. Ra<ii said : His best plan would be to reduce 
 the (308) numbers of his troops.—Ibn Shirzad, accom¬ 
 panied by Abu IsAaq Qarari/i returned with this reply. 
 When they had delivered their message, he refused, 
 declaring that this addition would not satisfy the troops. 
 Then he said : And who made the son of Yaqut worthier 
 of the offices of Chamberlain and Commander-in-chief 
 than me ? People know that at the end of Muqtadir’s 
 time he used to sit in front of me and obey my orders. 
 Who made him to be nearer the Caliph than me, who am 
 a relative and kinsman of the Commander of the Faith¬ 
 ful, whereas Ibn Yaqut is the son of one of his slaves ?— 
 Qararid observed : If you were to do your duty as a 
 kinsman, you would not be in rebellion against him.— 
 He replied : Were you not an envoy, I should have had 
 you assaulted. Be off !—Harun then started collecting 
 money, and collected the revenue of the Khorasan Road, 
 arresting the Sultan's officers ; he collected the money 
 with great violence and cruelty, though the time was 
 near the commencement of the financial year. 
 
 As his acts became more and more arbitrary, Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Yaqut started at the head of the troops 
 which were in the capital, and encamped at Nahrabin; 
 as a final effort he sent Ibn Shirzad once more with a 
 civil message, promising to make an agreement with 
 him about the number of men whom he should retain, and 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 349 
 
 that he would consider their requirements as shown by 
 the rolls for a kharaj year, and if the revenue of his pro¬ 
 vinces was sufficient for his pay and theirs, he should 
 return to Dinawar ; but if it were insufficient, then 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut would order the deficit to be made 
 good from the districts of the Nahrawans.—Ibn Shir- 
 zad started on the Monday with this message ; there 
 had already been an attack made by the vanguard of 
 Harun b. Gharib on the vanguard of Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut, wherein the followers of Harun had had the best 
 of it; and deserters began to flock from the army of 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut to Harun b. Gharib. Ibn Shirzad 
 perceived that Harun suspected him of partiality towards 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut and Ibn Muqlah. Seeing this he 
 asked leave to go back with a reply. Harun said : I 
 am afraid that he will put you in confinement, and only 
 one night separates us from the battle which will settle 
 our difference. 
 
 (309) On Tuesday—6 Jumada ii (June 10, 934) the 
 armies met, the followers of Harun commencing the 
 engagement. It was hotly contested, and the Harunites 
 were victorious, being in number many times the 
 followers of Ibn Yaqut, most of whom took to flight, 
 together with a company of the #ujari retainers. The 
 Harunites plundered most of Ibn Yaqut’s baggage, 
 knocked his followers off their horses, wounded many 
 and killed several. Mohammed b. Yaqut then rode 
 off without stopping till he had crossed the bridge of 
 Nahrabin. The battle however continued to rage until 
 midday, when Harun b. Gharib galloped off by himself 
 along the bank of Nahrabin, making for the bridge as he 
 had learned that Mohammed b. Yaqut had crossed it. 
 He hoped either to kill or take him prisoner. His horse 
 however threw him into a watercourse, where he was 
 overtaken by his own slave Yumn, who wounded him in 
 many places with his battle-axe, and then drew his sword 
 to cut his throat. Harun said to him : Wicked slave, 
 
350 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 do you mean to do this, yourself act as my executioner ? 
 What offence have I committed against you ?—The 
 slave said: Yes, I am going to do it.—He proceeded to 
 sever the head, which he raised aloft, crying Allah akbar ! 
 The followers of Harun then disbanded, and some of 
 them entered Baghdad by different routes ; his baggage 
 and theirs were plundered, and some of the Harunites 
 were captured. Mohammed b. Yaqut went to the 
 place where Harun's trunk lay, ordered it to be carried 
 to his tent, and then to be wrapped and buried. He 
 also sent people to guard Harun’s house from being 
 plundered. He then entered Baghdad preceded by the 
 heads of Harun and some of his officers, which Ra^i 
 ordered to be stuck on the Public Gate. Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut received a robe of honour, a collar and a bracelet. 
 
 Year 323. 
 
 In this year Raii made his two sons Abu Ja'far and 
 Abu’l-Fadl respectively governors of the East and the 
 West, (310) and appointed to their secretaryship Abu'l- 
 #usain Ali, son of Ibn Muqlah. He bestowed a robe 
 of honour for this office on Abud-Z/usain on Monday 
 5 Muharram (Dec. 15, 934) ; Abul-ZZusain appointed 
 as his deputy-secretary Abu'l-#asan Sa'id b. ‘Amr b. 
 Sanjala. Letters were sent out announcing this. 
 
 This year intelligence reached Baghdad that Mar- 
 dawij b. Ziyar the Jilite had been put to death by his 
 slaves in his bath in Ispahan. Mohammed b. Yaqut 
 boasted that he had plotted this. He had, he asserted, 
 been in correspondence with a slave of his who had 
 deserted to Mardawij, and sent him more than ten letters 
 by despatch-riders, whose names he gave, in such a way 
 that no-one knew of their delivery ; and he exhibited 
 letters on the subject written to him by the slave. He 
 also composed accounts of the matter in detail, some of 
 which were read out in the public mosque, and likewise 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 351 
 
 wrote to the provincial governors, informing them that 
 he had planned the affair. This was all a fiction, for we 
 have heard an account of the situation which from 
 beginning to end makes it certain that no human being 
 designed it. 
 
 Account of the reason for the assassination of Mardawij. 
 
 Says the TJstadh Abu ‘Ali A#mad b. Mohammed 
 Miskawaihi, whose fortune God continue : I was in¬ 
 formed by the truly chief Ustadh Abu’l-Fadl Ibn al- 
 'Amid, on whom God have mercy, as follows. When 
 the night of the Bonfire called Sadhaq 1 was approaching, 
 Mardawij had a long time before ordered wood to be 
 gathered from mountains and distant regions and to be 
 brought for him into the valley called Zarin Rudh 2 and 
 the neighbouring marshes and woods. Wood then was 
 collected from every quarter ; then he ordered naphtha 
 with those who manipulated it and fire-squirts with 
 persons skilled in managing them and playing with them 
 to be collected, and he ordered besides a supply of tall 
 candles such as are placed in holders. There was not a (311) 
 hill overlooking Jizin of Ispahan nor any rising ground 
 but had arranged upon it firewood and brambles ; there 
 were erected too, but at a distance from his seat so that 
 the flame could occasion him no annoyance, great towers 
 of tree trunks, fastened together with iron bolts, and 
 filled with brambles and bamboos ; crows and kites 
 were caught and nuts stuffed with fluff and naphtha 
 suspended from their beaks and claws. In his private 
 room there were set up waxen images and vast pillars 
 of the same material, whose like had never been seen, 
 that there might be a simultaneous blaze upon the hills 
 and upon the heights, in the plain, in the room and upon 
 the birds which were to be let loose. Then a vast ban¬ 
 quet was spread in the fields whereon his house opened, 
 
 1 Tenth day of Bahman, about January. See Sachau’s Al-Beruni, p. 213 E.T. 
 The celebration of this feast is vehemently condemned by Hamadhani, 
 Letters, Beyru, 1890, p. 279. 
 
 2 Name of the river of Ispahan, 
 
352 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate ot Radi. 
 
 and there were massed thousands of sheep, oxen, and 
 other animals, and there were unparalleled preparations 
 and decorations. When everything had been finished, 
 and his tents had been pitched near the banqueting- 
 place, and the time had arrived when he should have 
 taken his seat with the others, first to eat, and then to 
 drink, he came forth from his quarters and went round 
 the banqueting-place, and the installations which have 
 been described for the bonfires. He was dissatisfied 
 with them all, and regarded them as inadequate, the 
 reason lying (according to Abu’l-Fa^l) in the vastness 
 of the plain ; for when the eye has roamed over a wide 
 expanse, and then turns therefrom to these artificial 
 objects, they seem small to it, however vast they may 
 be. He was annoyed, and was so overcome by pride and 
 arrogance that he would not utter a single word, retired 
 to a pavilion in a vast tent, lay down, and turned his 
 face so that his back was towards the door ; wrapping 
 himself in his clothes, so that no-one might speak to him. 
 The princes, magnates, commanders and all the army as 
 well as the spectators assembled, but no-one ventured 
 to address him or to disturb him ; and he delayed coming 
 out to the people till the time was passed. The people 
 began to disseminate rumours, and to talk in whispers 
 and in secret, and there was danger of a riot. Al-‘Amid 
 then walked round the pavilion muttering something 
 that required an answer, but Mardawij would not utter 
 a word ; the former then coaxed and cajoled till he 
 compelled him to sit up, when he went in and said to him: 
 (312) Prince, what is the meaning of this indolence when 
 you should be alert, when your followers are present, 
 your friends are rejoicing, and your enemies are in dis¬ 
 tress ?—He said : Abu 'Abdallah, and how can I be 
 alert, when I am so humiliated, and disappointed ! By 
 heaven, I have incurred a slur which nothing can ever 
 wipe out !—Al-'Amid said : For a time I felt bewildered, 
 then I said : And what, Prince, is the slur ?—He said ; 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 353 
 
 Can't you see the meagreness of what I ordered to be 
 copious, how scanty and wretched it all is, the food, the 
 banquet, all the arrangements for the fires and the 
 things connected therewith ?—I said : I assure you, 
 Prince, the things here are on a scale which has never 
 been heard of, not to speak of ever having been seen. 
 Rise, come to the entertainment room and look again.— 
 He declined obstinately, till I said : Your enemies are 
 spreading certain rumours, so for God's sake mount your 
 horse and go once round, that those rumours may stop. 
 After that do what you like, for I shall invent some 
 excuse.—What I told him of the rumours only added 
 to his vexation and annoyance, but he got up, mounted 
 his horse against his will and with an injured air, and 
 went the round once, just sufficiently to be seen by the 
 people, after which he returned to his place and adhered 
 to his former attitude. An embarrassed attempt was 
 made to assemble the guests, most of whom refused to 
 come, while those who had presented themselves went 
 away again, saying : We are not sure that the Prince 
 wants our society. 
 
 For three nights he remained in his camp neither 
 seeing any one nor being seen ; only he let it be known 
 that he meant to go to the castle of Abu ‘ Ali Ibn Rustam. 
 On the third day he ordered the horses to be saddled, 
 that he might return from Jizin to his palace in the city, 
 which had belonged to Abu ‘Ali Ibn Rustam. One of 
 its gates opened on the country and the other into 
 the city. The retainers saddled their horses and assem¬ 
 bled at the gate in the afternoon. Mardawij dozed and 
 slept, so that he was late ; the afternoon prayer came 
 on, and it happened that the retainers' horses began to 
 neigh with a loud noise, to which was added that of those 
 who were rebuking them ; it was not possible to separate 
 them, owing to their being crowded in the gateway, 
 and most of them being held by slaves of the retainers 
 who were awaiting the prince, (313) and would not mount 
 
354 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 till he had done so. Mardawij awoke in alarm—his 
 mind being full of the notion that rumours had been 
 circulated against him—and asked those near him the 
 cause of the uproar. As they did not know the situation, 
 he got up, and looked out on the horses and the 
 mercenaries ; they were all of them shouting in the 
 endeavour to restrain their horses, which had fallen upon 
 each other and were uttering terrible noises. He was 
 frightened for a little while ; presently, learning the 
 facts of the case, he was quieted, and then asked who 
 the men with the horses were. He was told that they 
 were the Turkish retainers. He then ordered the saddles 
 to be removed from the backs of the horses and placed 
 on the backs of the retainers with all their trappings, 
 and that the reins of the horses should be given to them, 
 to lead them into the stables themselves. This was 
 done ; it was an ugly sight, and an ominous one. He 
 then mounted with his staff, and kept uttering threats 
 against the retainers till he reached his residence near 
 the time of the second evening prayer. He had been 
 wetted by a shower of rain, and when he entered his 
 house he found it empty, no-one being there except the 
 inferior slaves and a negro eunuch who was their chief. 
 He then went into the bath-room to change his clothes. 
 Now before this he had dealt violently with certain 
 superior Turkish retainers, who resented this treatment, 
 but had been unable to find supporters ; now, when 
 he had dealt with the whole company in the way that 
 has been described, they seized the opportunity, saying 
 to each other : What is the use of our putting up with 
 this demon ?—So they agreed to assault him. When 
 he entered the bath, they asked the slave who attended 
 him there not to take his weapons (314) with him—it being 
 his custom to bring with him into the bathroom a dagger 
 wrapped in a napkin.—The slave replied that he could 
 not venture to present himself before Mardawij without 
 the dagger.—They agreed then to break the blade and 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 355 
 
 leave the handle in the sheath, in order that Mardawij’s 
 suspicion might not be aroused, and that the slave should 
 deposit this as usual in a corner of the bathroom.—A 
 number of them then rushed in upon Mardawij, whilst 
 the black eunuch was seated on a chair at the door 
 of the bathroom ; when he saw them, he sprang at their 
 faces, and struck at one of them with his sword. The 
 man warded off the blow with his hand, and the sword 
 slid from Mardawij’s arm and dropped. More men 
 tried to rush in, and cries were raised. Mardawij saw 
 that mischief was meant, and hurriedly barricaded the 
 door from within with a chair, on which he was in the 
 habit of sitting, after looking for the dagger and failing 
 to find it. The slaves pushed at the door, but were 
 unable to open it, so a part of them climbed up the dome 
 of the bathroom, broke the glass and shot arrows at 
 him. He went into the hot chamber, and tried to coax 
 them, making them fair promises ; for a while they 
 seemed to feel afraid of him, then they recognized that 
 the point which they had reached was one after which 
 compromise was impossible. So some of them charged 
 the part of the door behind which was the chair till they 
 smashed it, and got inside, when one of them cut open 
 the belly of Mardawij with his knife; Mardawij struck at 
 the face of one with a silver hand-basin and inflicted an 
 ugly wound. They then went out of the room thinking 
 that they had finished him. Their comrades who had 
 remained outside said to them : What have you done ? 
 They replied that they had ripped open his belly. Then 
 one said: You had better go back and cut off his head. 
 The reason for this was that during these days one of the 
 bedmakers had happened to have had his belly cut open 
 in an operation, after which it had been stitched up, 
 treated and healed. They were afraid of the same thing 
 happening in the case of Mardawij, and therefore they 
 
 beheaded him, 
 
356 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 It is asserted that when they went back they found 
 that he had replaced his entrails and was holding his 
 belly with his left hand, and that he fought with his 
 hand-basin until he was finished off. When they had 
 flung his head into the living room, they rushed off to the 
 stables, saddled the horses and mules, and carried off 
 from the treasury such money and weapons ( 315 ) as they 
 could, after which they rode away. 
 
 While this was going on, some members of the house¬ 
 hold succeeded in climbing the walls and going into the 
 city under cover of night, and informing the officers 
 and troops of what had happened. They were scattered 
 about and drunk, but some of them collected, kindled 
 fires, blew trumpets, saddled horses, took up their arms 
 and rode into the country with the view of coming back 
 to the gate whence the palace could be entered. By 
 the time they accomplished this the retainers had made 
 their escape. They only found some poor little innocent 
 lads, of whom they put some to death ; then they de¬ 
 sisted. The wiser among the ministers were afraid 
 the stores might be plundered ; al-'Amid suggested that 
 they should be burned, and the building demolished and 
 piled upon them. The treasure and most of the stores 
 were saved, because by the time when the plunderers 
 arrived smoke and flame were raging in the place, so they 
 could not get at anything. 
 
 Rukn al-Daulah 1 Abu ‘Ali Hasan b. Buwaihi 
 was a hostage with Mardawij for his brother Tmad al- 
 Daulah 1 'Ali b. Buwaihi ; when he perceived the situa¬ 
 tion, he coaxed his guards, offering them various assur¬ 
 ances, so that they helped him to escape the night 
 following the murder of Mardawij. 
 
 A lucky accident which befell him on his flight. 
 
 When he had gone out into the country in his fetters, 
 and had seated himself with the view of breaking them, 
 
 1 These names were given some years later, 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 357 
 
 some mules came by carrying straw, and ridden by his 
 own followers. He bade them dismount, and himself 
 with his companions mounted the mules, which they rode 
 at their best speed till they were safely beyond pursuit. 
 
 The Turks now divided into two parties. One 
 marched in the direction of Fars, seeking the protection 
 of 'Ali b. Buwaihi, having among them that Khajkhaj 
 who was afterwards blinded by Tuzun, when the latter 
 became master of 'Iraq. The other, and the more 
 numerous, traversed the Jabal. In this was Bachkam, 
 who became master of 'Iraq and was invested with the 
 office of Prince of princes in the days of Ra^i. We shall 
 give such an account of his career as suits this work. 
 
 (316) With regard to the fortunes of Mardawij's 
 followers. Abu Makhlad, who was a minister of 
 Mardawij, used to relate how the coffin of Mardawij 
 was conveyed to Rayy ; I never, he said, saw a more 
 wonderful day than that whereon his coffin was brought 
 into Rayy. All the Jilites and the Dailemites walked 
 with it barefoot four parasangs. With them walked 
 Washmagir, brother of the deceased. Old as was their 
 father he had walked with them the whole way from 
 Ispahan to Rayy; people had no doubt that they 
 would seek the protection of 'Ali b. Buwaihi, but this 
 fancy was soon disproved. He added : I never saw an 
 army which proved so loyal to its dead commander, 
 and that without payment of a dirhem or a dinar. Just 
 as they were, they put themselves at the disposal of his 
 brother Washmagir. Shiraj who was in Ahwaz by 
 Mardawij’s orders, learning that Ispahan was undefended, 
 departed at once to 'Askar Mukram, without publishing 
 the news. He told it secretly to Harjam the Jilite, 
 who was in the latter place, and taking him with him 
 proceeded to Tustar, where there was an eminent Jilite ; 
 informing this person of the news, he took him with him 
 and made for Junddisabur. There was Isma'il the Jilite ; 
 each of these persons was the equal in rank of Shiraj, 
 
358 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 so he told each one of them the news, and they all moved 
 with him. The whole party then proceeded to Sus, 
 where were 'Abdallah b. Wahban Qasbani of Basrah, 
 Mardawij's governor of the Districts of Ahwaz, and the 
 Chamberlain Shabushti, who was a counsellor of Mar- 
 dawij. According to Abu Makhlad they had been 
 assigned their posts by Mardawij with the idea that 
 Shiraj should advance to Wasit and thence to Baghdad. 
 Mardawij had been waiting for the winter of the year 
 323 1 to end in order to attack Arrajan first, after which 
 he meant to engage ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, and when he had 
 finished with him, to turn off to Ahwaz, and thence to 
 Sus. He meant to despatch the bulk of his army to 
 Shiraj, who was to precede him at Wasit. His fancy 
 was to take possession of Baghdad, set a crown upon 
 his own head, and restore the Persian empire ! He 
 was murdered before he could achieve this scheme. 
 (317) So his whole army, as has been mentioned, marched 
 with Shiraj, Shabushti and Ibn Wahban from Sus to 
 Rayy via Shaburkhwast and Karaj, to offer their services 
 to his brother Washmagir. They met with no resistance 
 nor did any one venture to attack or harass them. 
 When they reached Rayy, they swore allegiance to 
 him. Washmagir made Ibn Wahban his vizier, and 
 thanked him for his skilful management of his brother's 
 affairs in Ahwaz. 
 
 When Mardawij made him governor of Ahwaz, he 
 assigned him a stipend of two thousand dinars a month, 
 and said to him : If you prove loyal and trustworthy, 
 I shall make you vizier in the capital, and shall set up the 
 standards before you up to the gate of Nisibin. But if 
 you prove unfaithful and greedy, since your chest is so 
 broad and your paunch so vast, and sweets so plentiful 
 in Ahwaz, I shall rip up that paunch with this dagger; 
 see how long and how sharp it is !—Ibn Wahban replied : 
 You shall know, Prince, how loyal and faithful I am, 
 
 1 Began Dec. 11, 934. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 359 
 
 and that I am deserving of your favour.—This person 
 was originally of Basrah, and his father a butcher ; in 
 the time of Harun b. Gharib he had been made governor 
 of Hamadhan ; when Harun had been defeated in battle 
 by Mardawij, and was marching on the capital with the 
 design of seizing the headship from Mohammed b. 
 Yaqut, with the results which we have seen, Mardawij 
 got possession of Hamadhan, and Ibn Wahban came 
 into his power. Mardawij pardoned him, gave him em¬ 
 ployment and was satisfied with him. Letters came to 
 him from Mardawij bidding him get the I wan of Kisra 1 
 ready for his habitation should he arrive at the capital 
 before him ; he was to put it in repair, and restore it 
 as it looked before Islam. He himself meant to stay 
 in Wasit till the work was finished ; and he regarded him 
 with Shiraj and the others who were with them as 
 the match of those who were in the capital, Ibn Yaqut, 
 the flujaris, the Sajis, and the other forces. There was 
 no occasion for him to meet them himself. He had had 
 fabricated a great crown studded with gems, and Abu 
 Makhlad recorded how (318) a few days before the 
 catastrophe he had seen him sitting on a golden throne, 
 on which he had placed a vast cushion, whereon he sat 
 by himself ; below him there was a throne of silver with 
 a carpet spread over it, and below that some large gilt 
 chairs, with other arrangements whose purpose was to 
 assign the officials their proper orders in the seating. 
 The unofficial crowd were all standing at a distance from 
 him, gazing and only speaking in whispers ; such was 
 their awe and admiration of his greatness. 
 
 This year a dispute arose between the followers of 
 Yaqut and those of Mohammed b. Ra'iq, 2 leading to a 
 flight wherein a number of persons were killed. 
 
 1 Ruined palace at Mada’in, i-e., Ktesiphon, built by some Sassanian king. 
 
 Descriptions of it by Arabic writers are common, e.g., in the Ode of BuMuri, i. 
 
 108. 
 
 * See above, p. 302. 
 
360 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 And in this year Yaqut’s sons, Mozaffar and Mo¬ 
 hammed, were arrested through a plot of Ibn Muqlah. 
 
 Account of the reason of this. 
 
 The reason was the following. Ibn Muqlah was 
 alarmed by Mohammed b. Yaqut’s monopolizing the 
 administration, and attending to the collection of the 
 revenue, so that the heads of the bureaux went to his 
 office, and while Mohammed b. Yaqut had sole control 
 of the business which was properly the vizier’s, he, Ibn 
 Muqlah, was unemployed. So Ibn Muqlah plotted to 
 get rid of Mohammed and successfully. On Monday, 6 
 Jumada i (April 13, 935) the officers of the army rode, 
 according to their wont on days of state ceremonies, to 
 the Palace, and the vizier Ibn Muqlah presented himself. 
 Ra^i pretended that it was his intention to appoint a 
 number of officers to administrative posts in various parts 
 of the empire; and to bestow robes of honour upon them. 
 Mohammed b. Yaqut with his secretary Abu IsAaq Qararid 
 presented himself as minister, and they sat as usual in the 
 Ninetieth Court. Then the servants came out to Mo¬ 
 hammed b. Yaqut and informed him that the Caliph 
 required him. He rose hastily, but when he entered 
 the presence, he was taken off to a chamber that had 
 been prepared for him, where his sword and belt were 
 removed, and he was put under guard. Then the 
 servants went out to Abu IsAaq Qararid, and informed 
 him that his chief wanted him ; when he entered, he 
 too was taken off to another chamber and imprisoned. 
 A party was sent to the house of Mnzaffar b. Yaqut, 
 and arrested him ; he was brought to the Palace and 
 imprisoned with his brother .* when found he was nearly 
 drunk, he being a toper. Thus the plot of Ibn Muqlah 
 (319) succeeded ; and he ordered the Hujari and Saji 
 retainers to come to the Palace and pitch their tents by 
 the Private and the Public Gates in order to guard the 
 building. MufM the negro was ordered to go to the 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 361 
 
 residence of Mohammed b. Yaqut, 1 .... and a robe 
 of honour was bestowed upon him. Qararid was put 
 into the power of the vizier Ibn Muqlah, who obtained 
 his bond for 500,000 dinars, but this was afterwards 
 settled for three million dirhems. 
 
 Yaqut descended from Wasit to Sus, and wrote a 
 letter to Radi about his sons, imploring his mercy and 
 endeavouring to mollify him ; he begged the Caliph 
 to be kind to them and renew his favour, both to them 
 and to himself in reference to them ; he further requested 
 that they might come to him to help him in his work 
 and especially to aid him in his wars. 
 
 When Mohammed b. Yaqut had been set aside and 
 Ibn Muqlah was sole administrator, the latter appointed 
 his son Abu'l-idusain his deputy over all the bureaux 
 and provinces ; the correspondence of the heads of the 
 bureaux was thenceforth with him, and their reports 
 were despatched to him ; he began to appoint and 
 cashier officials, and to cancel contracts and ratify them. 
 Abu 'Abdallah Ahmad b. ‘Ali Kufi came to him 
 placing himself at Abu’l-Husain’s disposal; he was 
 appointed his secretary, having previously been in the 
 employ (320) of Abu IsAaq Qararid in that capacity, 
 and acquired great influence over him. His offer was 
 accepted by Ibn Muqlah, and he rose in favour with him 
 and his son. 
 
 The troops mutinied demanding their pay, and came 
 to the dwelling of the vizier Ibn Muqlah ; they pro¬ 
 ceeded to plunder his stables, and to seize at his gate 
 the horses of those who were in his saloon ; they com¬ 
 pelled many of the clerks whom they met to dismount, 
 and seized their horses. Their pay was then given out 
 and they became quiet. 
 
 In this year Abu 'Abdallah Baridi rose to greatness 
 and became a power. 
 
 1 Some words are lost. 
 
362 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 Account of the reasons for this. 
 
 Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi was farmer of the kharaj 
 and the Estates in Ahwaz, and when Shiraj b. Laila 
 the Dailemite came there by Mardawij’s orders, and 
 Yaqut had been defeated, with his retainer Mu’nis, as 
 we have set forth above, 1 he went off to Basrah, and 
 continued to administer the lower regions of Ahwaz 
 until Mohammed b. Yaqut appointed him secretary to 
 his father Yaqut, with whom he proceeded to Wasit. 
 Whilst Baridi was with Yaqut and managing his affairs, 
 news arrived of the arrest of Yaqut’s sons Mohammed 
 and Muzaffar, which seriously alarmed Yaqut. Ibn 
 Muqlah wrote to Baridi asking him to allay Yaqut’s 
 apprehensions, and explain to him that the army was 
 excited and had expressed dislike of them, and re¬ 
 peatedly mutinied, “ as you are aware.” Finally they 
 had sent to the Caliph to say that if he failed to arrest 
 them, they (the army) would bring disaster on the empire. 
 He had therefore been compelled to satisfy them by the 
 measure which he had taken, but that he would speedily 
 make reparation to them, and despatch them to him. 
 The best thing for him was to hasten to reconquer Fars. 
 —Yaqut departed from Wasit to ‘Askar Mukram via 
 Sus, and Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi sent out with him Abu’l- 
 Hasan Ibn if umaid of Basrah who was a creature of 
 his, to be his deputy as Yaqut’s secretary, and Abu 
 Zakariyya Yahya b. Sa'id of Sus to help him in his 
 own town. Accompanied by these two, Yaqut entered 
 ‘Askar Mukram. Presently Baridi came by water to 
 Ahwaz, followed by his brother Abu Yusuf, who farmed 
 the revenues of Sus and Junddisabur (321) with his 
 brother Abu’l-ffusain as his partner. They asserted that 
 Shiraj b. Laila had appropriated the revenue of the year 
 322, and that the regions were unproductive in the 
 following year. Ibn Muqlah sent out Ibn ‘Ainawaihi 
 
 1 Above, p. 301. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 363 
 
 to enquire into this. He agreed with them, and wrote 
 to confirm their statement. 
 
 This civil war was a blessing to the two Baridis, Abu 
 'Abdallah and Abu Yusuf, for by it and by what followed 
 till the time when they were driven from Ahwaz, accord¬ 
 ing to the statement of Abu’l-Faraj Ibn Abi Hisham, 
 they made four million dinars ; with which they rebelled 
 against the Sultan.—From Ahwaz they made for 'Askar 
 Mukram in order to join Yaqut. Arriving there they 
 were met by Yaqut at the place called " The Mouth of 
 the Two Canals/' whence they escorted him to Arrajan 
 for the reconquest of Fars. 
 
 In this year an order was issued by Ra^i that Abu’l- 
 iiusain 'Ali b. Mohammed b. Muqlah should be addressed 
 by every one, whether in speech or in writing, as vizier, 
 he being at the time eighteen years of age ; and that he 
 should be the director of ah business, small or great. 
 He sent this order to all the heads of the bureaux, and 
 bestowed upon him the robes of honour proper for the 
 vizier. This title then was given to him, and he was 
 mounted on a charger, and went home by land from the 
 Palace accompanied by the commanders, the army, the 
 court-attendants and the heads of the bureaux. His 
 father Ibn Muqlah went home in his barge ; his son 
 brought him his robes of honour, a praying-carpet was 
 spread for him in his father’s saloon, and the people 
 entered with him to congratulate Ibn Muqlah, to whom 
 the poets addressed odes. Abu’l-#usain proceeded to 
 issue orders and prohibitions, and sign documents, and the 
 spreading of a prayer-carpet for him in his father’s saloon 
 became a practice. His father issued an order to all the 
 heads of the bureaux that they were not to despatch any 
 order of his except after they had presented it to his son 
 Abu’l-i/usain and obtained his instructions with regard 
 to it, and his signature ordering it to be obeyed. 
 
 The cavalry repeatedly mutinied and got into the 
 
364 A.H. 323. Calipahte of Radi. 
 
 habit of seizing people's horses from the gate of the 
 vizier. 
 
 (322) In this year Badr Kharshani rode and 
 proclaimed on both sides of Baghdad that no two 
 #anbalite followers of Abu Mohammed Barbahari 1 were 
 to assemble in one place ; a number of them were im¬ 
 prisoned, and Barbahari himself went into hiding. The 
 reason of this lay in their frequent assaults on people 
 and their constant stirring up of strife. An order was 
 issued by Ra<ii to the JTanbalites as follows :— 
 
 In the name of God, etc. Whosoever hypocritically 
 makes show of piety, and assaults the Moslems, and 
 thereby devours the goods of those who are in treaty with 
 them, is liable to the wrath of the Lord of the Worlds, 
 the anger of God ; and he is one of those who go astray. 
 The Commander of the Faithful has observed the conduct 
 of a party among you, and he has probed the system of 
 your chief, how he has made what is forbidden seem fair 
 to his company, and how he lets down to them the rope 
 of deceit. Of this nature is your occupying yourselves 
 with debates about the Lord of might, whose names are 
 blessed, and His Prophet, and the Throne and the Seat, 
 and your speaking ill of the chosen among His people, 
 and your ascribing to the party of the blessed Prophet's 
 house unbelief and error, and lying in wait to annoy 
 them on the roads and in the resting-places ; 2 further * 
 your inviting the Moslems to adopt for their religion 
 evident innovations and wicked doctrines, not attested 
 by the Qur'an nor required by the ordinances of the 
 Merciful ; your disapproving visitation of the tombs 
 of the Imams, whom God favour !, and your calumniating 
 those who visit them as innovators ; and that notwith¬ 
 standing your disapproval of this, you assemble and 
 combine to seek a common man 3 who is neither noble 
 
 1 See above, p. 260. 
 
 3 In Faraj ba'd al-shiddah ii. 75 visitors to the tomb of Husain go thither 
 secretly for fear of the Hanbalites. 
 
 8 Aftmad Ibn Hanbal. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 365 
 
 nor related to nor connected with the Prophet, and com¬ 
 mand that his tomb should be visited and that prayer 
 and supplication should be made by his ashes. God's 
 curse be upon a chief who has encouraged you to these 
 improprieties—how vile he must be !—and a demon 
 who has made them seem fair to you—how misleading 
 he must be ! Now the Commander of the Faithful 
 swears by God a solemn oath which he must surely pay, 
 that if ye do not turn away from your evil way and your 
 crooked path, he shall bestow on you blows in plenty, 
 shall exile, slay, and scatter you. He shall employ the 
 sword on your necks and the fire ( 323 ) on your dwellings, 
 so let him that is present tell him that is absent, for “ he 
 that hath given warning hath made his excuse, ”and the 
 Commander of the Faithful hath no guide save God, 
 on Him he relies and to Him he turns. 
 
 In this year there was a mutiny of the army, who 
 thronged to the residence of the vizier ; a store of his 
 containing cut glass, crystal and china, &c. was 
 plundered, and they entered the house and rioted there. 
 The two viziers left their residence and retired to the 
 Western side. The vizier Ibn Muqlah had banished 
 Khasibi and Sulaiman b. JTasan to Oman, and had 
 written to the governor of Oman requesting him to 
 confine them and treat them with severity. He now 
 released them and they came to Baghdad, where they 
 went into hiding. The vizier was alarmed thereat and 
 surprised numerous places with a view to catching them, 
 but he did not succeed. 
 
 In this year too jEZasan b. 'Abdallah b. #amdan 
 put to death his uncle Abu’l-'Ala Sa'id b. Hamdan ; 
 on account of which event Ibn Muqlah made a journey 
 to Mausil. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 AbuVAla had made an offer to farm the revenue 
 of Mausil and Diyar Rabi'ah, and the contract had beeng 
 
366 A.H. 322. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 granted him secretly ; ( 324 ) a robe of honour had been 
 bestowed upon him, and it was given out that he was 
 being sent to Mausil to interview his brother's son Abu 
 Mohammed #asan b. ‘Abdallah with reference to the 
 money due from him as farmer of the revenue and to 
 demand its payment. He started off with some fifty 
 of his retainers and entered Mausil. His nephew, hearing 
 of his arrival, went out ostensibly to meet him, but 
 intentionally took a different road so as not to see him. 
 Abu’l-‘Ala proceeded to the residence of Abu Mohammed, 
 where he alighted ; enquiring about him, he learned 
 that he had gone out to meet himself, so he sat and 
 awaited him. When Abu Mohammed ascertained that 
 his uncle was safely within his house, he sent his retainers, 
 who entered the apartment wherein AbuVAla was, 
 arrested him, and put him in fetters. Abu Mohammed 
 then sent men who attacked him with their swords and 
 put him to death. Nephew and uncle did not once 
 meet. News of this affair came to Radi, who was 
 indignant, and ordered his vizier Ibn Muqlah to make 
 ready for an expedition to Mausil, and to punish idasan 
 b. ‘Abdallah b. #amdan and his representative in the 
 capital. 
 
 It was stated that ‘Ali b. ‘Isa had written an auto¬ 
 graph letter to idasan b. ‘Abdallah b. idamdan in the 
 name of the Commander of the Faithful, bidding him 
 consider his contract at an end, send no money to the 
 capital, and prevent the sending of provisions thither. 
 Ibn Muqlah got hold of his written affidavit to that 
 effect, called a number of witnesses who attested it, and 
 handed the letter to Ibn Sanjala to show to Ra^i. 
 The following day, a Wednesday, the vizier Ibn Muqlah 
 descended to the Palace and returned home. Ra^i 
 sent his two eunuchs Raghib and Bushra to ‘Ali b. 
 ‘Isa, and they conveyed him to the vizier Ibn Muqlah, 
 who however did not admit him to an audience, but con¬ 
 fined him in a chamber of his residence. A message 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 367 
 
 was sent to him by ‘Ali b. Ahmad b. ‘Ali Nubakhti 
 telling him of what Sahl b. Hashim 1 had caused to be 
 attested against himself, 2 and how the Caliph had dis¬ 
 approved of his action. The interchange of messages 
 between the two continued until Ibn Muqlah compelled 
 ‘Ali b. ‘Isa to submit to a fine of fifty thousand dinars, 
 of which ten thousand were to be deposited at ( 325 ) the 
 gate of Abu Ja‘far Ibn Shirazad, head of the bureau of 
 expenditure on the Turks, while land and estates were to 
 be taken to the value of ten thousand more. ‘Ali b. 
 ‘Isa undertook to carry these conditions out. 
 
 It is asserted that Tulaib the Hashimite had in¬ 
 structed ‘Ali b. ‘Isa from Ra^i to write to #asan b. 
 ‘Abdallah and mediate between them, so as to induce 
 #asan to send the Caliph privately seventy thousand 
 dinars in instalments. #asan had stipulated that the 
 Caliph must protect him and defend him, and see that his 
 position was not assailed, and that he was maintained 
 in his revenue-farming, no higher offers being accepted. 
 He sent some of the instalments, but delayed the rest. 
 The Caliph however denied the whole story, and declared 
 that nothing had reached him. 
 
 The tent of the vizier Ibn Muqlah was brought out, 
 and in the van there went Naqif the Less, Ibn Badr 
 the Cupbearer, with a number of ii/ujaris and others. 
 He left his son Abu'l-LIusain behind in the capital as 
 minister of the Sultan and to manage affairs. Before 
 leaving he released ‘Ali b. ‘Isa sending him away to his 
 estate at Safiyah, after obtaining an oath from him that 
 he would make no attempt to do him harm, would say 
 nothing about him that would affect his reputation, or 
 injure his interests, and that he would not canvass for 
 the vizierate either for himself or for any one else. ‘Ali 
 b. ‘Isa after taking this oath at once departed for Safiyah. 
 
 1 Secretary of Abu Mohammed Hasan b. Hamdan. 
 
 * Apparently the composition of this letter. 
 
368 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 ( 326 ) When the vizier Ibn Muqlah approached Mausil, 
 Abu Mohammed evacuated it ; he was pursued by the 
 vizier till he (Abu Mohammed) had ascended mount 
 Tinnin and entered the region of Zawazan ; the vizier 
 then returned to Mausil, where lie took up his residence, 
 collecting the revenue of the place, and borrowing money 
 from the corn factors, on the security of the produce of 
 the district which he placed at their disposal. He thus 
 amassed 400,000 dinars. As the vizier's residence in 
 Mausil continued indefinitely, Sahl b. Hashim, secre¬ 
 tary to Abu Mohammed Ibn #amdan resorted to a 
 device. He offered ten thousand dinars to Ibn Muqlah’s 
 son, the vizier Abu’l-iifusain, to write to his father inform- 
 him that his interests in the capital were being com¬ 
 promised, and that if his return were delayed, some 
 catastrophe might well take place which would be their 
 ruin. The vizier was alarmed by this, and after placing 
 ‘Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab 1 in charge of the kharaj and 
 the Estates at Mausil, and Makird the Dailemite, one 
 of the Sajis, in charge of public security, and ordering 
 that the money which he had borrowed of the merchants 
 should be refunded to them, descended the river to the 
 capital. The prince Abu'l-Fadl with the heads of 
 bureaux and the commanders went out to meet him, 
 and he had an audience of the Caliph, after which he 
 returned to his house. The next day he and his son 
 received robes of honour as messmates ; and delicacies, 
 wine, perfume, and crystal were conveyed to them. 
 
 Before descending from Mausil the vizier Ibn Muqlah 
 had written to the other vizier, his son, bidding him 
 release 'Ali b. Tsa from surveillance, and write to him in 
 the most courteous terms, offering him the option between 
 returning to Baghdad and remaining at Safiyah. Abu'l- 
 flusain accordingly wrote a letter to this effect. The 
 reason why Ibn Muqlah took this step was that he had 
 written to AbufMohammed Ibn #amdan inviting him 
 
 1 His return to Basrah was mentioned above, p. 3Q1. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 369 
 
 ( 327 ) to become again a loyal subject, and offering him 
 amnesty. Ibn ffamdan kissed the letter, but said to 
 the bearer : I have no dealings with this person, meaning 
 Ibn Muqlah, nor can I accept his guarantee, since he is 
 destitute of honour, fidelity, and loyalty, neither will I 
 hear anything which he says, unless 'Ali b. Tsa acts as 
 mediator and guarantees his good faith. On that I am 
 prepared to rely and that I will accept. 
 
 At the time of Ibn Muqlah’s departure to Mausil 
 Abu 'Abdallah Ahmad b. 'Ali Kufi remained in the 
 capital and frequented the office of the vizier Abu’l- 
 i^usain to whom he professed sincere attachment; he 
 was however anxious to get away from him and out of his 
 reach. Presently there came a despatch from Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi, stating that there was no chance of 
 any money being transmitted to the capital at that 
 time. This disconcerted Abu’l-i7usain who had already 
 assigned the revenue to be transmitted by Baridi to 
 certain objects. He bade Abu 'Abdallah Kufi read the 
 despatch. Kufi expressed astonishment at its contents 
 and suggested that he should himself be sent on a mission 
 to Ahwaz, to discuss with Baridi the case of the men on 
 whom he professed to have spent the money, to make 
 him produce them, to remit to them their due, and then 
 bring to the capital a vast sum ; the moment of his 
 arrival he would hand over a hundred thousand dinars.— 
 The vizier Abud-#usain wrote to Baridi accordingly 
 that he could not accept any excuse for the delay in 
 transmitting the money, and that Baridi had compelled 
 him to send Abu 'Abdallah Ahmad b. 'Ali Kufi to dis¬ 
 cuss the financial question with him, and exact payment. 
 The letter was despatched and A/zmad b. 'Ali followed it 
 to Ahwaz. When the commissioner was the guest of 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi he was unable to go against the 
 wishes of the latter, and so wrote home to the effect that 
 he found himself unable to assemble the men and to dis¬ 
 cuss the financial question. He remained with Baridi 
 
370 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 until Abu Bakr Ibn Ra'iq assumed the control of affairs 
 at the capital. 
 
 Abu 'Abdallah Kufi felt apprehensive of Baridi and 
 wished to get away from him, being afraid of his im¬ 
 pulses. He held out hopes to Baridi that he might be 
 able to produce discord between Husain b. ‘Ali 
 Nubakhti and Ibn Ra’iq. This Husain b. ‘Ali was 
 one of the bitterest enemies of the Baridis ; so Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Baridi accepted the offer, ( 328 ) released Kufi, 
 and arranged with him the procedure which he should 
 follow and the money which he should offer in order to 
 suppress Husain b. ‘Ali Nubakhti. During his stay 
 with Baridi it was the practice of Kufi to depreciate 
 the metropolis and describe to him its gradual ruin 
 owing to the maladministration of Ibn Muqlah, and his 
 stopping the revenue of Wasit and Basrah through 
 Ibn Ra’iq, his crushing the sons of Yaqut, his mis¬ 
 management of the affair of Hasan b. ‘Abdallah b. 
 Hamdan, and his practical annihilation of the Caliphate. 
 He dilated on this subject, and in the course of his 
 remarks observed: He it was who encouraged the 
 Hujaris to attack Ibn Yaqut, but they will presently 
 be yet bolder against himself; his destruction is not 
 far off.—This talk made a favourable impression on 
 Baridi, who made a friend of Kufi; he did not indeed 
 make him his secretary, but he consulted him, showed 
 him honour, and cultivated his society. 
 
 Abu’l-Faraj Ibn Abi Hisham related how Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Kufi said to him at Wasit in the days of Saif 
 al-daulah : 1 I never had a more agreeable time in my 
 life than that which I spent with Baridi. I was in his 
 house for about a year, without occupation, not included 
 among his underlings, and not worried with having to 
 attend to any business. He associated with me in 
 
 1 i.e., when Saif al-daulah was at Wasit in 331 and Kufi was sent on a mission 
 to him by his brother Nasir al-daulah, 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 371 
 
 the friendliest manner, and I obtained from him in gold, 
 silver and articles sent me the value of thirty-five 
 thousand dinars. I did not leave Ahwaz till I had been 
 made secretary to Ibn Ra'iq. I had by then been 
 secured against Ibn Muqlah through his arrest ; from 
 him I had reason to fear, and praise be to God who did 
 not let him leave the world until he was as utterly 
 ruined as he had ruined it. May God send his son after 
 him, for he is the worse of the two ; both are equally 
 shameless, hard and mean ; only the father with all his 
 faults occasionally showed mercy and generosity to his 
 attendants and his household though not to strangers. 
 But Nasir al-Daulah here 1 is trying hard to cajole 
 him so as to get him into his power ; if he succeeds, I 
 hope he will put out his eyes. And indeed he harbours 
 grievances against both him and his father.—Kufi in¬ 
 dulged in this tirade in his room, when there was no one 
 present except myself and his Christian secretary Ibn 
 Safiyyah. 
 
 ( 329 ) Baridi produced in Ahwaz an autograph letter 
 from Ibn Muqlah to himself, containing the words : A 
 plague on Kufi who has thwarted me ; I sent him to win 
 you to my side and he has turned you against me ; he 
 has aroused your cupidity, and you in your greed have 
 listened to him. By Allah I will amputate his hands 
 and feet. As for you, I have hopes that you will not 
 persist in your ingratitude for my favours and benefits, and 
 that reflection will lead you to a proper sense of your obli¬ 
 gations ; that you will give me cause for satisfaction with 
 you, and give me your help in this difficult situation to the 
 like of which no occupant of my post under any dynasty 
 was ever reduced ; that you will avert what threatens me 
 by a remittance of money, and thereby save your two for¬ 
 tunes, one of which is in my hands and the other in your 
 own. If God will. 
 
 1 He was at that time in Baghdad holding the supreme power. 
 
372 
 
 A.H. 323. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 When Ibn Muqlah returned from Mausil Abu Mo¬ 
 hammed Ibn i^amdan came back thither from Zawazan, 
 and attacked Makird the Dailemite. Abu Mohammed 
 was defeated, but he returned to the charge ; a second 
 battle was fought between them at the Rum Gate of 
 Nisibin, at which Makird was defeated; he fled to 
 Raqqah, and thence descended by the Euphrates to 
 Baghdad. 'Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab also came away from 
 Mausil, so that Abu Mohammed became master of Mausil 
 and Diyar Rabi'ah. He wrote to the Sultan for pardon 
 and permission to farm the revenue of these regions, and 
 obtained both. 
 
 There arrived now in Baghdad the merchants whose 
 money had been borrowed by Ibn Muqlah, but who had 
 not been paid the produce which they had purchased ; 
 and they demanded that Ibn Muqlah should refund 
 their money. Necessity compelled him to allocate to 
 this purpose some of the revenue which belonged to the 
 officials of the Sawad ; thus he satisfied them for a 
 time, but presently he sold certain imperial lands to 
 pay the rest. His expedition therefore produced no 
 considerable advantage after what he had refunded to 
 the merchants, and what he had spent upon the journey 
 and the army which had gone out with him. 
 
 (330) In this year there was a pilgrimage, but when 
 the pilgrims reached Qadisiyyah, they were opposed by 
 Abu Tahir the Qarmadan. With the pilgrims the Sultan 
 had sent Lu'lu’ retainer of Mutahashshim ; he sup¬ 
 posed the Qarmadans to be ordinary Bedouins, and the 
 people in the caravans engaged them ; they were however 
 defeated by the Qarmatians who acquired 1 large booty. 
 'Umar b. Yadya the 'Alid pleaded for those who had 
 entered Qadisiyyah, and Abu Tahir granted them their 
 lives. They then slunk away from Qadisiyyah, and 
 the pilgrimage was frustrated for this year. Abu Tahir 
 went to Kufah and remained there. 
 
 1 The words in italics are supplied conjecturally. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 373 
 
 In the same night 1 there was a fall of shooting stars 
 from the beginning of the night to the end in Baghdad, 
 Kufah and the adjoining regions, unparalleled and 
 indeed unapproached in size. 
 
 There was a mutiny of the troops, who went to the 
 vizier's residence, and dug through the wall in numerous 
 places ; they could not however reach the vizier, who 
 was defended by his retainers, who shot arrows at the 
 mutineers from the top of the wall. 
 
 This year Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Yaqut died in 
 prison in the Palace, of bloodspitting; the qadi Abu'l- 
 iTusAiN 'Umar b. Mohammed was summoned and a 
 a number of other persons ; the corpse was submitted 
 to them for examination, ( 331 ) and they drew out the 
 beard, and ascertained that he had died a natural death. 2 
 It was then given to his relations. The vizier sold his 
 lands and chattels, and arrested all his dependents. 
 
 In this year the vizier appointed #asan b. 
 Harun to the districts of the Jabal. He departed 
 thither, and when he arrived, his protection was sought 
 by the retainers who had assassinated Mardawij in his 
 bath. They were three hundred in number, and he 
 received them. After a time however they mutinied, 
 demanded pay, arrested him and put him in fetters ; 
 presently however they released him. When the news 
 of his arrest reached the vizier, he appointed in his place 
 Abu 'Abdallah Mohammed b. Khalaf Nirmani ; when 
 .ffasan b. Harun heard of this, he was afraid, as this 
 person was his enemy, and came secretly to Baghdad, 
 where he continued in hiding for a time. He then 
 negotiated with the vizier Ibn Muqlah, and it was settled 
 that he should pay a fine which was assessed at fifteen 
 thousand dinars. He then showed himself. Mohammed 
 b. Khalaf remained in the Jabal for a short time. 
 
 1 We learn from the work cited in the Arabic edition that this was Wednesday 
 11 Dhu’l-Qa'dah (this month began Friday Oct. 2, 935). 
 a The text is not very clear. 
 
374 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Rajdi. 
 
 The retainers of Mardawij among whom was Bachkam 
 proceeded to the Nahrawan Bridge, whence they entered 
 into negotiations with the Sultan, who commanded them 
 to enter the metropolis. They did so, encamping in the 
 Oratory. The #ujaris became excited, thinking this 
 was a plot against themselves ; they met and asked the 
 vizier Ibn Muqlah to satisfy them and get them to go 
 away.—He summoned some of their leaders, and 
 arranged that they should attach themselves to 
 Mohammed b. ‘Ali, retainer of Rashidi, whom he would 
 appoint to the Jabal, he would then remit to them four¬ 
 teen thousand dinars for their expenses, and then allocate 
 to their pay some of the revenues of the Jabal.—They 
 replied that they would go and inform the rest of their 
 party of his offer. When they went, the others were 
 not satisfied with it, and meanwhile Abu Bakr Ibn 
 Ra'iq, who was in Wasit (332) and in charge of public 
 security there and in Basrah, heard of them, and both 
 by letter and an oral message invited them, promising 
 to treat them well. This invitation suited their fancy, 
 so they went to him, were received and enrolled by him, 
 and given liberal pay. Ibn Ra'iq made Bachkam 
 (whom he called Bachkam Ra’iqi, i.e. freedman of 
 Ra’iq) their captain, exalted, enriched and pampered 
 him to excess. He placed all the retainers under him, 
 and bade him write to the Turks and Dailemites in the 
 Jabal, bidding them all come to him to be enrolled. A 
 great number came, were enrolled, and attached to 
 Bachkam. 
 
 Year 324. 
 
 In this year Mu^affar b. Yaqut was released from his 
 confinement in the Palace and allowed to go home, 
 through the intercession of the vizier Ibn Muqlah on his 
 behalf. The vizier made him swear a solemn oath that 
 he would befriend him, would not abandon his cause, 
 and would not endeavour to injure him. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 375 
 
 In this year too the vizier appointed Mohammed b. 
 Tughj to the ministry of public security in Egypt in 
 addition to the same office which he already held in 
 Syria. Ra^i summoned the judges and witnesses to 
 the Palace to inform them of Mohammed b. Tughj's 
 appointment, and bade them write to their friends and 
 acquaintances announcing the fact, lest Ahmad b. 
 Kaighalagh, who was governor of Egypt, should dispute 
 his authority. 
 
 In this year Mohammed b. Ra’iq stopped trans¬ 
 mitting the revenue which he farmed in Wasit and 
 Basrah to the capital, alleging the necessity of spending 
 the money on the force which he had collected. 
 
 In this year Muzaffar b. Yaqut succeeded in a plot 
 to get the vizier Ibn Muqlah arrested ; being convinced 
 that Ibn Muqlah had killed his brother and been instru¬ 
 mental in imprisoning and ruining them both. 
 
 Account of this plot against Abu ‘AH Ibn Muqlah. 
 
 From the time of his release Mozaffar had been 
 longing for revenge ; but he concealed his designs ( 333 ) 
 till he had interviewed thei/ujaris and set them against 
 the vizier. The latter hearing of this sought support 
 from Badr Kharshani, whose position he strengthened, 
 and whom he instructed to take control of the Palace, 
 and to keep the ifujari retainers out; for he had intelli¬ 
 gence that they designed to come to the Palace and take 
 up their quarters there. Badr carried out these instruc¬ 
 tions ; he entered the Palace with his followers in arms, 
 and they prevented the #ujaris from entering. The 
 vizier did not let it be known that what had been done 
 by Badr was his own design; he afterwards arranged 
 a meeting of the Sajis with Badr, who swore to assist 
 each other. When Mu^affar b. Yaqut learned of this, 
 he felt discouraged, and he advised the #ujaris to 
 humiliate themselves before the vizier ; they accordingly 
 
376 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 proceeded to make themselves agreeable to him, and to 
 attach themselves to his service till he felt no further 
 fear of them. They then requested him to dismiss 
 Badr, and offered in return to go to any length in obeying 
 and gratifying him. Finally he was cajoled into dis¬ 
 missing Badr and his followers. When neither they nor 
 the Sajis were any longer in the Palace, the JTujaris 
 swore to act in union, marched together to the Palace, 
 and pitched their tents inside and around. Thus they 
 became masters of the Palace, and Radi was in their 
 hands and one of their party. The vizier regretted 
 what he had done, and perceived that he had been out¬ 
 manoeuvred. He now ordered Badr to go out with his 
 followers to the Oratory without letting any one know 
 that this was at the suggestion or by the order of the 
 vizier. Badr did this, and began to enroll additional 
 infantry.. When the idujaris heard of this, they de¬ 
 manded that Radi should come out with them to the 
 Public Mosque which was within the Palace walls, and 
 lead prayer, so that the people might see him with them, 
 and know that he was within their power. So on Friday 
 Radi went out to this Mosque, the whole body of retainers 
 walking on foot before him and around him in arms, led 
 prayer, mounted the pulpit, and preached, saying in the 
 course of his sermon : 0 God , these retainers are my inner 
 and my outer garment ; (334) whosoever designs evil against 
 them do Thou design the like against him , and whosoever 
 fights with them , fight Thou with him} 
 
 He made Badr Kharshani governor of Damascus, 
 and ordered him to leave for his province from the 
 Oratory and not to enter the city. Throughout this 
 affair Mu^affar was pretending to the vizier to be 
 labouring in the cause of peace, and making a display 
 
 1 It was by this time unusual for the Caliph to take the service himself. 
 Yaqut (in his biographical dictionary ii. 349) records how Ra<2i consulted an 
 authority on sermons how to deal with the passage in the sermon wherein there 
 was prayer for the Caliph. 
 
Third Vizierate of Ibn Muqlah. 377 
 
 of humility, while really he was compassing the vizier's 
 death ; and the action of Radi had greatly strengthened 
 his ( 335 ) position. Presently a compromise was effected 
 between Badr Kharshani and the idujaris; he was 
 allowed to go home from the Oratory, and was retained 
 in the prefecture of police. 
 
 When this business was over, the vizier privately 
 suggested to Radi to undertake an expedition which he 
 should himself lead with the army and the idujari and 
 Saji troops, to expel Ibn Ra’iq from Wasit and Basrah. 
 These territories, he said, are closed against you owing 
 to Mohammed b. Ra’iq’s action in refusing to transmit 
 the revenue which he farms ; when others see that this 
 is possible and is tolerated in his case, they will follow 
 his example ; the revenue of Ahwaz will stop, and the 
 empire cease to exist. 
 
 Radi determined to carry out this project, and 
 ordered the vizier to proceed with it. The vizier started 
 the negotiations with Ibn Ra’iq by sending to him 
 Yanal the Elder, one of the idujaris, and Makird the 
 Dailemite, one of the Sajis, with a letter from Radi 
 wherein he ordered him to send #usain b. ‘Ali Nu- 
 bakhti to be examined with regard to the revenue of 
 Wasit and Basrah which had passed through his hands. 
 Ibn Ra’iq declined to send Nubakhti, and bribed the 
 two envoys to convey a secret message from himself to 
 the Caliph, to the effect that, if he were summoned to 
 the capital, and entrusted with the administration, he 
 would defray all the Sultan’s necessary expenses and the 
 pay of the army, would manage everything in the best 
 possible manner, and save the Commander of the Faith¬ 
 ful the trouble of thinking about any public business. 
 When the two envoys returned, they after delivering 
 his public message had a private audience wherein they 
 delivered the secret message. The Caliph was not pre¬ 
 pared to betray his vizier, and so he held back. 
 
378 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 When the vizier saw that Ibn Ra'iq declined to de¬ 
 liver up idusain b. ‘Ali Nubakhti, he planned to make 
 it appear that his expedition to Ahwaz was not to deal 
 with or attack him ; and he bethought him of despatch¬ 
 ing the qadi Abu'l-idusain with a letter from Radi to 
 inform him of this, saying that it might well occur to Ibn 
 Ra'iq ( 336 ) that the expedition was against him, and his 
 apprehensions consequently be roused, so he had sent 
 the qadi to explain what was his design and intention, 
 and he gave assurances which might well ease his mind. 
 On Monday—14 Jumada i (April 11, 936) the vizier 
 went down to Radi's Palace, accompanied by the qadi 
 Abu'l-idusain, whom he was to introduce to the Caliph 
 so that he might hear his message ; when he had reached 
 the vestibule of the Ninetieth Saloon, before he had 
 come into the Caliph's presence, the idujari retainers, 
 with whom was Muzaffar b. Yaqut, sprang upon him, 
 arrested him, and sent to the Caliph to inform him that 
 they had arrested the vizier, on the ground that he was 
 the mischief-maker ; and requesting the Caliph to 
 appoint some one else vizier. Radi sent back approving 
 what they had done and assuring them that, had they 
 not done it, he would have done it himself. He left the 
 choice of a successor to them. They nominated ‘Ali 
 b. ‘Isa, eulogizing his fidelity and competence, and 
 declaring that he had not his equal in that age. Radi 
 sent for him and proposed that he should undertake the 
 vizier ate. He refused and expressed his aversion. 
 Radi repeated the proposal, and the retainers urged him 
 to accept it. There was a lengthy scene, but he per¬ 
 sisted in his refusal. Then they said : Then nominate 
 some one whom you approve. He suggested his brother 
 ‘Abd al-RaAman. 
 
 Radi then sent Musaffar b. Yaqut to ‘Abd al-Ra/hnan 
 b. ‘Isa, who brought him and presented him to Radi. 
 The Caliph informed ‘Abd al-Ra/hnan that he invested 
 him with his vizierate and with the presidency of the 
 
Vizierate of 'Abd al-Ruhman b. 'Isa. 379 
 
 bureaux. The Caliph bestowed a robe of honour on 
 the new vizier, who rode home in his robes accompanied 
 by the army. The house of Ibn Muqlah was burned. 
 
 Vizierate of ‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Isa. 
 
 When 'Abd al-Ra/unan was invested, 'Ali b. Tsa 
 seized upon the administration. Abu'l-' Abbas 
 Khasibi and Abu’l-Qasim Sulaiman b. #asan, whose 
 story has been told—how they were banished to Oman 
 by Ibn Muqlah, who ordered Yusuf b. Wajih, governor 
 of Oman, to imprison them, and how this person ( 337 ) 
 released them, and they then returned to Baghdad where 
 they remained in hiding until Ibn Muqlah was arrested 
 —learned what had happened ; and they were treated 
 with honour by the vizier 'Abd al-RaAman, with whom 
 they were admitted to Ra^i, accompanied also by Abu 
 Ja'far Mohammed b. Qasim of Karkh, and Abu 'Ali 
 Hasan b. Harun. 'Ali b. Tsa too did not recoil from 
 presenting himself in their company. The vizier Ibn 
 Muqlah was delivered over to the new vizier 'Abd al- 
 Ra/mian, who had him scourged, and obtained his bond 
 for a million dinars. He then delivered him to Abu'l- 
 'Abbas Khasibi, by whom he was made to endure 
 terrible tortures, scourging and racking. After a 
 time Abu Bakr Ibn Qarabah presented himself and 
 mediated ; he guaranteed the sum due, and took Ibn 
 Muqlah in charge. The sum which he had paid to 
 Khasibi was over fifty thousand dinars. 
 
 ( 338 ) Badr Kharshani was dismissed from the pre¬ 
 fecture of police owing to his being out of favour with 
 the ifujaris, and he was entrusted with the ministry of 
 public security in Ispahan and Fars, as the #ujaris 
 objected to his remaining in the metropolis. He received 
 a robe of honour, and took his tents out to the Ushnan 
 parade-ground. His standard was sent to him, and 
 tfasan b. Harun was attached to him as minister of 
 
380 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 kharaj in these regions. Then he delayed the execution 
 of this plan, and his expedition came to naught. 
 
 ‘Abd al-Ra/hnan found himself unable to keep things 
 going, and the financial stress was such that he begged 
 permission to abandon the attempt and to resign the 
 vizierate. He asked the Caliph to lend him ten thousand 
 dinars, as all the sources of revenue had failed. Ra<^i 
 arrested him in this year and appointed Karkhi as his 
 vizier. 
 
 Account of the vizierate of Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. 
 
 Qasim Karkhi. 
 
 When Abu Ja'far Karkhi was appointed vizier, had 
 received his robes of honour, and returned to his house 
 escorted by the army, he was told to examine 'Ali b. 
 Tsa and his brother 'Abd al-Ra/hnan, and they were 
 conveyed to his house. He fined the former a hundred 
 thousand dinars and the latter seventy thousand; they 
 remained with him well protected and respectfully 
 treated until the former had paid seventy thousand 
 dinars and the later thirty thousand. They were then 
 dismissed to their homes. 
 
 The vizier Abu Ja'far Karkhi was short, so short that 
 the height of the royal throne 1 had to be reduced by 
 four finger-breadths. 2 
 
 ( 339 ) In this year Yaqut was killed at 'Askar Mukram. 
 
 Account of Yaqut*s death. 
 
 We have mentioned the expedition of Yaqut to 
 Arrajan to fight against 'Ali b. Buwaihi with his troops 
 and his legions, his Dailemites, and his Turks with the 
 rest of his cavalry ; while he had three thousand black 
 infantry. He with his whole army was routed by 'Ali 
 b. Buwaihi at the gate of Arrajan. In the rout he was 
 with the rear, having himself stood firm. He was pur- 
 
 1 The name " king ” is commonly applied to viziers. 
 a See the epigram on him in the Nishwar. 
 
381 
 
 VlZIERATE OF 'ABU Ja'FAR KARKHI. 
 
 sued by 'Ali b. Buwaihi to Ramhurmuz, and himself 
 reached the Western side of 'Askar Mukram, having 
 cut the bridge over the Masruqan. 'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 remained in Ramhurmuz until peace was made between 
 him and the Sultan. 
 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi wrote to Yaqut advising him 
 to remain in 'Askar Mukram to refresh, and that plans 
 for his future operations might be made later. It was 
 his intention that he and Yaqut should not be in the 
 same town. Yaqut accepted his advice. He was 
 visited by Abu Yusuf Baridi, to condole with him on 
 his defeat and congratulate him on his escape. He 
 negotiated between Yaqut and his brother Abu 'Abdallah 
 an arrangement whereby the latter was to pay the former 
 fifty thousand dinars to meet the immediate demands of 
 his army, until he could write to the Sultan and obtain 
 his instructions with regard to the amount to be remitted 
 to Yaqut and his troops. Abu Yusuf also informed 
 Yaqut that the troops stationed in Ahwaz were 
 numerous, and clamouring for their pay. They con¬ 
 sisted of Berbers, and retainers who had formerly been 
 in the service of Shafi', Nazuk, Yalbaq, and Harun. 
 Ibn Muqlah had separated these troops and sent them 
 to Ahwaz to save the metropolis the expense of them, 
 and so increase the pay of the Sajis and ii/ujaris. Abu 
 Yusuf told Yaqut that these troops would not tolerate 
 the remission of money from Ahwaz to any other troops, 
 and would mutiny if they heard of it being done. Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi had been compelled to leave Ahwaz 
 for fear they might attempt his life. Matters would 
 only result in a campaign after that of Arrajan, and no 
 one knew how it would eventuate. 1 Besides this the 
 Sultaji was demanding the remission of money to himself. 
 Finally he said : Your troops, after their misconduct, 
 unsatisfactory behaviour, and repeated defeats, ( 340 ) 
 
 1 Apparently the suppressed premise is “if Abu ‘Abdallah undertook the 
 payment of Yaqut’s force," 
 
382 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 will be satisfied and keep quiet if a little be given them. 
 —Yaqut accepted these proposals, and certain of the 
 revenues of 'Askar Mukram and Tustar were allotted to 
 the purpose ; Yaqut met the demands of the ffujaris 
 with some of the money, and those of the chief officers 
 with some ; in the Public Mosque of 'Askar Mukram he 
 paid out three dirhems to each of his black troops. 
 Things went on thus for some months. Then the 
 revenue of the year 324 began to come in, and his troops 
 clamoured for pay, saying that they could not endure 
 their misery any longer; competition for the good 
 things of this world was engrained in human nature ; 
 even if they were rich, they would compete for them ; 
 how much more when they were so destitute ! They 
 could not be content that their comrades in Ahwaz 
 should be in regular receipt of money, and they them¬ 
 selves be refused. They could not swallow the 
 vexation and annoyance, and were tired of enduring 
 poverty and starvation. 
 
 Certain followers of 'Ali b. Buwaihi had deserted to 
 Yaqut, among them one Tahir the Jilite, a man who 
 aspired to great things, and regarded himself as the 
 equal of Shiraj and his compeers. Joined by some three 
 hundred Persians he mutinied and left Yaqut, with the 
 idea of making himself master of Mah al-Basrah and 
 Mah al-Kufah. He was captured by 'Ali b. Buwaihi, 
 who imprisoned him ; he escaped however with some of 
 his retainers, while his secretary Abu Ja'far Saimari 
 remained in captivity. The latter however was rescued 
 by JTannat, and proceeded to Kirman ; his imprison¬ 
 ment was the cause of his success and being attached 
 to the prince Abu’l-iZusain A/rniad b. Buwaihi. Yaqut 
 was discouraged by the desertion of Tahir the Jilite and 
 his followers, and the rest of his troops became defiant; 
 he began to be afraid that they would appoint one of the 
 officers leader and abandon him. He wrote to Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi to explain the situation, stating that 
 
383 
 
 VlZIERATE OF ABU Ja'FAR KaRKHI. 
 
 Baridi was his secretary and the manager of his affairs, 
 and that he committed to him the question how to deal 
 with his troops, and that he might take with regard to 
 himself and them whatever measures he deemed best. 
 
 Account of the treachery to which Yaqut fell 
 
 a victim. 
 
 Yaqut placed absolute confidence in a worthless 
 person named Abu Bakr Nili, whom he treated like a 
 father, and whose advice he implicitly ( 341 ) followed, 
 notwithstanding the man's baseness and meanness both 
 of mind and rank. Abu 'Abdallah Baridi won over 
 this Nili by liberality. He was employed by Yaqut 
 to take to Abu 'Abdallah the message which has been 
 stated. Abu 'Abdallah Baridi wrote in reply that his 
 army had been corrupted, and contained elements which 
 should be weeded out; for 'Ali b. Khalaf b.Tinab 1 had 
 deceived him, having appropriated certain moneys in 
 the name of these troops, and given numerous increases 
 to others ; the right course was that Yaqut should sent 
 these individuals to him (Baridi), when he would show 
 them how these increases meant to them the loss of the 
 original stipends which they derived from the Sultan, 
 and personally assure them that the right course was 
 for them to waive these increases in order that they might 
 save the original pay. But this, he added, can only be 
 done in Ahwaz, whither they will come in groups and 
 parties. If therefore they misbehave themselves, and 
 reject my proposal, they can be brought to order by the 
 troops stationed in Ahwaz. Whereas, if this language 
 be addressed to them while they are in 'Askar Mukram, 
 they will combine, unite and conspire, and it will not be 
 possible to reduce them from a large to a small sum.— 
 Baridi dealt at length with this theme, and then said : 
 Abu Bakr, the inspection of troops should take place 
 where they will be overawed not where they will be able 
 
 1 He had been with Yacpt in the campaign against the forces of Mardawij. 
 
384 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 to overawe.—Abu Bakr Nili did not retort " The awe 
 will be where the commander is, not where you are,” 
 neither had he the courage to make any objection. 
 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi requested that Abu'l-Fath 
 Ibn Abi Tahir and Abu Ahmad Justani 1 should be 
 sent to him to be consulted with regard to the final 
 settlement, and to inform him of the rank of the persons 
 involved ; he also required the presence of Abu Bakr 
 the Sergeant who had been with Abu Tahir Mohammed 
 b. ‘Abd al-Samad 2 that he might learn from him their 
 circumstances. Yaqut sent him the persons whom he 
 requested, and ordered his troops to march to be in¬ 
 spected. When they came into the presence of Baridi, 
 he proceeded to win them over to himself ; i.e. he 
 selected those whom he wanted, and promised to pay 
 at the same rate as the troops who were stationed with 
 him in Ahwaz; and these accepted his terms and went 
 over to his force ; and he sent the inefficient back to 
 Yaqut after withdrawing their increases. When the 
 inspection was over, it was found that half the troops 
 of Yaqut had deserted him. When Yaqut was told this, 
 and severely censured for letting it happen, he replied : 
 ( 342 ) In exchange for the troops who have decided to 
 stay in Ahwaz I have two things : reduction of the 
 demands upon me, and the fact that they are with my 
 secretary. Baridi has not my qualifications, so that I 
 should have cause to fear him. If I want them or fight¬ 
 ing becomes necessary, the lot will of a certainty come 
 back to me ; he has them in store for me. Yaqut"s 
 assistants on their return told him that they had got 
 nothing from the inspection except the loss of half their 
 number, “ the breaking of their wing,” and the reduc¬ 
 tion of their strength. They bade him write to Baridi 
 telling him to send the sum which he had agreed to give 
 them.—Yaqut wrote to this effect, and Baridi replied 
 that he would devise means to furnish the sum. 
 
 1 See above, p. 302. a See above, p. 157. 
 
385 
 
 VIZIERATE OF ABU Ja'fAR KaRKHI. 
 
 The demands upon Yaqut became more pressing, 
 and he made a personal expedition to Ahwaz at the head 
 of three hundred men ; keeping the number low, in 
 order not to alarm Baridi. He fancied himself on a visit 
 to his secretary. Baridi however met him with a vast 
 assemblage, having indeed brought out with him the 
 whole of the army stationed in Ahwaz. When he saw 
 Yaqut, he dismounted, and Yaqut bent so low towards 
 him that he nearly fell off his horse. The two then pro¬ 
 ceeded and Baridf entertained Yaqut in his house and 
 ministered to him with his own hands ; he stood before 
 him till he had eaten, washed his hands, handed him the 
 rose-water and the towel, and fumigated him himself. 
 He was engaged in this last process and had not yet 
 commenced conversation, when shouts were heard, and 
 the army broke into disorder, calling out : Yaqut has 
 only come to him ! 1 Baridi said : Prince, in God's name 
 leave this house at once, or we shall all be murdered.— 
 Yaqut immediately left with fear and caution by a route 
 different from that whereby the mutineers had come, 
 and returned to ‘Askar Mukram, as he had left it. A 
 letter now arrived from Baridi to the effect that the 
 troops in Ahwaz were apprehensive of him, Yaqut, and 
 that it would be best for him to go to Tustar, which was 
 sixteen parasangs away from Ahwaz, whereas ‘Askar 
 Mukram was only eight, and the greater the distance 
 the less the apprehension. Baridi gave him a draft on 
 the governor of Tustar for fifty thousand dinars, so 
 thither he went. 
 
 Mu'nis, a man who had been brought up by Yaqut, 
 and whom he trusted, said to him : Prince, Baridi is 
 lopping off our joints one by one, and making game of 
 us, while he is taking you in. He has got into his own 
 army ( 343 ) half our troops and our best officers ; he 
 has guaranteed us only a small portion of the sum settled, 
 
 1 Apparently they meant that his visit was not, as it should have been, to 
 the army. 
 
386 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 and that he does not remit, in the hope that the re¬ 
 mainder may desert to him, when he will be upon our 
 throats. Letters are constantly coming from the 
 #ujaris to you, assuring you that they have no chief 
 but you. Either then you should enter Baghdad, where 
 every one will surrender the headship to you, firbt of all 
 Mohammed b. Ra'iq of necessity owing to your seniority, 
 since you are his father's peer ; or you should advance 
 to Ahwaz, to expel Baridi thence and establish yourself 
 there. For though our number be %mall and inferior 
 to hL, still he is only a clerk, even though we had only 
 five hundred men. He is at the head of ten thousand ; 
 I have counted those who are with us and find them to 
 be about five thousand, and that number is sufficient. 
 An army goes by its commander, and you are yourself. 
 Your enemy 'Ali b. Buwaihi said : Had there been in 
 the army of Yaqut a hundred men like himself, I should 
 never have withstood him. For God's sake, my master, 
 do not ruin yourself and us.—He replied : I must think 
 about it.—Mu'nis departed from his presence in anger, 
 and with three thousand men separated from his master 
 Yaqut, and rode to 'Askar Mukram, with the view of 
 reaching Ahwaz. He then said to us 1 : I am not going 
 to rebel against my master, who purchased me, brought 
 me up and bestowed favours upon me ; but I mean to 
 take Ahwaz and deliver it to him.—Before he had been 
 three hours at 'Askar Mukram a letter from Yaqut came 
 to Darak, prefect of police there, informing him that 
 Yaqut's retainer Mu'nis had come away without his 
 leave, with an account of the situation, and requesting 
 him to interview Mu'nis and threaten him with the divine 
 vengeance if he was ungrateful for the benefits which he 
 had received, and to detain him till he, Yaqut, arrived.— 
 Darak crossed from the Eastern side of 'Askar Mukram 
 to the Western, and delivered a long and eloquent 
 homily to Mu'nis. He was a distinguished chief, only 
 
 1 Probably the author’s authority rather than himself. 
 
387 
 
 VIZIERATE OF ABU Ja'FAR KARKHI. 
 
 age had diminished his powers ; he was accompanied 
 by various attendants, among them a eunuch who was 
 influential with him, though stupid, and he said to 
 Mu'nis : Mu'nis, though your master's two sons— ( 344 ) 
 two crowns, two pearls—were arrested, he still thought 
 it improper to rebel against his master, and show himself 
 ungrateful for his benefits ; he surrendered them, would 
 not fight for them, and would not seek vengeance. Are 
 you then going to rebel against your master and with¬ 
 draw from your obedience ? Are you not afraid of the 
 consequences ? Of forfeiting the divine help in this 
 war, being captured, and so losing both this world and 
 the next ? The more so as he has offered to join you 
 and help you to the accomplishment of what you want. 
 Wait till our letter is delivered and the reply arrives.— 
 Mu'nis, affected by the censure and reprobation of Darak 
 and his attendants, decided to wait; and the following 
 day Yaqut arrived and joined his retainers. 
 
 The whole army of Baridi now arrived, and encamped 
 in the plain of Khan Tauq. They were commanded by 
 a retainer of Baridi, assisted by the chief officers, of 
 whom the highest was Abu'l-Fat# Ibn Abi Tahir. 
 Yaqut then and Abu Ja'far Jammal 1 faced each other, 
 and Yaqut waited in 'Askar Mukram instead of advanc¬ 
 ing to Ahwaz, as the situation alarmed him. He said to 
 Mu'nis : The disposition of the Sultan towards us is 
 what we know, and he has treated my son in such a way 
 that there never can be a friendly relation between us. 
 With regard to Fars, you know of our situation there. 
 There is no place in the world whither we can go or which 
 will harbour us except this town. War is uncertain, 
 the man's army is numerous, and if we fight him and are 
 defeated, we shall either be captured and brought to the 
 capital, where I shall be set upon an elephant and taken 
 round in triumph, and besides it will be supposed that I 
 have shown ingratitude towards my benefactor, and I 
 
 1 The retainer of Baridi to whom reference was just made. 
 
388 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 shall be cursed by the people ; or we shall be slain. The 
 best plan is to make ourselves agreeable to this man, 
 return to Tustar, and thence make our way to the Jabal. 
 If we can maintain ourselves there, well and good ; if 
 not, we can go to Khorasan.—This speech of Yaqut got 
 about, and discouraged Yaqut’s followers. For many 
 days they sat facing the army of Baridi, and every day 
 some of his followers deserted to Baridi. Mu’nis used 
 to come to Yaqut every morning, with the news that 
 the day before three hundred (or more or fewer) had 
 departed ; and all Yaqut ( 345 ) would reply was : They 
 are going to our secretary ; and if their disposition 
 towards us was of this sort, what use would they have 
 been ? A thousand men who remain with us, and will 
 be ready to go with us wherever we design to go, are 
 better than this rabble, who are a burden upon us in 
 peace time, and our enemies on the day of battle. We 
 have had experience of them at the gate of Fars and at 
 the gate of Arrajan.—This continued till he was left with 
 eight hundred men. When Baridi knew that he had 
 absolutely got the upper hand, he sent the qa^i Abu’l- 
 Qasim Tanukhi 1 to negotiate a truce ; after assuring 
 Yaqut of his good faith, he was to state that Baridi was 
 Yaqut's secretary, and was not suited to be a prince ; 
 that he was in serious difficulties, owing to the demands 
 of his troops ; that he had to face death from morning 
 to evening, being afraid that they would murder him. 
 That he had had no desire to enlist them, only one cause 
 had involved another, and thus they had gathered into 
 his host. Baridi now suggested a matrimonial alliance, in 
 order that Yaqut’s confidence in him might be restored ; 
 and had authorized the qadi to give Baridi's daughter 
 in marriage to Yaqut's son Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad. 
 The qa^i Abu’l-Qasim went to Yaqut and delivered his 
 
 1 See my Irshad al-arib, v. 332, He was the father of the author of the Table- 
 talk. 
 
389 
 
 VlZIERATE OF ABU Ja'fAR KaRKHI. 
 
 message, which was accepted. The marriage was 
 solemnized, and Yaqut at once departed to Tustar. 
 
 After this one of the flujari retainers came to him 
 from the Sultan, accompanied by Yaqut's son Muzaffar ; 
 bringing a letter to the effect that the Sultan presented 
 him with this son as a special favour.—The father and 
 son met at Tustar, and Mu^affar advised his father to 
 proceed to the metropolis to thank the Caliph for sending 
 him; he should halt at Dair al-'Aqul, and thence solicit 
 permission to enter the city. If that leave were given, 
 he would have secured what he wanted, and he would 
 find the Hujaris welcome him. If it were refused, then 
 he would assume the charge of Mausil and Diyar Rabi'ah 
 and go out thither. If this were prevented, he might 
 make Syria his objective.—He differed from his son, 
 and was not satisfied with this plan, but promised to 
 consider what he had suggested, and bade him stay with 
 him to deliberate.—Muzaffar begged to be excused, and 
 asked for permission to take up his residence in 'Askar 
 Mukram. This permission was granted. Baridi then 
 held out hopes to Muzaffar that he would make him 
 commander-in-chief of his army and be guided by his 
 advice ; in consequence Mnzaffar abandoned his father, 
 and deserted to Baridi, who housed him in his famous 
 Garden ( 346 ) in Ahwaz, surrounding the Garden with 
 watchers who could observe his movements while them¬ 
 selves unseen. 
 
 When Baridi had made his own position secure and 
 commanding, he conceived some apprehension of the 
 soldiers now in his service who had formerly been in that 
 of Yaqut; they might suggest to their former master 
 some evil design against himself; they might feel 
 partisanship towards him, and mutiny, uttering the 
 watchword Yaqut !—So he wrote to Yaqut to the effect 
 that the Sultan commanded him either to quit Tustar 
 and come to the capital with an escort of fifteen retainers. 
 
390 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 or to proceed to the Jabal and undertake the government 
 there; and that he, Baridi, had orders to come to Tustar 
 and forcibly expel him.—Yaqut was perplexed by this 
 communication, and calling his retainer Mu'nis, asked 
 what he advised.—He replied : Now , after what has 
 passed, not a man among your followers will join an 
 expedition to the capital nor to the Jabal; they have 
 not the money for their equipment. But if you like to 
 go to the Sultan with a score of retainers, you can do it. 
 —He replied to Baridi's letter to the effect that he would 
 reflect and communicate his decision, after soliciting a 
 month's delay, which he required in order to prepare for 
 the journey which he contemplated. 
 
 One of his spies now returned to him with the false 
 information that the army had come to 'Askar Mukram, 
 and been billeted in the houses, and was now scattered 
 in the city. Summoning his retainer Mu'nis, he said 
 to him : Praise be to God ! We have now got our 
 enemy, the ungrateful recipient of our favours, into our 
 power ! At the time of the second evening prayer we 
 shall start from Tustar, reaching 'Askar Mukram in the 
 morning while they are in fancied security in the houses ; 
 we shall surprise them, rout them, and make our way 
 to Ahwaz ; Baridi will not be able to make a stand, but 
 will think only of headlong flight.—Mu'nis replied : I 
 hope that this will turn out correct. 
 
 Accordingly Yaqut started and reached 'Askar 
 Mukram when sunrise had commenced ; he proceeded 
 through Mabarr to Na'urat al-Sabil (" the Watermill 
 of the Way ”) and the Jarud Canal, but found no trace 
 of Baridi’s troops. He pitched his tents by the canal 
 and encamped; the day passed and approached its 
 end, and he was wondering all the time at the deceit 
 practised upon him by his spy. In the late afternoon 
 there appeared the advance guards of the enemy, 
 followed by the main army, commanded by Abu Ja'far 
 
Vizierate of Abu Ja'far Karkhi. 391 
 
 Jammal, who encamped at the distance of a parasang 
 from Yaqut. The night then screened the armies ( 34 1 ?) 
 from each other. When morning came, there was some 
 skirmishing and some single combats ; and they pre¬ 
 pared for a regular engagement on the following day ; 
 for Baridi’s army were expecting the co-operation of 
 another army which Baridi had despatched by way of 
 the Dujail 1 on whose bank it was to enter an ambush 
 so as to be behind Yaqut. 
 
 On the morning of the third day of Yaqut’s arrival 
 at ‘Askar Mukram at sunrise the battle commenced ; 
 and it lasted till noon. Yaqut stood firm, supported by 
 people like Mu’nis, Adhariyun, Mushriq, and others, 
 with less than a thousand men ; and proved too strong 
 for his opponents, Abu Ja'far Jammal and others, 
 numerous as they were. The followers of Baridi came 
 near being routed. Noon came, and “ their hearts had 
 reached their windpipes,” when the men in ambush 
 appeared, three thousand fresh troops, and Yaqut was 
 at a loss ; crying “ There is no help nor strength save 
 in God the Exalted the Mighty ” he signalled to Mu’nis 
 to attack them and prevent their reaching him. 
 Mu’nis went off to deal with them, taking three hundred 
 men with him; Yaqut was left with five hundred. 
 Before an hour had passed Mu’nis returned routed. 
 Yaqut threw himself from his horse, stripped himself 
 of his armour and clothes, except his drawers and a 
 shirt of Sinis 2 manufacture, and took refuge at a her¬ 
 mitage called after Husain b. Dayyar. Against this he 
 leaned, and had he gone inside and hidden, he might 
 have remained concealed, and in the darkness of night 
 might have effected his escape. He however sat down 
 
 1 The river now called Qarun. 
 
 8 A place on the Persian coast near Jannabah ; in ruins in Yaqut’s time. 
 These goods are mentioned by Muqaddasi, p. 442, who states that they resemble 
 the material called qasab, i.e ., linen adorned with gold or silver flakes. The 
 linen used to be imported from Egypt, but in Muqaddasi's time was ordinarily 
 
 home-grown. 
 
392 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 where I have mentioned, near the Water-mill of the Way, 
 covered his face, and stretched out his hand like a mendi¬ 
 cant, wishing it to be supposed that he was a man of 
 fortune who had become impoverished, and was solicit¬ 
 ing a gift. Certain Berbers rode up to him and seeing 
 him in this posture bade him uncover his face. He 
 declined. One of them pointed at him with a javelin, 
 and he said : I am Yaqut, take me to Baridi. The 
 Berbers gathered round him and beheaded him. 
 
 Mu’nis, Adhariyun and Mushriq fled to Tustar, 
 followed by the Arabs and Berbers, who captured them 
 and brought them back. Abu Ja'far Jammal sent off 
 a pigeon with the news to Baridi, (348) asking permission 
 to send the head of Yaqut. In his reply, which was 
 sent by a despatch-rider, Baridi bade him put the head 
 with the trunk, and bury them both in the place where 
 he had been killed. Baridi placed his son Muzaffar in 
 arrest for a time, but presently sent him to the capital. 
 
 After this Baridi went into open revolt. He had 
 been deficient in courage in what he perpetrated with 
 Yaqut, only his brother Abu Yusuf had braced him, 
 so that he equipped his armies against Yaqut and put 
 him to death. Abu Zakariyya Yahya b. Sa'id Susi 
 stated that he had heard Abu Yusuf Baridi in conversa¬ 
 tion with his brother Abu ‘Abdallah. The latter said : 
 Brother, I am afraid that some day if we enter the capital 
 the Hujaris will band themselves together against us and 
 put us to death. And at this moment (349) I should 
 not wonder if my brother Abu’l-Husain who is in the 
 capital were to be killed by way of retaliation for Yaqut.— 
 Abu Yusuf replied : As for Abu’l-Husain, we shall write 
 to him about what has occurred, and he will take pre¬ 
 cautions and protect himself. As for the Hujaris and 
 the idea that we should set foot within the capital after 
 having been branded with a fine of twenty milli on 
 
393 
 
 VlZIERATE OF ABU Ja'FAR KaRKHI. 
 
 dirhems 1 —never ! After we have been rescued from 
 Qahir and the accursed Khasibi, and got off with our 
 lives, should we dream of entering the capital ? Oh, 
 but our houses will be demolished !—Away with them 
 to God's curse ! We are not going back to the capital, 
 nor have we any further need of it, as it is going to ruin. 
 Give up your design, Abu 'Abdallah ! 2 You cannot be 
 still harbouring such an idea, considering the rottenness 
 of the time, the ruin of the empire, and the poverty of 
 the Caliph. We used at one time to earn money from 
 the Sultan ; but now he is on a level with us, or rather 
 we are a source of profit to him. He would like to ruin 
 us and seize our wealth. If we do not protect ourselves 
 with these armies that we have assembled and drive out 
 Yaqut, we shall fall, and it will be long before we find a 
 day that we can call ours. Most assuredly I have not 
 given you the counsel which you have heard except after 
 furnishing myself with what will help towards its being 
 carried out. This I tell you secretly and openly ; for 
 Abu Zakariyya is a person whom we do not mind.— 
 
 Abu Zakariyya observed that in this sentence he was 
 alluding to the revenue of Sus and Jundaisabur ; for Abu 
 'Abdallah had allowed it to accumulate in Abu Yusuf's 
 hands, as something to fall back upon ; and had resorted 
 for current expenditure, the pay of the officials, and 
 what he occasionally transmitted to the Sultan, to the 
 revenues of the remaining districts of Ahwaz. Of these 
 too he was in the habit of abstracting a little at a time, 
 and putting it by; at that time he had no personal 
 expenditure or pomp, nor did he ever give anything to 
 visitor, poet or favourite, and was an expert in finance ; 
 every detail passed through his hands, and if any thing 
 was missing and had remained with the collectors, 
 Isra'il b. Salih and Sahl b. Nazir, its amount did not 
 escape him. He adds that Abu 'Abdallah and his 
 
 1 See above, p. 273, 274, where the sum is different. 
 
 * i.e., of making himself vizier or " prince of princes." 
 
394 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 brother Abu Yusuf after they had been installed by Radi 
 collected from the districts of Ahwaz for the years 322, 
 323, 324, and down to Sha'ban of 325, the month in 
 which they were defeated by Bachkam and expelled 
 from the province, (350) eight million dinars ; whereas 
 the whole outgoings on all heads were under four millions 
 cash. 1 
 
 I heard the Jewish banker Ya'qub say : I heard Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi say : We shall go to Basrah ; if we 
 succeed there, we are safe. If anything befalls us with 
 which we cannot cope, we shall make for Oman, and seek 
 the protection of the governor there (meaning Yusuf b. 
 Wajih) ; for he is a noble man, and we shall get on. 
 Or we may cross to Fars, and seek the help of 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi, since the Dailemite power is mighty, and the 
 capital is retrograde ; or we may cross to Tiz and 
 Mukran, and seek the governor of Khorasan, whither 
 they form the high road. 
 
 We return to chronicling the affairs of the capital 
 and its administration by the viziers. The vizier was 
 unequal to the burden of office, the financial stress was 
 constantly increasing, and the officials who had to do 
 with money rapacious. Ibn Ra’iq cut off supplies from 
 Wasit and Basrah, the Baridis from Ahwaz ; 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi had seized Fars, and Ibn Alyas Kirman. The 
 vizier Abu Ja'far Karkhi was at a loss, as the demands 
 upon him were numerous and the supplies were cut off. 
 Unable to maintain his authority, after three and a half 
 months from his appointment he went into hiding. In 
 his archives there were found uncashed cheques and the 
 like, examples of incapacity and want of energy in the 
 conduct of business. 
 
 When Karkhi went into hiding, Radi summoned 
 Abu’l-Qasim Sulaiman b. Hasan and invested him with 
 the vizier ate and the presidency of the bureaux. He was 
 
 1 This figure was given above, p. 131. 
 
VlZIERATE OF SULAIMAN B. idASAN. 395 
 
 no less helpless and resourceless than Karkhi. Necessity 
 then compelled Radi to send to Abu Bakr Mohammed 
 b. Ra’iq, who was in Wasit, reminding him of his offer 
 to undertake to defray all the expenses including main¬ 
 tenance of the army and of the court attendants, and 
 asking whether he still held by that proposal or with¬ 
 drew from it. 1 Abu Bakr Mohammed received (351) 
 the messenger with favour, bestowed a thousand dinars 
 on him, and replied to the letter that he abode by his 
 undertaking. 
 
 Account of Ibn Raiq’s assumption of control over the 
 Caliphate and all the provinces of the empire. 
 
 Radi then sent to him Makird the Dailemite, one of 
 the Sajis, to inform him that he was appointed Prince, 
 and commander-in-chief of the army ; that the Caliph 
 constituted him Prince of Princes, and put upon him 
 the administration of the kharaj and the Estates and of 
 public security in all the provinces, and entrusted him 
 with the management of the empire. His name was 
 to be mentioned in the Sermon from all the pulpits of 
 the empire, and he was to be called by his kunyah. 
 Robes of honour and the standard were sent out to him 
 with Makird the Dailemite and one of the imperial 
 eunuchs. All the chiefs of the bureaux, all the officers 
 of the Sajis, and idasan b. Harun went down the river 
 to him. When they had got to Wasit Ibn Ra’iq had the 
 Sajis and idasan b. Harun arrested before they had come 
 into his presence ; the Sajis were imprisoned and their 
 baggage plundered. The idujaris were then told that 
 the reason for thus treating the Sajis was to increase the 
 pay of the former. The news were transmitted to 
 Baghdad, where some of the Sajis were still remaining; 
 they departed to Mausil and to Syria. The idujaris in 
 Baghdad were alarmed by the action taken against the 
 Sajis in Wasit, proceeded to the Palace, surrounded it 
 
 1 See above, p. 333. 
 
396 
 
 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 and pitched their tents round about. Ibn Ra’iq sent 
 Mu'nis Aflahi and Baris the Chamberlain to Baghdad. 
 They pitched their tents at the Shammasiyyah Gate, 
 and Lu’lu’ was made prefect of police in Baghdad. 
 
 Mohammed b. Ra’iq went up from Wasit on Friday 
 —10 Dhu’l-Hijjah (Nov. 8, 936) 1 accompanied by 
 Bachkam ; the former was given rank above the vizier, 
 received a robe of honour, and then rode to his tent in 
 the Racecourse, where for a number of days food, drink 
 and fruits were brought him from the Palace, and he 
 was attended by the Sultan’s servants. The (352) 
 Hujari retainers gathered there to greet him, and he 
 bade them remove their tents from the Palace, and 
 return to their quarters, which they did. 
 
 From this time the power of the viziers ceased. 
 The vizier no longer had control of the provinces, the 
 bureaux or the departments ; he had merely the title 
 vizier, and the right of appearing on ceremonial days 
 at the Palace in black with sword and belt. But he 
 stood there in silence. Ibn Ra’iq and his secretary had 
 control of the whole business of state, and the same has 
 been the case with all who have held the Princeship 
 from the time of Ibn Ra’iq to this date. The revenue 
 from the provinces is transmitted to the treasury of the 
 Princes, they order and prohibit with regard to it, and 
 expend it as they please, while remitting what they 
 choose to the Sultan for his expenses. The old 
 Treasuries ceased to exist. 
 
 In this year Ibn Alyas made himself master of 
 Kirman ; his complete possession being secured after a 
 series of battles with the army of Khorasan. 
 
 In this year a disaster occurred to Abu’l-Husain 
 Ahmad b. Buwaihi, who was wounded in the hand, and 
 fell among the slain. He was rescued and ultimately 
 became sovereign of Traq. 
 
 1 A Tuesday according to Wiistenfeld. 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 397 
 
 Account of the cause of this. 
 
 When 'Ali b. Buwaihi became master of Fars, and 
 his brother 7/asan b. Buwaihi of Ispahan, the former 
 began to consider what could be done for his younger 
 brother Abu’l-#usain Ahmad b. Buwaihi, and after 
 an interchange of letters and messages the two agreed 
 that he should be sent to Kirman. 'Ali b. Buwaihi 
 put him in command of an army, (353) containing 
 fifteen hundred .of the foremost and most renowned of 
 the Dailemites, and some five hundred Turks and 
 similar troops. Abu’l-.HusahTs secretary at the time 
 was one Abu’l-ZIusain Ahmad b. Mohammed Razi, 
 known as Kur-Depir "the blind scribebecause he 
 could only use one eye. This man had no professional 
 • skill, but he was large-minded and courageous, and 
 having come to Sirajan and collected revenue, he 
 expended it on the army. Ibrahim b. Simjur Daulati, 2 
 representing the governor of Khorasan, was besieging 
 Mohammed b. Alyas b. Alyasa' Sughdi ; when he 
 heard about the Dailemites, he returned to Khorasan, 
 raising the siege of Mohammed b. Alyas. The latter, 
 being released, took the opportunity to escape from the 
 fortress wherein he had been to the city of Bamm, which 
 is in a desert 3 that stretches to Sijistan. A/miad b. 
 Buwaihi went against him, and he retreated to Sijistan 
 without a battle. Ataiad b. Buwaihi accordingly de¬ 
 parted thence, and directed his march to Jirift, which is 
 the capital of Kirman, leaving one of his officers in charge 
 of Bamm. When he approached Jirift, he was met by 
 an envoy of 'Ali b. Zanji, chief of the Qufs and the 
 Beloochis, known as 'Ali b. Kallawaihi, whose 
 ancestors, and afterwards himself, had made themselves 
 
 1 In the Persian dictionaries the word for “ scribe " is written with B, in the 
 Armenian with P. 
 
 2 Perhaps “ the holder of the inkhorn.” 
 
 * In modern maps Dasht-i-Lut. 
 
398 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 masters of those regions, 1 only they adopted a courteous 
 attitude towards every Sultan who invaded their terri¬ 
 tory, submitted to him, paid him a fixed sum, but did 
 not “ tread his carpet.” He offered AAmad b. Buwaihi 
 the money according to custom ; AAmad replied that 
 the decision belonged to his brother ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, 
 and that he must certainly enter Jirift; when he had 
 done so, he would send a messenger with a letter to his 
 brother about this offer, but meanwhile he ordered ‘Ali 
 b. Zanji to evacuate the place.—‘Ali b. Zanji consented, 
 and marched away to a distance of ( 354 ) about ten para- 
 sangs from the town, to a rough region, in which move¬ 
 ment was difficult. A series of messages then were 
 interchanged, and it was finally settled that the chief 
 should send a hostage to AAmad b. Buwaihi, who 
 assigned the region in fief to him for a payment of a 
 million dirhems a year; an immediate payment of a 
 hundred thousand was made, but as a gift, and not to 
 be reckoned as part of the rent of the fief. The chief 
 then had A&mad b. Buwaihi’s name introduced into the 
 Sermon, paid him an instalment of the rent in advance, 
 and otherwise acted honestly. The secretary Kur- 
 Depir now suggested to A/zmad b. Buwaihi to attack 
 the chief in violation of the agreements which they had 
 made, pointing out that he would find the chief off his 
 guard, and his followers in fancied security, as they were 
 relying on the agreement at which they had arrived and 
 the cessation of disputes. He would thus be able to 
 seize their stores and treasures and make himself master 
 of their country. Thus he would achieve what no-one 
 had achieved before. 
 
 Account of the result of this treachery and perjury. 
 
 A&mad b. Buwaihi listened to his secretary, and 
 decided according to his view, owing to his youth and 
 imprudence; emboldening himself to disregard what 
 
 1 His name seems to be unknown to the geographers. 
 
399 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 both piety and virtue enjoined. He collected his 
 picked troops, and leaving behind those of inferior 
 quality, started at once on a nightly raid ; it was then 
 the time of afternoon prayer, and his intention was to 
 surprise them by a nightly march, and attack them in 
 the morning. But 'Ali b. Kallawaihi was vigilant, 
 having a service of spies ; news came to him in time, 
 and he collected his followers, whom he posted in a 
 narrow pass between two mountains, which formed the 
 raiders' road. When Abu'l-iJusain with his followers 
 was in the middle of this pass at night, the people of 
 Jirift sprang upon them from every side, slew or captured 
 the troops, few of whom escaped. Abu'l-iJusain AAmad 
 b. Buwaihi was himself wounded in many places, where 
 the marks afterwards showed, lost his left hand and some 
 fingers of the right, received severe blows on his head 
 and other parts of his body, and fell among the corpses. 
 The news of this disaster reaching Jirift, his secretary 
 and those of his followers who had not taken part in the 
 raid fled. In the morning 'Ali b. Kallawaihi ordered 
 his followers to make search among the corpses for 
 A/unad b. Buwaihi, who was found living, though all 
 but dead. He was carried to Jirift, where (355) 'Ali 
 b. Kallawaihi set himself to nurse and serve him, to the 
 utmost of his ability. He offered apologies for what 
 had occurred, and expressed his regret at what had 
 happened to A/hnad. When the news reached 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi, he was deeply grieved, arrested Kur-Depir, 
 and sent to replace him Abu’l-'Abbas #annat and his 
 Chamberlain Khutlukh 1 with two thousand men, to 
 assemble in Sirajan the remains of the army of Mu'izz 
 al-daulah (as AAmad b. Buwaihi was afterwards called), 
 and collect such remnants as could be found of the 
 defeated army. 'Ali b. Kalliwaihi sent both oral and 
 written communications to 'Ali b. Buwaihi, apologizing 
 for what had occurred and explaining the situation. 
 
 1 Above, p. 304, it is suggested that he had been killed before this time, 
 
400 A.H. 324. Caliphate of Ral>i. 
 
 He freely offered his allegiance, which he declared he had 
 never abandoned nor violated.—'Ali b. Buwaihi sent an 
 embassy to him consisting of the qa^i of Shiraz, Abu’l- 
 'Abbas #anna7\ Abu’l-Fadl al-'Abbas b. Fasanjas, 
 and other distinguished people, to return a civil answer, 
 accepting his apologies, and ratifying the settlement 
 that had been made ; he also returned his hostage, and 
 renewed the treaty and covenant. Ibn Kallawaihi then 
 released Abud-i7usain A/hnad b. Buwaihi, and with him 
 Ispahdost and others whom he held as captives ; first 
 treating them kindly, bestowing on them robes and 
 furnishing them with equipment and comforts. When 
 AAmad b. Buwaihi returned to Sirajan, he found his 
 secretary in arrest, having been subjected to tortures 
 which nearly resulted in his death. He released him 
 from arrest, championed his cause, acquitted him of all 
 blame, and interceded for him with his brother, who in 
 consequence of this intercession allowed him to go free. 
 
 When Abu 'Ali b. Alyas heard of what had happened 
 to A/finad b. Buwaihi, his cupidity was aroused, and 
 he marched from Sijistan, encamping in the region called 
 Khunnab. A/finad b. Buwaihi went to meet him, and 
 there was a fierce engagement between them which 
 lasted several days, finally resulting in a victory for 
 A/hnad b. Buwaihi, and the rout of Ibn Alyas. The 
 former returned in triumph; he longed however to 
 avenge himself on 'Ali b. Kallawaihi, and started an 
 expedition against him. The latter made his prepara¬ 
 tions, mustered his troops and marched to meet AAmad 
 b. Buwaihi. He encamped at a distance of two para- 
 sangs from the army of A/hnad. They had planned to 
 commence the battle in the early morning. (356) 'Ali b. 
 Kallawaihi however tried a nightly raid with certain of 
 his followers, foot-soldiers who were able to keep up 
 lengthy running. He attacked the army of A/hnad b. 
 Buwaihi at night. It happened that the sky was 
 covered with heavy rainclouds ; the troops got mixed 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 401 
 
 and could only be distinguished by their languages. The 
 raiders damaged the army of A/rniad b. Buwaihi, killing 
 and plundering ; they then retired. The army of A/hnad 
 b. Buwaihi spent the rest of the night in vigilance, they 
 then marched to the attack, and killed a number of the 
 enemy ; Ali b. Kallawaihi was routed and Abu'l-ifusain 
 retired, with his desire for vengeance slaked, though some 
 resentment still remained in his mind. He wrote to his 
 brother Ali b. Buwaihi announcing his victory over 
 Ibn Alyas, who had been routed and over Ibn Kalla¬ 
 waihi, who had fled. The reply which came back was 
 to the effect that he was to stop where he was and go 
 no further. Ali b. Buwaihi then sent out to him 
 Marzuban b. Khusrah, the Jilite, one of his best cap¬ 
 tains, to bring him to 'Ali's capital with all speed and 
 keep him from delaying or making application. He 
 wrote similar instructions to the rest of the commanders. 
 A/hnad b. Buwaihi returned towards his brother's capital 
 against his will, as he had not fully gratified his spite 
 against 'Ali b. Kallawaihi and his followers. When he 
 had reached Istakhr, he went no further. 
 
 Account of the circumstances which led to his expedition to 
 *Iraq , of which he ultimately became master . 
 
 It came to pass that Abu 'Abdallah Baridi came to 
 Fars by sea, to take refuge with 'Ali b. Buwaihi. For 
 Mohammed b. Ra'iq and Bachkam gained the victory 
 over him in numerous battles, and wrested Ahwaz 
 from his grasp ; they also came near wresting Basrah 
 from it. There he left his brothers Abu Yusuf and 
 Abu'l-i7usain 'Ali b. Mohammed ; and when he arrived 
 at the capital of 'Ali b. Buwaihi as a suppliant, he found 
 himself honourably received and entertained. Baridi 
 offered, on condition of his providing him with troops, 
 to put him in possession of the districts of Ahwaz, pay 
 him down vast sums from the revenues of Ahwaz, and 
 leave his two sons with him as hostages. ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 
402 
 
 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 summoned his brother AbuT#usain A/nnad from 
 Istakhr, and when he was near, (357) went out to meet 
 him at the head of his whole army, drew him near, 
 assigned him higher rank than he himself claimed, 
 by way of solace for his misfortune, and then bade him 
 start with Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi at the head of a mighty 
 army perfectly equipped. 
 
 The news reached Ibn Ra’iq and Bachkam. The 
 latter was with Ibn Ra'iq at Abu Ja‘far’s Camp, besieg¬ 
 ing Basrah, and returned to Ahwaz with the intention 
 of preventing the Dailemites from invading the district; 
 Ibn Ra'iq returned to Wasit. The armies of Bachkam 
 and Abu’kffusain A/unad b. Buwaihi met near Ram- 
 hurmuz, and the former retired to ‘Askar Mukram after 
 a series of engagements which we hope to narrate in the 
 year 326. 
 
 Year 325. 
 
 In this year Ibn Ra’iq advised Radi to descend the 
 river with him to Wasit in order to be near Ahwaz, and 
 to negotiate with Baridi. If the latter agreed to what 
 was required of him, well and good ; if he rebelled, the 
 Caliph should make war upon him. Radi agreed, and 
 descended the river on Saturday the first day of 
 MuAarram (Nov. 19, 936). The #ujaris were disturbed, 
 thinking that this was a design against them, with the 
 view of treating them as the Sajis had been treated ; 
 they declared that they would remain in Baghdad. Ibn 
 Ra’iq paid no attention to them, so while some remained, 
 most of them joined the expedition ; presently all did 
 the latter. When they had arrived in Wasit they were 
 inspected by Ibn Ra’iq; he began with the deputy- 
 doorkeepers, who were some five hundred ; he restricted 
 their number to sixty, cashiering the rest. He reduced 
 the pay of those whom he retained. He then made an 
 inspection of the #ujaris, and rejected the interlopers, 
 the substitutes, the women, the traders, and the refugees. 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 403 
 
 They were disturbed by this measure, and would not at 
 first acquiesce ; presently they acquiesced, and at the 
 next inspection he rejected a large number more. They 
 then mutinied and seized their arms ; Ibn Ra'iq fought 
 a furious battle with them on Tuesday—5 MuAarram, 
 (Dec. 13, 936), which went against the #ujaris, of whom 
 he slew some and captured others ; the rest fled to 
 Baghdad, where (358) Lulu', prefect of police rode out 
 and charged them ; they then went into hiding, their 
 dwellings were pillaged, and some of them burned, and 
 their possessions confiscated. When Ibn Ra'iq had 
 finished his struggle with the J^ujaris, he ordered the 
 execution of the Sajis whom he had imprisoned. They 
 were all put to death with the exception of Safi the 
 Treasurer and #asan b. Harun. 
 
 When he had finished with the Sajis and ffujetris, 
 Ra^i and Abu Bakr Ibn Rafiq determined to march out 
 to Ahwaz and expel Baridi thence. The tents were 
 brought to Badhibin ; and when Baridi heard of this, 
 he was greatly perturbed. Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirazad 
 and Abu Mohammed Hasan b. Isma'il Iskafi were 
 despatched to him with a message from Ra^i and Ibn 
 Ra'iq, to tell him that he had kept back the revenue, which 
 he had treated as his own, and corrupted the army, which 
 he had taught to rebel. They were to remind him that 
 he was not a descendant of Abu Talib anxious to be 
 sovereign, nor a soldier ambitious to be made a prince, 
 nor a bearer of arms, 1 who might be thought worthy to 
 reconquer countries that are locked, but originally a humble 
 clerk, who had risen out of obscurity, and a mediocre official, 
 who had been favoured and thought worthy of high office, 
 and had then rebelled, been ungrateful for the benefits which 
 he had received, and rewarded evil for good, and thrown 
 off his allegiance. If, however, he surrendered his army, 
 and transmitted the revenue, he would be retained in his 
 
 1 It is not clear how this differs from the soldier. Perhaps the former word 
 is corrupt. 
 
404 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 office. Otherwise , he would be attacked and treated as he 
 deserved. 
 
 The two envoys went to Baridi and informed him of 
 their message, strongly advising him to yield. He 
 offered to farm the revenues of the Ahwaz districts for 
 (359) 360,000 dinars, of which he was to pay 30,000 
 every lunar month, and to surrender his army to some 
 person authorized to take it over, and appointed to 
 command it on an expedition to Fars; as the troops were 
 unwilling to return to the capital owing to the scarcity of 
 money there, to the discord between the officials, and to 
 their apprehension of the Turks and the Qarmadans.—The 
 envoys communicated this offer by letter to Ibn Ra'iq, 
 who put it before Ra^i. He consulted .Husain b. 'Ali 
 Nubakhti about it, and he advised that it should not 
 be accepted ; the Caliph should, he said, carry out his 
 proposed expedition against Baridi whilst Baridi was 
 still trembling, should wrest Ahwaz from his grasp, and 
 not let him remain there. Abu Bakr Ibn Muqatil 
 advised that his offer be accepted and that he be re¬ 
 tained in office.—Ibn Ra’iq inclined to the easier course 
 and accepted the counsel of Ibn Muqatil; but Nubakhti 
 was in the right. 
 
 Ibn Ra’iq therefore wrote to Ibn Shirzad and Ibn 
 Isma'il Iskafi giving them permission to assign the 
 province to Baridi and have the deed attested. They 
 did this and returned. With regard to the money, not 
 a dinar was ever paid; and with regard to the army, 
 Ja'far b. Warqa was sent to take it over and lead it to 
 Fars. This person, arriving in Ahwaz, was met by 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi bringing the whole of his force, 
 regiment after regiment, filling the whole country and 
 blackening it, and- encompassing Baridi. The effect on 
 Ja'far b. Warqa was bewildering. Then the imperial 
 robes of honour were despatched to Baridi as minister and 
 governor of Ahwaz; he put them on in the public Mosque 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 405 
 
 of Ahwaz, and returned home preceded by the army, its 
 captains and cavalry, free men and slaves, and infantry, 
 with their standards and their flags, and their weapons, 
 so that Ja'far b. Warqa, who rode with Baridi, was in 
 despair, depressed and discouraged. When Baridi 
 reached his residence, he detained 1 Ja'far b. Warqa, 
 the commanders who were with him, and the people ; 
 and it was a great day. Ja'far b. Warqa stayed with 
 him some days, after which Baridi induced the troops to 
 mutiny, and demand of Ja'far a quarter's pay for the 
 purpose of the expedition ; (360) Ja'far went into hiding, 
 and applied for protection to Baridi, who got him out of 
 the place, so that he could return to the capital. Prior 
 to this Ibn Ra'iq had interested himself in Abu'l-iTusain 
 Baridi and obtained permission for him to leave Baghdad 
 and join his two brothers. When the affair of Baridi 
 had been settled, Radi with Ibn Ra'iq went up stream 
 to Baghdad. The Prince Ibn Ra'iq’s secretary, Abu 
 ,Abdallah #usain b. 'Ali Nubakhti also came to 
 Baghdad. 
 
 Account of the plot whereby Abu Bakr Ibn Muqatil ousted 
 Husain b. 'Ali Nubakhti from the secretaryship of 
 
 Ibn Ra‘iq. 
 
 Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Muqatil had obtained his 
 well-known influence over Ibn Ra'iq, and was now 
 unfriendly towards JTusain b. 'Ali Nubakhti, after they 
 had been closely attached ; and indeed it was Nubakhti 
 who had introduced Ibn Muqatil to Ibn Ra’iq, and 
 brought him into his office. For this reason, and because 
 jffusain b. 'Ali was above him, and monopolized Ibn 
 Ra'iq, whose kingdom he administered, having built up 
 for Ibn Ra'iq his lofty station, brought to him his fortune, 
 and amassed for him from the revenue of Wasit and 
 Basrah, which he farmed, the resources which were his 
 mainstay, Ibn Muqatil advised Ibn Ra’iq to obtain the 
 
 1 Apparently to a banquet. 
 
406 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 support of Abu 'Abdallah Baridi, and make him his 
 Secretary ; thus they would make common cause, and 
 the army of Ahwaz would be united with the army of Ibn 
 Ra’iq. Ibn Muqatil spoke to Ibn Ra’iq in the following 
 strain: Prince, this plan will redound to your glory. At 
 present Baridi is like an equal to you; but if he condescends 
 to become a dependent, he will be under your power. You 
 will be told that Baridi betrayed the trust of the Sultan 
 and of Yaqut , so how can you rely upon him ? The answer 
 to this is that you will not be together in one region, where 
 he would have the chance of overreaching you as he 
 overreached Yaqut. You can do nothing against him 
 except by war ; and in war you may come out victorious 
 or (361) he may. And now that we have come to this 
 arrangement with him, to reduce him from being prince 
 to being secretary, to make of him a dependent, to lure 
 away the men who constitute his army, and despatch 
 him with Bachkam to reconquer Fars and Ispahan for 
 us, are a better plan than to refuse his request, and excite 
 his suspicions, which will lead to his taking precautions 
 and tampering with the troops. Further he has trans¬ 
 mitted to you, Prince, a present of thirty thousand 
 dinars, which are in my lodging.—Ibn Ra’iq replied : 
 I have no intention of dismissing the faithful and fortu¬ 
 nate #usain b. 'Ali Nubakhti, even though Baridi were 
 to reconquer Fars and Ispahan, and make of them a 
 personal gift to myself.—Ibn Muqatil said : Well, Prince, 
 if you disapprove of this, then let him farm the revenues 
 of Wasit and Basrah.—Ibn Ra’iq said : That I am pre¬ 
 pared to do, if #usain b. 'Ali approves.—Ibn Muqatil 
 then asked Ibn Ra’iq to keep quiet their discussion of 
 the secretaryship and not mention it to Nubakhti. 
 
 Presently Abu 'Abdallah #usain b. 'Ali Nubakhti 
 appeared. Ibn Ra’iq communicated the second proposal 
 to him, and he was indignant; he enumerated the crimes 
 of Baridi, his treachery and his ingratitude for benefits 
 from the commencement of his career and that of his 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra’iq. 
 
 brothers, until they had openly rebelled. He repeated 
 the story of Yaqut, and then turning to Ibn Muqatil 
 said : You are not doing your duty by the Prince, nor 
 giving him sincere advice. He added : My health is 
 failing, and if I live and remain with you, the plot against 
 you will not succeed ; but if God’s decree be executed 
 upon me, I adjure you by God to be induced by no trick 
 which Baridi may devise to place any trust or confidence 
 in him.—Ibn Ra’iq’s eyes filled with tears at this, and 
 he said : No, God is going to prolong your life and end 
 his ! 
 
 Husain b. 'Ali Nubakhti was at this time suffering 
 from fever and a cough. He retired, leaving Ibn Muqatil 
 angry. The latter said to Ibn Ra’iq : The man has 
 transmitted thirty thousand dinars to you, you must 
 treat him with civility. Agree to receive Ahmad b. 'Ali 
 Kufi as his agent and representative at your court till 
 you make up your mind about his application. To this 
 Ibn Ra’iq assented. 
 
 (362) Ibn Muqatil communicated these proceedings 
 to Baridi, who despatched A/unad b. 'Ali Kufi. 1 He 
 came to the court of Mohammed b. Ra’iq in Baghdad, 
 and became associated with him as the representative of 
 Abu 'Abdallah Baridi. Nubakhti’s illness became worse, 
 and for some days he could not appear at the office. He 
 had a nephew to whom he had given his daughter, who 
 was acting for him in the office of Ibn Ra’iq, signing 
 documents in his place. Abu Bakr Ibn Muqatil 
 addressed Ibn Ra’iq as follows : Fidelity is a part of 
 piety, and is particularly seemly on the part of the 
 Prince, since it brings safety to every one. Still it is 
 not prudent to let affairs go to ruin. Husain b. 'Ali is 
 dying, so look out for yourself, as business is in a bad 
 way.—Ibn Ra’iq replied : My friend, I just asked 
 Sinan b. Thabit 2 and he told me that Nubakhti was 
 
 1 See above, p. 327. 
 
 2 Famous physician, ob. 331. 
 
408 
 
 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 improving ; the blood-spitting is milder, and he has 
 eaten some heath-cock.—Ibn Muqatil retorted : Sinan 
 is a prudent man, and does not like to tell you anything 
 disagreeable about a man whom you value, especially 
 when that man is the vizier of the period. But call his 
 son-in-law and his brother's son, who is also his deputy, 
 and make him swear that he is telling you the truth.— 
 Ibn Ra'iq agreed to do this.—Ibn Muqatil then went 
 and summoned ‘Ali b. Ahmad, brother's son to 
 Nubakhti, and said to him : I have been paving the way 
 for you to become secretary to the Prince, and advising 
 him to appoint you ; it is the vizierate at the capital ! 
 Your uncle is about to depart this life ; and if the Prince 
 asks you, tell him that your uncle is sure to die. I will 
 then go back and get him to redeem his promise, and 
 put the robe of honour upon you before there is another 
 candidate in the field.— 'Ali b. Ahmad took the bait, 
 and the next day he was privately asked by Ibn Ra'iq 
 about his uncle's condition. By way of reply he burst 
 into tears, and said : God give you rich reward, Prince, 
 for your solicitude about Abu 'Abdallah; you may 
 count him among the dead.—He then beat his face.— 
 Ibn Ra'iq said : There is no power nor strength save in 
 God ! He is truly dear to me; if the living might ransom 
 the dying, I should ransom him with my whole kingdom ! 
 —He proceeded to summon Ibn Muqatil, and said to him: 
 You were right; we despair of Nubakhti's recovery. 
 “ We are God's and to Him do we return " ! What 
 had we better do ?—He said : Abu 'Abdallah Ahmad 
 b. 'Ali Kufi here is the equal of Nubakhti, and both 
 were favourites of Ishaq b. Isma'il Nubakhti. 1 Kufi 
 is absolutely trustworthy and honest, (363) and is on an 
 intimate footing with Abu 'Abdallah Baridi. If you 
 appoint Kufi secretary, you will have a capable, honest 
 and painstaking minister, and in addition you will draw 
 those people into your party and secure their adhesion. 
 
 1 See above, p. 245, etc. 
 
409 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra’iq. 
 
 We shall make Baridi recognize that we have granted 
 his request and made him your Secretary, appointing as 
 his representative Abu 'Abdallah Kufi.—Ibn Ra’iq 
 replied : Ask God’s blessing on your scheme and carry 
 it out. Only you are to be responsible if Kufi plays me 
 false or favours Baridi against me in any matter.— 
 Ibn Muqatil replied : I am prepared to guarantee on 
 behalf of Kufi all that is stipulated by the Prince.—So 
 Ibn Ra’iq appointed him secretary, and he proceeded 
 to manage the whole of the business as Nubakhti had 
 done ; only he omitted from the letters which were 
 issued in Ibn Ra’iq’s name the words written by A. son of 
 B, which Nubakhti had been in the habit of writing in 
 the style of a vizier. 1 The length of time during which 
 Nubakhti managed the affairs of the empire was three 
 months and eight days. 
 
 Ibn. Muqatil now wrote to Abu'Abdallah Baridi to 
 demand his gratitude for the plan whereby he had pushed 
 Nubakhti aside, and given the office which he had held to 
 him (Baridi), appointing as his deputy Abu 'Abdallah 
 Kufi.—Baridi sent him twenty thousand dinars in addi¬ 
 tion to the thirty thousand which we have previously 
 mentioned. 2 
 
 Nubakhti now recovered and became quite well. 
 The fact was concealed 3 from Ibn Ra’iq, and the Baridis 
 obtained their chance of seizing Basrah. 
 
 Account of their plan, and the way wherein fortune 
 
 favoured them. 
 
 Not a month passed from the appointment by Ibn 
 Ra’iq of Abu 'Abdallah Kufi to the secretaryship before 
 the latter endeavoured to obtain for Abu Yusuf Baridi the 
 
 1 Qalqashandi vi. 198 quotes an earlier writer for the statement that this was 
 the practice in ‘Iraq ; at the end of the imperial rescripts there were the words 
 “ written by ” followed by the name of the vizier and that of his father. 
 
 a Above, p. 361. 
 
 » It seems clear that the author's information is defective, as Ibn Ra'iq 
 could not easily have been kept in ignorance of his dear friend’s recovery. 
 
410 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 farming of the revenues of Basrah and Wasit. He made 
 the proposal to Ibn Ra'iq ; the latter declared he would 
 not do it, as he did not trust them. Why not ? asked 
 Kufi. As for Wasit, I administer it myself, and not even 
 an unmounted messenger of theirs comes there. I 
 undertake that the revenue shall be paid in full. As for 
 Basrah, I have settled the amount at four million 
 dirhems, on condition that he provides ( 364 ) trustworthy 
 sureties there.—Ibn Muqatil supported the proposal, 
 and Ibn Ra’iq presently agreed to give Abu Yusuf Baridi 
 the contract, and Abu Yusuf appointed Abu'l-/?asan 
 Ibn Asad officer of kharaj in Basrah. The minister of 
 war there was Mohammed b. Yazdad. The whole 
 population of Basrah went out to Suq al-Ahwaz to con¬ 
 gratulate Baridi on his appointment, and there was a 
 great gathering. Abu'l-#usain Ibn 'Abd al-Salam 
 the Hashimite, the leading man in Basrah, had already 
 deserted the side of Ibn Ra'iq, because the latter had 
 subjected him to indignity in Basrah. Betaking himself 
 to Abu 'Abdallah Baridi and Abu Yusuf his brother, 
 he flung himself absolutely upon them, advising them 
 to make themselves masters of Basrah by the despatch 
 of an army thither. He" asserted that the Khawal 1 
 and the canal workers were ready to obey him. Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi thereupon commenced building 
 launches, barges, and other boats in large numbers, and 
 presently had a fleet of a hundred craft thoroughly sound 
 and in excellent condition. When he was visited by the 
 people of Basrah for the purpose of congratulation, he 
 paid them various honours and compliments, and then 
 said : Abu’l-#usain Ibn 'Abd al-Salam is already 
 acquainted with my favourable intentions towards you, 
 and my anxiety for your welfare. He knows how I have 
 been preparing river-craft for the armies with which I 
 shall protect your town from the Qarmadans ; I could 
 easily have dispensed with farming the revenues of 
 
 1 See above, p. 33. 
 
411 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 Basrah, since I derive no profit therefrom, only I felt 
 indignant at the wrongs inflicted on you by Ibn Ra'iq 
 and his deputy Mohammed b. Yazdad. I have under¬ 
 taken to pay out of my own pocket four thousand dinars 
 a month in order to relieve you of the police, prison and 
 shawak dues, 1 which were taken from you, all of which I 
 now abolish, and here is my signature to their abolition. 
 —He signed an order to that effect, and this action was 
 received with loud plaudits and blessings. He pro¬ 
 ceeded : This will be told to Ibn Ra'iq, and will meet 
 with his disapproval, will set him against me, and be 
 a cause of enmity between us. But by Allah, where 
 your interests are at stake, I care not if I make enemies 
 of my brothers Abu Yusuf and Abu'l-iJusain or of my 
 son Abud-Qasim ! For I know that among you are the 
 sons of Hashim and of Abu Talib, and the offspring of 
 the Refugees and the Helpers. To protect you is (365) 
 one of the sacred duties of Islam, and I imagine that 
 God will forgive me all my sins if I relieve you of annoy¬ 
 ance. 2 Ibn Ra'iq will want to reimpose the pelf which 
 he used to take from you and which I have removed ; 
 and where are the strong arms and the proud souls which 
 fought against ‘Alilbn Abi Talib, on whom God's favour 
 rest ! When Ibn Ra'iq wants to cancel what I have 
 done, strike his face and the faces of his followers with 
 those arms and swords, and I will back you !—He pro¬ 
 ceeded to remind the people of Basrah of their exploits 
 in connexion with ‘Abd al-Rahman b. al-Ash‘ath and 
 Mohammed and Ibrahim, sons of 'Abdallah b. #asan b. 
 ffasan. 3 Let your hearts, he said, be stout, and your 
 hopes high, and your minds strong in resisting your 
 enemy.—He proceeded to assign two thousand dinars 
 to be expended on the public Mosque in Basrah, having 
 
 1 This last is obscure. Possibly it is a local pronunciation of the word for 
 " market ” ; or the initials of the words which signify Witnesses, Trusteeship 
 
 and Surety. 
 
 2 In the last of Hariri’s Maqamahs there are assertions of this sort. 
 
 8 See the history of the years 81 and 144/5. 
 
412 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 heard, he said, that it was in ruins. Various petitions 
 were presented to him, and he proceeded to sign his 
 name to reductions, reconsiderations, allowances, and 
 alleviations of assessment to the amount of two million 
 dirhems ; by the time they left him they had become 
 his swords. He proceeded to despatch his retainer and 
 chamberlain Iqbal, who alternated with Abu Ja'far al- 
 Jammal, with two thousand men, bidding them remain 
 in #isn Mahdi till he wrote to the chamberlain Iqbal to 
 bring them to Basrah. When Ibn Yazdad heard of this, 
 he was in a state of consternation. 
 
 This year Mohammed b. Ra’iq appointed Abu'l- 
 Husain Bachkam chief of police in Baghdad and Abu'l- 
 Husain 'Umar b. Mohammed judge of judges in addi¬ 
 tion to the posts which he already held. 1 
 
 He also ordered the H ujari retainers who were hiding 
 in Baghdad to show themselves, and when they did so 
 and came before him with their arms, he inspected 
 them and passed out of the whole number some two 
 thousand, to whom he assigned a fresh rate of pay ac¬ 
 cording to his own idea. The rest he rejected. Those 
 whom he had passed and whose pay he had fixed were 
 sent by him to the Jabal; when they were on the (366) 
 Khorasan Road, they decided to go to Ahwaz. So they 
 went to Abu 'Abdallah Baridi, who received them, 
 doubled their pay, made them a sympathetic speech on 
 the subject of their treatment at the hands of Ibn Ra’iq, 
 at which he expressed his surprise, and promised to 
 befriend them to the uttermost. To the Sultan and to 
 Ibn Ra'iq he explained that when they came to him, it 
 had not been in his power to reject them ; so he had 
 been compelled to receive them. He made them his 
 excuse for failing to transmit the sums which he had 
 been ordered to pay, declaring that they had conspired 
 with the army to prevent his sending the local revenue 
 away. He became master of Ahwaz and Basrah. 
 
 1 Above, p. 230, he was appointed judge of judges by Muqtadir. 
 
413 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 Thus the world was in the hands of usurpers. These 
 persons had become provincial kings ; whoever had got 
 control of a region regarded himself as its possessor, and 
 withheld the revenue from it. Wasit, Basrah, and 
 Ahwaz were in the hands of the Baridis ; Fars in those 
 of ‘Ali b. Buwaihi; Kirman in those of Abu ‘Ali Ibn 
 Alyas ; Ispahan, Rayy and the Jabal in those of Abu 
 ‘Ali JTasan b. Buwaihi and his competitor Washmagir ; 
 Mausil, Diyar Rabi‘ah and Diyar Bakr in those of the 
 Banu ii/amdan ; Egypt and Syria in those of Mohammed 
 b. Tughj ; the Maghrib and Ifriqiyyah in those of Abu 
 Tamim; Spain in those of the Umayyad prince; 1 Khor- 
 asan in those of Nasr b. (367) A/unad; Yamamah, Bahrain 
 and Hajar in those of Abu Tahir Ibn Abi Sa‘id Jannabi; 
 Tabaristan and Jurjan in the hands of the Dailemites. 
 
 Nothing remained in the hands of the Sultan and 
 Ibn Ra'iq except the Sawad and ‘Iraq. Diyar Mu^ar, 
 having become desolate and waste, and too poor to com¬ 
 pensate the Sultan, was evacuated by Badr Kharshani, 
 who was minister of war there. He returned to the 
 capital; and there being there no minister of public 
 security, it was invaded and seized by ‘Ali b. #amdan. 2 
 The illness of Abu ‘Abdallah iTisain b. ‘Ali Nubakhti 
 was increased by his witnessing the ruin of his plans, 
 and having himself fallen victim to a plot. He became 
 consumptive. 
 
 This year the hostility between Mohammed b. Ra'iq 
 and the Baridis became open. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 It happened that in Rabi‘ ii of the year 325 (Feb.- 
 March, 937) Abu Tahir the Qarmadan came and entered 
 Kufah. Ibn Ra'iq moved out of Baghdad and dis¬ 
 mounted in the Garden of Ibn Abi'l-Shawarib at the 
 
 1 Al-Nasir ‘Abd al-Ra/unan. He took the title Commander of the Faithful 
 in 326. See al-ZTulal al-Manshiyyat. Cairo 1329, p. 18. 
 
 * Better known as Saif al-danlah, 
 
414 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 Yasiriyyah Bridge ; thence he despatched Abu Bakr 
 Ibn Muqatil with a message to Abu Tahir of Hajar, who 
 had demanded that the Sultan should every year send 
 him money and food to the value of about 120,000 dinars, 
 on condition of his remaining in his own country. Ibn 
 Ra'iq offered to provide that amount, only as pay to 
 Abu Tahir’s men, and on condition that they should be 
 enrolled by the Sultan, the money to be spent on them 
 while they were to enter the Sultan’s service. A series 
 of negotiations and discussions ensued, in the course of 
 which Abu Tahir went home, without having come to 
 any settlement with Ibn Ra’iq. Ibn Ra’iq proceeded 
 as far as Qasr Ibn Hubairah, and returned thence to 
 Wasit. He made no further secret of his hostility to 
 Baridi, and appointed Abu’l-Fath (368) al-Fadl b. 
 Ja'far vizier. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 Ibn Ra’iq supposed that if he were to appoint al- 
 Fa^l b. Ja'far vizier, the latter would bring him the 
 revenues due from Egypt and Syria. Al-Fadl therefore 
 came from Syria, and Sulaiman b. i7asan 1 stayed at 
 home. The robes of honour were sent out to the new 
 vizier before his arrival in Baghdad, and reached him at 
 Hit, where he put them on. Arriving at the capital, he 
 confirmed Abu’l-Qasim Kalwadhi as president of the 
 bureau of the Sawad, and appointed as his deputy in the 
 capital Abu Bakr Abdallah b. 'Ali Niffari, husband 
 of his sister. The Sultan wrote a letter which was 
 despatched to the provincial governors announcing the 
 appointment of al-Fadl as vizier. 
 
 Now when Ibn Ra iq heard of the address delivered 
 by Baridi to the people of Basrah, he was alarmed and 
 vexed with Kufi, whom he had a mind to arrest, only 
 Ibn Muqatil defended him. Then he thought he would 
 deceive Baridi by writing him a letter. So he said to 
 
 1 The former vizier. 
 
415 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra’iq. 
 
 Kufi: I have been informed that your chief has been 
 addressing the people of Basrah in a style which I shall 
 not notice, as very likely the matter has been ex¬ 
 aggerated ; but do you write to him as follows in my 
 name : That of which I disapprove is your reception of 
 the Hujaris ; either send them back, or expel them. If 
 however they ask your permission to betake themselves to 
 some region, then attach to them such of your commanders 
 as you think fit, and despatch them to the fabal. With 
 regard to the force sent by you to His^ Mahdi , 1 I am aware 
 that, hearing of the arrival of the man from Hajar at Kufah, 
 you sent it by way of precaution to assist the inhabitants 
 against him, if required. There is now no need for their 
 services ; and their remaining in Hisn Mahdi when they 
 are not wanted will bring suspicion upon you and enable 
 your enemies to sow dissension between us. I am also 
 informed that you have despatched your retainer Abu Jafar 
 Mohammed to Sus (369) (as he had actually done), bidding 
 him make for Tib, and remain there ; this was doubtless 
 for fear lest I might be unable to cope with the Qarmatians, 
 and that he might be at hand, should he be required for the 
 defence of Wasit. I, when I came to Wasit, bade him 
 retire, and he has returned to Ahwaz. For this I am 
 grateful, and do you do likewise in the matter of Iqbal and 
 the force which you have sent to TUsn. You may count 
 on my loyalty .— Kufi wrote all this, and the reply was 
 that Baridi's original army would not be parted from the 
 ffujaris, who were their kin, attached by ties of blood, 
 marriage and nationality. He could not therefore expel 
 the #ujaris at once. He would however separate them 
 in course of time. There had been persistent rumours 
 that when the Qarmadan left Kufah he had directed 
 himself towards Basrah, whose people had demanded 
 his (Baridi’s) help. He had despatched this force out of 
 concern for them, and it had already reached the place. 
 
 1 See above, p. 374. 
 
416 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 Now the moment Baridi had heard of the arrival of 
 Ibn Ra’iq at Wasit, he had sent orders to the force which 
 was at Hisn Mahdi to go to Basrah; and the force 
 had entered that city after Baridi had despatched a 
 considerable detachment of Hu] aris to help them enter. 
 Mohammed b. Yazdad sent out against them two Turks 
 of the Basrah garrison, Makan Sughdi and Takin ; 
 in an engagement which took place at the Prince’s Canal 
 the Ra’iqites were routed ; Mohammed b. Yazdad 
 proceeded to reinforce them with regulars and with his 
 personal retainers, and there was a second engagement 
 at Kasraban, a parasang’s distance from Ubullah ; the 
 Ra’iqites were again defeated, and Iqbal with the "army 
 of Baridi entered Basrah. Mohammed b. Yazdad, the 
 representative of Ibn Ra iq, opened the gate of Basrah 
 and fled to Kufah by the land route. Makan, T akin 
 and the Ra’iqite river-troops found their way to Wasit 
 in their vessels. Within a few days Ibn Ra’iq received 
 news of the arrival of Baridi’s retainer Iqbal with his 
 followers in Basrah, and the reply to Kufi’s letter. He 
 despatched a messenger to Baridi with a message (370) 
 half lure, half menace, containing promises and threats 
 Baridi’s reply was to the effect that he could not with¬ 
 draw his troops from Basrah, for the inhabitants had 
 confidence in them, whereas they had been alienated 
 by the ill-treatment which they had received from Ibn 
 Yazdad during his residence there. The Qarmafian 
 was hankering after the possession of the city; should 
 he (Baridi) order his force to evacuate it, the Qarma/ians 
 were likely or even certain to be admitted in order that 
 the people of Basrah might not have further dealings 
 
 with Ibn Yazdad after they had openly taken part against 
 him. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that the people of Basrah were 
 in the highest degree offended with Ibn Ra’iq and 
 Mohammed b. Yazdad ; for the latter had dealt with 
 
417 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 them in the style of Sodom 1 and inflicted on them 
 the grossest injustice and humiliation ; they being 
 accustomed to honourable treatment. They expected 
 blessings from Baridi; but their experience of him and 
 his two brothers made them wish they had “ eaten 
 their artichokes and carobs " 2 and been content to 
 endure their treatment by Ibn Ra'iq and Mohammed b. 
 Yazdad. 
 
 By the time of the messenger's return Ibn Ra'iq had 
 already summoned Badr Kharshani, and bestowed 
 on him various honours, such as imperial robes and a 
 mount. They were at first in doubt whether they should 
 despatch forces to Basrah or to Ahwaz ; ultimately they 
 decided to give Bachkam control of Ahwaz after a 
 dialogue on that matter between Bachkam and Ibn 
 Muqatil which we hope presently to record. Ibn Ra'iq 
 bestowed on Bachkam the robe of honour for that office, 
 and despatched him with Badr Kharshani to Ahwaz, 
 sending with them Ibn Abi ‘Adnan Rasibi as guide 
 and helper. He further despatched his chamberlain 
 Fatik, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ra'iqi, AAmad b. Nasr Qushuri, 
 and Burghuth, bidding them remain in Jamidah, so 
 that the army of Baridi might be caught “ between the 
 two rings of the belt." 3 
 
 Bachkam hurried on without waiting for Badr Khar¬ 
 shani, and advanced till he reached Sus ; Baridi de¬ 
 spatched his retainer Mohammed, known as Abu Ja'far 
 Jammal, at the head of ten thousand (371) men excel¬ 
 lently equipped and armed for war. An engagement 
 took place outside Sus, and though Bachkam had only 
 two hundred and ninety Turkish retainers with him, 
 the followers of Baridi were routed ; it was the day on 
 which Badr reached Tib. Bachkam stated that he had 
 hurried forward and taken the risk of encountering such 
 
 1 A proverbial phrase for injustice. 
 
 2 A proverbial phrase, which probably refers to a humble diet. 
 
 3 Proverbial expression ; see Dozy's Ibn Badrun 151, 3. 
 
418 
 
 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Razh. 
 
 large numbers with his handful of men in order that 
 Badr might have no share in his victory. 
 
 When Abu Ja'far Jammal returned to Abu 'Abdallah 
 Baridi, the latter struck him on the face with his shoe, 
 saying to him : What, have you with ten thousand men 
 run away from three hundred slaves !—Abu Ja'far 
 replied : You fancied you were fighting with the un¬ 
 lucky Yaqut and his unlucky troops. You have got 
 against you in the cudgel of Bachkam and the Turks 
 something very different from what you have been 
 accustomed to in the Blacks from the gate of Oman and 
 the homeborn.—Baridi stood up and cuffed him with 
 his hand, and then said : I have despatched Abu’l- 
 K halil the Dailemite and my Persian followers, both 
 those who were with me and those who were left behind 
 in Ahwaz, with three thousand men to Tustar ; and 
 do you at once go thither with your followers to join 
 them and renew the campaign.—He said : I will do so, 
 only we shall return to you this time more shamefully 
 routed than on the first occasion ; for the fear of Bach¬ 
 kam has taken possession of the minds of the whole army. 
 
 He started at once with three thousand men ; Bach¬ 
 kam meanwhile had advanced to the Tustar Canal, into 
 which he and his retainers flung themselves, meaning 
 to swim across ; there was little water ; their enemies 
 fled without an engagement, and returned to Baridi. 
 Baridi immediately departed with his two brothers; 
 they embarked in a barge accompanied by a vessel con¬ 
 taining three hundred thousand dinars out of their 
 treasury. This vessel sank in the Nahrawan, and their 
 barge sank too ; they were rescued by divers, and some 
 of the money was brought up for Bachkam. Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi said : We have assuredly not escaped 
 drowning for our merits, but for a stroke which God 
 means to launch upon the world.—Abu Yusuf asked him 
 whether he could not refrain from joking on such an 
 occasion. 
 
419 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 They finally arrived in Basrah. Bachkam entered 
 Ahwaz, and wrote to Ibn Ra'iq announcing his victory. 
 
 (372) When Abu 'Abdallah Baridi, accompanied by his 
 two brothers, reached Ubullah, he despatched his retainer 
 Iqbal to Ma^ara, while they remained in their barges. 
 They prepared three vessels for flight to Oman from 
 Ubullah, in the event of Iqbal being routed at Matfara 
 as Abu Ja'far had been at Sus. Abu 'Abdallah Baridi 
 further sent Abu'l-#usain Ibn 'Abd al-Salam to 
 support Iqbal. This time the Ra'iqites were defeated, 
 and Burghuth was taken prisoner ; he was brought 
 to Baridi who released him. Baridi then wrote a letter 
 to Ibn Ra'iq wherein he endeavoured to mollify him, 
 and despatched it with Burghuth. The three Baridis 
 then entered the official dwellings in Basrah, and made 
 themselves comfortable ; Bachkam was unable to leave 
 Ahwaz owing to the want of rivercraft. The troops of 
 Badr mutinied, in consequence of which Badr retired to 
 Wasit. Bachkam remained master of Ahwaz. 
 
 When Ibn Ra'iq learned what had happened to his 
 followers on the water, he despatched Abu’l-'Abbas 
 Ahmad b. Khaqan and Juwamard Ra'iqi by land to 
 Madhar, to fight Baridi and expel his followers ; and he 
 sent Badr Kharshani to Basrah by water with a fleet of 
 tarred boats, which he had built in Wasit. The 
 Ra'iqites were routed at Madhar, where Abu'l-'Abbas 
 Ibn Khaqan was taken prisoner ; Juwamard returned 
 to Wasit. Baridi treated Ibn Khaqan with kindness, 
 and made him swear that he would not again fight nor 
 take part against himself; he then released him. 
 
 When the news of this defeat reached Ibn Ra'iq, 
 he moved personally by land from Wasit to Basrah, 
 and wrote to Bachkam to join him at 'Askar Abi Ja'far. 
 It so happened that Badr Kharshani went by water to 
 'Umar's Canal, and reaching Basrah seized the Kalla 
 bank ; while at the same time Baridi's retainer Iqbal, 
 
420 
 
 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 having heard that Ibn Ra’iq had left Wasit, advanced 
 to its boundaries. Ibn Ra'iq, learning of this, sent his 
 chamberlain Fatik back to Wasit to guard the place. 
 
 When Badr Kharshani became master of Kalla, Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi immediately fled to the island of Uwal, 1 
 while the troops in Basrah went out to resist Badr. They 
 were joined (373) by an immense crowd from the 
 populace, so that Badr was compelled to evacuate the 
 Kalla bank, and went to the island that is opposite. 
 Abu Yusuf Baridi went into hiding ; his brother Abu’l- 
 #usain mounted his horse and encouraged the army 
 with the populace. 
 
 Bachkam joined Ibn Ra'iq at 'Askar Abi Ja'far the 
 same day as Badr reached Kalla; in the afternoon the 
 two crossed the Tigris of Basrah and entered Dubais’s 
 Canal. They were pursued by A/unad b. Nasr Qushuri, 
 but stones were flung at him, which sank his boat. 
 Badr, Ibn Ra’iq and Bachkam assembled on the island. 
 There they witnessed an extraordinary spectacle in the 
 thronging of the people to oppose them. Bachkam 
 said to Ibn Ra’iq : What can you have done to these 
 people to make them come out in this way ?—Ibn Ra’iq 
 vowed that he did not know. 
 
 Bachkam and Ibn Ra’iq retired to 'Askar Abi Ja'far ; 
 and when it was night and the tide advanced, Badr 
 retired thither too. Iqbal being informed how Badr 
 had made his way by water from Jamidah to Basrah 
 taking a different route from his, turned back, and on 
 the afternoon of the second day reached the Kalla bank ; 
 thence he proceeded to the Ubullah bank, where he was 
 between Ibn Ra’iq, Bachkam and Badr, and Ubullah. 
 The war was now waged on the Tigris, and there was a 
 lengthy engagement. 
 
 From the island of Uwal Abu 'Abdallah Baridi made 
 his way to Fars, where he sought the protection of 'Ali 
 
 1 Island off Bahrain. 
 
 
421 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 b. Buwaihi, who despatched his brother Abu'l-#usain 
 Ahmad b. Buwaihi to the conquest of Ahwaz. The 
 news of this reaching Ibn Ra'iq and his followers, Ibn 
 Ra'iq ordered Bachkam to hasten to (374) the defence of 
 Ahwaz. BachkanTs reply was : I decline to fight the 
 Dailemites and keep them out of Ahwaz, unless I be 
 made minister of both war and Kharaj there. You are 
 aware that when you gave Abu'l-'Abbas Khasibi control 
 of Ahwaz, I declined to submit to him, and you dismissed 
 him in consequence ; shall I submit to the government of 
 'Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab in a region on behalf of which 
 I have to fight ? ('Ali b. Khalaf was in Ahwaz by 
 appointment of the vizier Abu'l-Fadi). 1 —So Ibn Ra'iq 
 gave Bachkam the farming of Ahwaz and its depend¬ 
 encies for 130,000 dinars to be transmitted each year, 
 Bachkam having to pay his troops and satisfy both 
 himself and his retainers. Ibn Ra'iq further bestowed 
 on Bachkam a fief to the value of fifty thousand dinars. 
 
 A month (or somewhat less) after the arrival of 
 Bachkam at Ahwaz Ibn Ra'iq too quitted 'Askar Abi 
 Ja'far and went to Ahwaz after burning what remained 
 of his baggage ; this was due to a disaster which had 
 befallen him. 
 
 Account of the disaster which befell Ibn Raiq, causing 
 him to burn his baggage and fly to Ahwaz. 
 
 Tahir the Jilite 2 had come to Wasit to demand the 
 protection of Ibn Ra'iq ; not finding him there, he went 
 after him to 'Askar Abi Ja'far, but received on his way 
 a letter from his son and his slave-girl informing him 
 that they had fallen into the power of Abu 'Abdallah 
 Baridi, who was in Fars, and had welcomed Tahir's son 
 and re-united him with the slave-girl. 3 So Tahir the 
 Jilite crossed at night with two hundred men, and sur- 
 
 1 Cf. below, p. 384. 2 Above, p. 374. 
 
 * Probably his mother. 
 
422 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 prised Ibn Ra’iq with Badr Kharshani; he was assisted 
 by all Baridi's followers in their fleet, and thereupon 
 Badr took to flight in the direction of Wasit, whereas 
 Ibn Ra'iq betook himself to Ahwaz, where he was 
 honourably received by Bachkam, who ministered to 
 him. Bachkam was indeed advised to arrest him, but 
 did not do so. Ibn Ra'iq remained there some days, 
 till he was joined by his retainer Fatik from Wasit. He 
 then went to Wasit, leaving Bachkam in Ahwaz. 
 
 The story of the dialogue between Bachkam and 
 Ibn Muqatil which we promised to record is the following ; 
 the authority for it is Thabit b. Sinan, who had it from 
 his father Sinan. 
 
 (375) A story about Bachkam indicating astuteness , 
 far-sightedness and highmindedness. 
 
 I was told, he says, by my father that in the course 
 of a conversation which took place between him and 
 Bachkam after the latter had become master of the 
 metropolis and extinguished Ibn Ra'iq, Bachkam said 
 to him : When an emergency overtakes a king, all his 
 money and other possessions should be more worthless 
 than dust in his eyes and he should fling away the whole, 
 as I fling this pebble, on that object whereby he believes 
 that he will free himself from the danger. For if his 
 power be established, he will be able to replace what he 
 has sacrificed many times ; whereas if he stint, be 
 miserly, and be afraid to let go what he possesses, he 
 loses what he stints, and his own life besides. I remem¬ 
 ber how when Ibn Ra’iq made me governor of Ahwaz, 
 without consulting Ibn Muqatil or obtaining his 
 approval, the latter when he heard of it, was exceedingly 
 vexed, and hurrying to Ibn Ra'iq said to him : What 
 are you doing ? Have you really decided to make 
 Bachkam governor of Ahwaz ?—Ibn Ra’iq replied in 
 the affirmative.—Ibn Muqatil said : You are damaging 
 yourself most seriously. You are no match for the 
 
423 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 Baridis, who are clerks, wearers of durra'ahs ; you 
 cannot remove them from their offices or withdraw the 
 rule from their hands. And do you now bestow upon 
 a Turkish swordsman, who has been your follower but 
 a short time, such a government as that of Ahwaz ? 
 What will happen is that when Ahwaz comes into his 
 power, and he sees its magnificence, beauty and wealth, 
 and the army which comes under his command there, 
 he will be tempted to make himself independent ruler 
 of the region ; then he will not be satisfied with Ahwaz, 
 but will want other territories, nor will his ambition let 
 him rest till he disputes your government with you, 
 and expels you from your post to install himself there ; 
 in order to be secure of his acquisitions, and to have no 
 one to dispute them with him. Your present anxiety 
 is to wrest the region from the hands of Baridi; if you 
 make Bachkam governor, you had better remove that 
 anxiety, and put Ahwaz out of your mind, directing your 
 energies to the preservation of other regions, and may 
 you succeed in preserving them ! You had better also 
 be looking after your life, which you are exposing to 
 danger.—This discourse discouraged (376) Ibn Ra'iq 
 and caused him to alter his intentions with regard to 
 myself. And I am free to confess that Ibn Muqatil s 
 advice was sincere and sound. 
 
 I was told what had taken place, and I was in a 
 terrible state of mind. I feared I was going to miss 
 that sovereignty on which I had set my mind. In my 
 anxiety I consulted Mohammed b. Yanal the interpreter, 
 but he had no suggestion to offer, and began to solace 
 me by telling me that I was in the enjoyment of comfort 
 and luxury, and that I counted as a brother to the 
 monarch.—You are a fool, I answered ) go and see that 
 a sumairiyyah 1 is ready for me to-night I had made up 
 my mind to visit Ibn Muqatil, knowing him to be a 
 tradesman of low origin, and mean mind, and that coin 
 
 1 Some sort of rivercraft. 
 
424 A.H. 325. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 has a wonderful effect on such people's minds. So when 
 it was night and people were asleep, I took with me ten 
 thousand dinars, and embarked in the sumairiyyah , 
 taking with me Mohammed b. Yanal only, and no slave. 
 Arriving at Ibn Muqatil’s door I found it locked. I 
 knocked. The porter from behind the door informed 
 me that his master was asleep, and that the doors 
 between us were locked.—I bade the porter knock at his 
 master s door and wake him, as I had come on important 
 business.—He did so, and when I entered the room I 
 found Ibn Muqatil had left his bed in alarm at my calling 
 at such a time. He asked me, What is the news ? 
 Something good, I said ; it is a proposal which I wanted 
 to make to you in private ; so I waited till people were 
 asleep, and the passage clear. I have brought no-one 
 but the interpreter, and had I not required him to inter¬ 
 pret for us I should not have brought him or let him 
 know what I mean to say to you.—He bade me say 
 what I wanted to say.—I said : You are aware what were 
 the Prince’s intentions with regard to myself, viz. to 
 make me governor of Ahwaz, and I am now told that he 
 has withdrawn from that course. I know of no reason 
 why he should withdraw, and his rejection of the plan 
 after it has been noised abroad is a humiliation and an 
 affront to me ; no-one will doubt that it is due to sus¬ 
 picion of me. I have been the recipient of your favour 
 and his, and am your creature ; if I do not make my 
 fortune in your days when shall I make it ? And what 
 honour shall I have (377) in men’s eyes ? Here are ten 
 thousand dinars which I have brought for your 
 treasury. I know that Ibn Ra’iq will accept your 
 advice, and I want you to advise him to carry out his 
 original plan.—When Ibn Muqatil saw the dinars, he 
 was aghast, and said : Leave me and go away under 
 the protection of God.—So I left the dinars before him, 
 and went off, feeling confident that Ahwaz would be 
 mine. After three days Ibn Muqatil visited Ibn Ra’iq 
 
425 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 and said to him : The advice that I gave you was on the 
 spur of the moment and after superficial consideration; 
 on further reflexion I find that you were in the right, 
 since, if you leave Ahwaz in the hands of Baridi and 
 his brothers, after the wealth which they have acquired, 
 they will increase in power and ambition every day, 
 and stretch out their hands to other territories and 
 provinces of your empire ; by their liberal offers and 
 gifts they will corrupt your army, and are even likely, 
 as the next step, to dispute your place. If you 
 advance against them yourself, that is war, and you do 
 not know how it will go ; if it goes against you, you 
 will never repair your fortunes. If you send any one 
 but Bachkam against them, he will prove incompetent, 
 and suffer defeat, and that will break your followers' 
 hearts. It is then better that you should send against 
 them a commander like Bachkam whom they are 
 unwilling to meet in the field. If he takes possession of 
 the place, he will annihilate them, and you will still be 
 master of the situation ; if you wish, you can confirm 
 him in office, but if you prefer, you can dismiss him 
 before he becomes powerful, collects forces and aspires 
 to what you dislike. Ask God's blessing and carry out 
 your plan.—Ibn Ra'iq accepted this counsel, ratified my 
 appointment and invested me with the government. 
 Nor do I think the sum a high price for the governorship 
 of Ahwaz.—Thus Ibn Muqatil sold himself, his master, 
 and his fortune for ten thousand dinars ; I got in exchange 
 many times the number, and the empire of Ibn Ra'iq too. 
 
 Account of the proceedings of Abu } l-Husain Ahmad b . 
 Buwaihi and Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi when they advanced 
 to Ahwaz with the view of fighting Bachkam in the year 326. 
 
 (378) Year 326. 
 
 We have recounted the proceedings of Abu ‘Abdallah 
 Baridi, how he went to the court of ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, 1 
 
 1 P. 373. 
 
426 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 and how the latter commanded his brother AAmad b. 
 Buwaihi to proceed with him to Ahwaz. 1 Abu 
 ‘Abdallah Baridi left as hostages with ‘Ali b. Buwaihi 
 his two sons Abu’l-#asan Mohammed and Abu Ja‘far 
 Fayyad, and proceeded with the prince Abu'l-i^usain 
 A/rniad b. Buwaihi to Ahwaz. When the news of the 
 prince's arrival at Arrajan reached Bachkam, he ad¬ 
 vanced to give him battle, but was routed. The most 
 serious cause of his defeat was that there was continuous 
 rain for many days, and the bows were spoiled ; this 
 prevented the Turks from discharging their arrows 
 against the enemy, so Bachkam retreated and abode 
 in Ahwaz. He destroyed the bridge of Arbaq, 2 and sent 
 Mohammed b. Yanal the Interpreter to ‘Askar Mukram. 
 There was an engagement for thirteen days between 
 him and A/rniad b. Buwaihi; then the latter with five 
 of his staff crossed in a sumairiyyah to the wharf called 
 Mashra‘at al-#abbas. They routed the soldiers who 
 had been posted there, and AAmad b. Buwaihi kept on 
 bringing troops across till he had got three hundred 
 men on the Western bank. They then sounded their 
 trumpet and shouted their war-cry ; thereat the Inter¬ 
 preter took to flight and made for Tustar. Bachkam, 
 hearing of this, crossed the Tigris of Ahwaz, and arrested 
 the notables there (in Tustar), among them Ibn Abi 
 ‘Allan and Abu Zakariyya of Sus. He took them all 
 with him, joined the Interpreter at Sus, and proceeded 
 with his whole force to Wasit. 
 
 When he had got to Tib, he wrote to Ibn Ra'iq, 
 telling him what had occurred, how he with his men was 
 in dire straits, having no money left ; the men were 
 sure to assume a high tone with him ; if Ibn Ra'iq had 
 200,000 dinars which he could spend upon them, as they 
 were poor, the right course would be for Ibn Ra’iq to 
 stay at Wasit; but if they could not be provided, then 
 
 1 P. 357. 2 Compare p. 301. 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 427 
 
 he had best go up the river to Baghdad, for there was 
 likely to be a mutiny and he could not say what would 
 be the result.— (379) Ibn Radq was alarmed by this state 
 of affairs, and hastened to depart with his whole force 
 for Baghdad. 
 
 Bachkam and his followers now entered Wasit and 
 took up their quarters there. The former put the people 
 of Ahwaz in custody and demanded of them fifty thou¬ 
 sand dinars. Abu Zakariyya Yahya b. Sa'id states 
 that he wanted to sound Bachkam’s mind for ambitions 
 with regard to Traq, and so sent him the following mes¬ 
 sage : Prince , you are a candidate for sovereignty and 
 aspire to the service of the Caliphate. Do you imprison 
 ruined men who have been despoiled of their fortunes and 
 demand money of them in a strange town , ordering them 
 to be tortured ? Only yesterday a plate containing hot 
 coals was placed on the stomach of SAHL B. Nazir the 
 Collector. Do not you know that when people hear of this , 
 they will be set against you and it will provoke the animosity 
 and the active hostility of those who do not as yet know your 
 name or anything else about you , not to mention those who 
 have realized this conduct of yours ? Do not you remember 
 how but yesterday you found fault with the Prince Ibn Ra’iq 
 for having offended the people of Basrah ; and the populace 
 of Baghdad is many times more numerous. You think 
 of reproducing in our case the treatment by Mardawij of 
 the people of the fabal ; remember that this is Baghdad , 
 the seat of the Caliphate , not Rayy or Ispahan , and it will 
 not put up with such behaviour. —When Bachkam heard 
 this message, he melted and ordered the fetters to be 
 removed, and put a stop to the extortion. Ibn Ra'iq, 
 Ibn Muqatil and Kufi interceded for Ya^ya b. Sa'id of 
 Sus, and he was released by Bachkam, who attached 
 him to himself in consideration of his intellectual ability 
 and his general popularity, which struck Bachkam 
 YaAya b. Sa'id then interceded for the rest, and Bachkam 
 accepted sureties for them and released them. 
 
428 
 
 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 When 'Ali b. Buwaihi learned of the arrival of Tahir 
 the Jilite in Basrah, 1 against whom he harboured resent¬ 
 ment for his treatment of himself in Arrajan, 2 he wrote 
 to his brother Abu’l-Husain bidding him demand of Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi the surrender of Tahir the Jilite, 
 whom he was to arrest; this was done and the man was 
 sent to Fars. 
 
 When the Interpreter had been routed, A/rniad b. 
 Buwaihi crossed to the Western side of 'Askar Mukram, 
 and established himself on the bank of the Masruqan 
 in the company of Abu 'Abdallah Baridi until he had 
 finished the upper bridge there ; the following day he 
 brought the rest of his army across. His scouts returned 
 to him from Suq al-Ahwaz with the news that no-one 
 remained there ; so (380) Baridi went into a house on 
 the bank of the Masruqan Canal, where he was visited 
 by the whole population of Ahwaz, who came to con¬ 
 gratulate him and wish him well. He was suffering 
 from a quartan fever, and among his visitors was 
 Yuhanna the Physician who was distinguished in his 
 profession. Baridi said to him : Abu Zakariyya, do not 
 you see my state ?—Yuhanna said to him : Mix (meaning 
 his foods, in order to get rid of the humours).— 
 Baridi replied : Think how much mixing I have done ! 
 I have stirred up the whole region between Fars and the 
 metropolis. Perhaps that will satisfy you ; otherwise 
 I will turn over to the other side, and stir up as far as 
 Khorasan. 
 
 On the fifth day AAmad b. Buwaihi moved to 
 Ahwaz, leaving three captains in 'Askar Mukram. Abu 
 'Abdallah Baridi remained with him thirty-five days, 
 and then fled by water to Basiyan, where he took up 
 his quarters, and wrote long and verbose remonstrances 
 to A/rniad b. Buwaihi with the view of defending his line 
 of conduct. He did not dislike remaining with A/hnad 
 
 1 P. 374. 2 P> 340, 
 
429 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra’i^. 
 
 b. Buwaihi owing to any financial stress, for he had 
 handed over to Abu 'Ali, the inspector of troops, guar¬ 
 antees and bonds to produce five million dirhems in the 
 space of two months, of which a considerable amount 
 was realized by the time of his flight. 
 
 Account of the reason for Baridi’s flight. 
 
 He was required to bring his army from Basrah to 
 be despatched to Ispahan, there to join the prince Abu 
 ‘Ali H asan b. Buwaihi who was warring against Wash- 
 magir. He brought up four thousand men ; then he 
 told the prince Abu’l-JTusain AAmad b. Buwaihi that 
 if they remained in Ahwaz, serious strife would arise 
 between them and the Dailemites ; the best plan, he 
 said, is that they should proceed to Sus with my 
 chamberlain Mohammed called Jammal; I will assign 
 for their pay part of the revenue of Sus and of 
 Jundaisabur, and when they have received it they should 
 proceed by way of Bunyan to Ispahan.—AAmad b. 
 Buwaihi assented to this proposal, and then demanded 
 that Baridi should bring his naval forces to Hisn 
 Mahdi, where he might review them, and after inspec¬ 
 tion despatch them by water to Wasit, while he, A Am ad 
 b. Buwaihi, proceeded with his Dailemites thither by 
 land.—This proposal alarmed (381) Baridi exceedingly, 
 for he supposed that AAmad b. Buwaihi meant to part 
 him from his army. He said : This is just what I did 
 with Yaqut 1 ; I took away his men and then destroyed 
 him. Had I only my own mind to instruct me, my in¬ 
 sight would be sufficient in this case; God help us !— 
 Further the Dailemites were in the habit of treating him 
 with contempt ; they insulted him when he rode, and 
 forced him to get up when he was suffering from fever. 
 He experienced on their part treatment to which he was 
 unaccustomed. High honour was indeed paid to him 
 by the prince Abu'l-#usain and Abu 'Ali the inspector ; 
 the rest displayed towards him the utmost contempt. 
 
 1 Above, p. 343, 
 
430 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 When he determined upon flight, the morning that 
 followed the night whereon he started he sent a letter 
 wherein he informed his retainer Abu Ja'far Jammal 
 of his plan, and ordered him to proceed to Basiyan and 
 thence to Nahr Tira, then to Badhaward and Basrah. 
 His plan was carried out with success, and his troops 
 reached Basrah in excellent condition. Messages went 
 on being interchanged between him and A/rniad b. 
 Buwaihi wherein it was proposed that the latter should 
 evacuate the capital of Ahwaz, that Baridi might go 
 thither and carry out his undertaking to farm Ahwaz 
 and Basrah for the prince ‘Ali b. Buwaihi, paying 
 eighteen million dirhems for each financial year ; and the 
 prince A/rniad b. Buwaihi, fearing lest the flight of Baridi 
 should provoke the displeasure of his brother 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi, accepted this demand. He moved his forces 
 to 'Askar Mukram and established himself there outside 
 Darabaz; he then wrote to Baridi announcing his 
 evacuation of Ahwaz ; Baridi moved from Basiyan to 
 Banatadhar, sending a representative to Suq al-Ahwaz. 
 He then wrote to the prince that he could not without 
 anxiety live in a place which was only 8 parasangs away 
 from the prince, as he could not feel sure that the latter 
 would not surprise him by night; he demanded that 
 the prince should remove to Sus, so that they might not 
 be neighbours. Messages were interchanged, being 
 conveyed .by the qadi Abu’l-Qasim Tanukhi and the 
 inspector Abu 'Ali. Finally it was decided that Baridi 
 should send him thirty thousand dinars for the expenses 
 of the move ; and Baridi sent back the slaves of the two 
 envoys with (382) a slave of his own carrying fourteen 
 thousand dinars, while he wrote that he would make up 
 the thirty thousand dinars in Sus. 
 
 There gathered together Dilan, army secretary to 
 the prince A/rniad b. Buwaihi, Abu Ja'far Saimari, 
 a dependent of Dilan, and Abu'l-Hasan Mafarukhi, 
 who governed ‘Askar Mukram for the prince, a reckless 
 
431 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 
 
 man who took money from any source that appeared, 
 and they made a joint representation to the prince Abu'l- 
 H usain to the effect that Baridi was pursuing in his case 
 the same line as he had followed with Yaqut. He begins, 
 they said, by removing you to Sus, and stinting you so 
 that he may get your troops to desert. His next step 
 will be to seize the bridges. Ahwaz is separated from 
 'Askar Mukram and Tustar and these from Sus by 
 branches of the Tigris. He means, if he can, to get you 
 into his clutches.—The prince Abu’l-ii/usain was horri¬ 
 fied by this, and declined to leave 'Askar Mukram, 
 alleging that it lay on the high road to Fars, and that he 
 ought not to remove so far from the Great Prince 1 as 
 to be separated from him first by the Tigris, then by 
 the Masruqan. Baridi, learning of this, refused to let 
 the Inspector and Tanukhi return. There was now pro¬ 
 nounced hostility between the two (A/hnad b. Buwaihi 
 and Baridi). 
 
 When news of these proceedings reached Bachkam, 
 he despatched one of his captains named Balaba with 
 a force of two thousand men, Kurds, Arabs, non¬ 
 descripts, regulars, and home-born troops, to Sus and 
 Jundaisabur with the intention of seizing them ; with 
 him there was a clerk named FaYyadi. Baridi remained 
 in Banatadhar having control of the lower parts of 
 Ahwaz ; the Makhladites 2 got possession of Tustar : 
 so the prince A/rniad b. Buwaihi remained in possession 
 of 'Askar Mukram only among the dependencies of 
 Ahwaz, and there of the capital only. For Abu 
 Mohammed Muhallabi , 3 at this time steward to Abu 
 Zakariyya of Sus, 4 had cut down the bridges, and seized 
 
 1 'Ali b. Buwaihi of Shiraz. 
 
 2 The author has not explained this name. There was at this time a notorious 
 revolutionary in Africa, named Abu Yazid Makhlad “ the man of the ass,” 
 who started his career in 316 ; it is surprising if he had followers so far East as 
 Tustar. 
 
 3 The first mention of this eminent man, who afterwards became vizier to 
 AAmad b. Buwaihi. 
 
 * He was at this time acting for Bachkam, 
 
432 
 
 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Raz>i. 
 
 #amidiyyah and Maskul, killing an agent who was there 
 with the help of the Arabs and the infantry whom he had 
 enlisted. Hence the situation wherein A/zmad b. 
 Buwaihi found himself was extremely grave ; his troops 
 became disorderly and deserted in a body, with the 
 idea of returning to Fars. The prince was however 
 supported by Ispahdost and (383) Musa Fayadhah, who 
 mollified and brought them back, undertaking to satisfy 
 their demands after a month. A/nnad b. Buwaihi 
 wrote to his brother to explain the situation, and the 
 latter despatched one of his officers, who had been in 
 charge of his camels, and was of high rank, a man of 
 energy and courage, possessing his master’s confidence, 
 named Bull, with a force of three hundred Dailemites, 
 and bringing half a million dirhems. With him there 
 came Kur-depir, who was summoned by the prince 
 Abu’l-i2usain, having been the prince’s vizier in Kirman. 1 
 When Kur-depir arrived he was immediately appointed 
 secretary to the prince and received a robe of honour. 
 Abu 'Ali the Inspector was detained at Banatadhar in 
 the power of Baridi, and was suspected by his master of 
 conniving at all that Baridi had done from first to last. 
 The prince (Abu’l-Husain AAmad) disliked him, and he 
 had been attached to the service of the prince by the 
 latter’s brother 'Ali b. Buwaihi only because 'Ali b. 
 Buwaihi had seen him vizier to Makan the Dailemite, and 
 had a high opinion of him ; further Bachkam had been 
 his slave, presented by him to Makan at the latter’s 
 request. 
 
 It had then been settled that Bull should be de¬ 
 spatched to Sus with five hundred men, accompanied 
 by Abu Ja'far Saimari to be governor of the place, 
 while Musa Fayadhah should be sent to Banatadhar 
 with three hundred men. Balaba fled so soon as he 
 heard of Bull, and Baridi fled to Basrah. Musa Fay¬ 
 adhah proceeded to Hisn Mahdi of which he took posses- 
 
 1 Above, p. 354. 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 433 
 
 sion. This was a dependency of Basrah, and the lower 
 parts of the dependencies were now behind him. The 
 prince Abu'l-JTusain AAmad entered Suq al-Ahwaz, 
 established himself in the residence of Abu 'Abdallah 
 Baridi, and got his affairs in order. Baridi arrived in 
 Basrah, which was loyal to him and his brothers. 
 Bachkam was established in Wasit, in conflict with the 
 monarch in Baghdad. Ibn Ra'iq had recalled his forces 
 and remained in the capital. 
 
 When the vizier Abu'l-FatA perceived the confusion 
 of affairs, and what this state of things presaged, he held 
 before Ibn Ra'iq the hope that he would be able to trans¬ 
 mit to him the revenue from Egypt and Syria, and sup¬ 
 port him therewith ; only he assured him that this 
 would be impossible so long as he was away from those 
 regions. Ibn Ra'iq therefore instructed him to depart, 
 (384) but allied the vizier's family to his own by giving 
 his daughter to the vizier's son Abu'l-Qasim, and he 
 also allied his family to that of Ibn TTjghj. The vizier 
 left hurriedly for Syria by the Euphrates route. Ibn 
 Ra'iq now gave the ministries of kharaj and Estates in 
 the districts of Ahwaz to 'Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab, and 
 instructed him to depart to his province, and to begin 
 by courteous approaches to Abu'l-#usain Bachkam, 
 trying to induce the latter to make war jointly with him 
 upon the prince Abu'l-#usain AAmad b. Buwaihi, and 
 expel the prince from Ahwaz ; he was to arrange with 
 Bachkam that the troops of the latter should number 
 five thousand, and that his pay with theirs should be 
 800,000 dinars a year to be taken out of the revenue of 
 Wasit, if Bachkam stayed there and did not proceed to 
 Ahwaz ; but if he should advance thither and take the 
 region, then the pay should be 1,300,000 dinars a year 
 to be got from the revenue of Ahwaz. 
 
 When 'Ali b. Khalaf reached Wasit and interviewed 
 Bachkam, the latter thought fit to appoint 'Ali secretary, 
 and 'Ali thought fit to accept the post. He received a 
 
434 
 
 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 robe of honour, remained in Wasit and took the whole 
 of its revenue. 
 
 Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. Yahya b. Shirzad now 
 successfully negotiated peace between Ibn Ra’iq and the 
 Baridis, and Ibn Ra’iq procured from Ra^i an autograph 
 letter of reconciliation ; a robe of honour was cut for 
 them on condition that they should maintain the 
 sovereignty of Ibn Ra’iq in Basrah and endeavour to 
 reconquer Ahwaz. They further guaranteed to transmit 
 30,000 dinars. The embargo was removed from their 
 lands, and a letter on this subject was written in Radi's 
 name. 
 
 News came of an expedition of Baridi’s army to 
 Wasit, where Bachkam sallied out against him, and 
 defeated him in the region of Darmakan. Ibn Ra’iq 
 held a reception in his palace in Baghdad to receive con¬ 
 gratulations on this affair. Bachkam remained for a 
 time on the battlefield, then at Madhar, and then returned 
 (385) to Wasit. 
 
 It was Bachkam’s intention to humiliate the Baridis 
 and withdraw them from Ibn Ra’iq’s side. He was 
 himself bent on the capital. The day after the rout he 
 sent 'Ali b. Ya'qub, secretary to the Interpreter, 
 formerly charged with parading troops before him, to 
 Baridi to make his excuses for what had occurred, and 
 to say : You commenced by corresponding with Ibn Raiq , 
 and putting yourself in my way; and this is your second 
 exploit : for you brought the Dailemites into Ahwaz ; and 
 you have now followed this up by sending to Ibn Raiq 
 and offering to support him against me. Still I forgive 
 you, and am prepared to enter with you into a treaty and 
 covenant whereby I pledge myself to make you governor of 
 Wasit when I get possession of the capital. There was also 
 talk of a matrimonial alliance. 
 
 ‘Ali b. Ya'qub (the agent sent by Bachkam on this 
 • occasion) said : I saw Abu 'Abdallah Baridi prostrate 
 
Emirate of Ibn RaTq. 435 
 
 himself in thankfulness to God Almighty for these 
 approaches from Bachkam ; he consented to all Bach- 
 kam s requirements and all my demands. Summoning 
 the two qa<iis Abu’l-Qasim Tanukhi and Abu’l-Qasim 
 Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, he swore in their presence and 
 with their attestation to his autograph that he would 
 faithfully perform all that I had arranged with him. 
 Giving me a gratuity of three thousand dinars, he said 
 to me : I will transmit money to him, and treat him with 
 all consideration that he may know that I am suited to 
 serve him.—Returning to Bachkam I informed him of 
 what had taken place. He said : Abu’l-Qasim, was his 
 calotte upon his head ?—I said : Prince, what does this 
 mean ? How came you to ask me about it ?—He said : 
 I had seen it, so tell me.—I said : Yes, I saw it.—O 
 Abu’l-Qasim, he exclaimed, it was on the head of a 
 demon, not of a human being.—Prince, I replied, you 
 have never seen the man, so how can you say this ?— 
 Oh yes, he said, I have seen him ; it was on the day of 
 our battle at Arrajan. 1 He had put a turban over" his 
 calotte , and I thought I would send an arrow at him, 
 but he perceived (386) my intention, having glanced 
 towards me from a distance, took off his turban and 
 calotte, and after putting them on the head of some one 
 else, retired, leaving that substitute in his place. I said 
 to myself “ That poor wretch is innocent, and he, God 
 curse him, has escaped/’ He is false in everything that 
 he utters and to every oath which he takes. Only we must 
 put up with him because we need to do so.—Bachkam hav¬ 
 ing returned to Wasit began to scheme against IbnRa’iq. 
 
 This year first the hand and then the tongue of Abu 
 'Ali Ibn Muqlah were amputated. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 When Ibn Ra'iq assumed the administration of the 
 empire, he seized the lands of Ibn Muqlah and his son ; 
 
 1 See above, p. 378, 
 
436 
 
 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 and when he came to the capital, Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqlah 
 interviewed him, and Abu ‘Abdallah Husain b. ‘Ali 
 Nubakhti, and afterwards 1 Abu ‘Abdallah Kufi and 
 Abu Bakr Ibn Muqatil. They felt ashamed before him, 
 and he humbled himself before them all, requesting the 
 restoration of the estate which had been seized. He 
 received a promise that it should be restored, but the 
 carrying out of the promise was constantly delayed. 
 Ibn Muqlah, finding the delay continue, and that the 
 promise was not realized, began scheming against Ibn 
 Ra’iq in all directions. 
 
 He wrote to Bachkam, suggesting to him hopes of 
 the metropolis and of Ibn Ra’iq’s place, and sent a 
 similar letter to Washmagir in Rayy. He wrote to Radi, 
 advising him to arrest Ibn Ra’iq and his dependents, 
 and undertaking, if this were done, to obtain a million 
 dinars from his estate and pay them into the treasury. 
 He further advised that Bachkam should be summoned 
 and installed in Ibn Ra’iq’s place, as being more loyal. 
 His correspondence with Radi was carried on through 
 ‘Ali b. Harun son of the Astrologer, Caliph’s messmate ; 
 Radi encouraged Ibn Muqlah, who wrote to inform 
 Bachkam that the Caliph had assented to his plan, which 
 was ready for execution ; he therefore urged Bachkam 
 to make haste. 
 
 When Ibn Muqlah felt sure of Radi, he received 
 instructions from the latter to sail to him secretly, and 
 stay (387) in his Palace until the plot against Ibn Ra’iq 
 should be achieved. So he sailed from his house in Suq 
 al-‘Atash in a sumairiyyah, wearing a tailasan and shoes, 
 and proceeded to the Bustan Gate in the Azaj quarter; 
 he embarked in his sumairiyyah on the night of Monday 
 —I Ramadan (July 30, 938), having selected that night 
 
 1 i.e., after his fall, as recorded above, p. 362, 
 
437 
 
 Emirate of Ibn Ra^q. 
 
 because the moon was “ under the Rays and such a 
 night is eligible for secret plans. But when he had got 
 to the Palace, no audience was given him by Radi; the 
 Caliph had him confined in a cell, and the next day sent 
 Ibn Sanjala to inform Ibn Ra’iq of what had occurred, 
 and to tell him how the Caliph had schemed to get Ibn 
 Muqlah into his power. A series of messages were then 
 interchanged between Radi and Ibn Ra'iq, and on 
 Thursday 14 Shawwal (Aug. 14, 938) 2 Radi made the 
 affair of Ibn Muqlah public. He was produced ; there 
 were present Ibn Ra’iq's chamberlain Fatik, and a 
 number of officers ; Ibn Muqlah's right hand was cut 
 off, and he was then taken back to his prison. Fatik 
 went off to tell Ibn Ra'iq how he had witnessed the 
 amputation of Ibn Muqlah’s hand. 
 
 Thabit narrates : At the end of that day I was 
 summoned by Radi, who bade me go and treat the 
 wound. I went and found Ibn Muqlah in a locked cell. 
 A slave opened the door, and I entered. I found him 
 in a terrible plight. When he saw me tears came to 
 his eyes ; I found his fore-arm dreadfully swollen, with 
 a coarse blue Kardawani 3 rag tied round it with 
 hempen cord. Undoing the cord, and removing the rag, 
 
 I found beneath it, where the hand had been severed, 
 a layer of horse-dung, which I shook off. The top of 
 the fore-arm below the amputation was found to be tied 
 with hempen cord, which owing to the swelling had sunk 
 into the arm, which was beginning to blacken. I told 
 him that the cord must be undone and that in lieu of the* 
 dung camphor must be applied and that his arm must 
 be anointed with sandal, rose-water and camphor. He 
 
 1 According to the Mafatih this means its “ being with the sun before the 
 iAtiraq or after it ” ; the i/itiraq means that there should be a conjunction between 
 the sun and a star, with more than the minutes of tasmim between them ; and 
 tasmim means a distance between them of sixteen minutes or less. 
 
 2 According to Wiistenfeld a Tuesday. 
 
 3 A place named Kardaban is mentioned as belonging to Darabjird, which 
 may be the source of this ware. 
 
438 
 
 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 told me to proceed. The slave however who had come 
 in with me bade me wait till he had got his master’s leave. 
 He went to solicit it, and presently came out bringing 
 a box of camphor, and said to me : His majesty gives 
 you leave (388) to do what you think fit, to deal gently 
 with him, and attend him, giving his case the preference, 
 till God restores him to health.—So I undid the cord, 
 emptied the box on the wound, and anointed his arm ; 
 he revived, was eased, and the palpitation calmed down. 
 I did not leave him till he had taken a little chicken, 
 after which he declared that he could swallow no more. 
 He drank some cold water, and seemed refreshed ; I 
 then went away. I went to see him many days till he 
 was restored to health. When I entered, he would ask 
 me for news of his son Abu’l-#usain, and when I told 
 him that he was safe in hiding, that would cheer him ; he 
 would then mourn and lament over his hand, saying: With 
 that hand I served the Caliphate, three times minister 
 to three Caliphs ; and with it I have twice copied the 
 Qur’an. And now it is cut off like the hand of a thief ! 
 Do you remember telling me that I was undergoing my 
 last reverse and that deliverance was near ?—I said : 
 Certainly, and now you may well expect deliverance ; 
 for you have undergone what has never befallen one of 
 your rank, so this is the culmination of adversity, and 
 after culmination there can only come reduction.—He 
 said : Don’t ! Calamity has taken hold of me as hectic 
 fever seizes hold of the limbs ; it will never leave me till 
 it brings me to my death. Then he quoted the verse : 
 
 If part of thee expire, then shed a tear 
 
 On what remains ; for part to part is near. 
 
 His words turned out to be true. 
 
 (389) Among the extraordinary features of his case 
 it may be mentioned that after the amputation of his 
 hand he kept sending messages from his prison to Ra^i, 
 holding out hopes of supplying him with money, and 
 suggesting that he should be made vizier ; the amputa- 
 
Emirate of Ibn Ra'iq. 439 
 
 tion of his hand would not, he asserted, stand in the way 
 of his being appointed to that office, ( 390 ) for he could 
 find some expedient which would enable him to write. 
 And indeed letters by him were produced written after 
 his hand had been amputated but before his close con¬ 
 finement, which he was supposed to have written by 
 attaching a pen to his right fore-arm. 
 
 ( 391 ) When Bachkam approached Baghdad he was 
 removed from his first prison to a darker place, and 
 nothing more was heard of him. I (says Thabit) was 
 not allowed to visit him. 
 
 Then his tongue was cut out, and he remained in 
 prison for a long time after that; then he had an 
 attack of diarrhoea, and had no-one ( 392 ) to attend him 
 or minister to him ; indeed I am informed that he had 
 to draw water out of the well for himself with his left 
 hand or with his mouth ; he suffered such agony that 
 he died. He was buried in the Palace ; but presently 
 ( 393 ) at the request of his family he was exhumed and 
 delivered to them. 
 
 This year Bachkam entered Traq (i.e., Baghdad), 
 interviewed the Caliph, and was invested by him with 
 the office of Prince of princes in lieu of Mohammed b. 
 Ra'iq. 
 
 ( 394 ) Account of this proceeding. 
 
 Bachkam commenced his advance from Wasit to the 
 capital in defiance of Ibn Ra'iq, removed his name from 
 his standards and shields, and ceased to call himself 
 after him; previously he used to write upon them 
 Bachkam Ra'iqi. 1 Ibn Ra'iq began to make arrangements 
 for armed resistance to him ; his first idea was to en¬ 
 trench himself in the Palace ; but afterwards he decided 
 to go out to the Diyala, into which he opened a channel 
 from the Nahrawan in order to increase ( 395 ) the water, 
 
 1 i.e., Freedman of Ra’iq. 
 
440 
 
 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 and prevent its falling ; he destroyed the bridge over 
 it, so that it should serve as a trench. Ibn Ra'iq de¬ 
 manded that Radi should write a letter to Bachkam 
 commanding him to return to Wasit; the letter was 
 written and delivered to Ibn Ra'iq, who despatched it to 
 Bachkam by Ibn Sarkhab, one of his vice-chamber¬ 
 lains. Bachkam read it, but paid no attention to it, 
 and continued his advance to Baghdad. He with his 
 army reached the Diyala Canal, which some of his 
 followers swam across ; Ibn Ra'iq fled in disorder to 
 'Ukbara, his forces were dispersed, and Abu 'Abdallah 
 A/rniad b. ‘Ali Kufi and Abu Bakr Ibn Muqatil both went 
 into hiding. Bachkam entered the capital on Monday 
 ( 396 ) 12 Dhu'l-Qa'dah (Sep. 10, 938), had an audience 
 of Radi, and was received by him with honour. The 
 Caliph exalted his rank and bestowed on him robes of 
 honour, in which he returned to his camp at the Diyala, 
 where he stayed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. 
 He sent an expedition in pursuit of Ibn Ra'iq, and 
 wrote to Ibn Ra'iq's army in the name of Radi, bidding 
 them abandon him and return to the capital. That 
 army in consequence dispersed, and Ibn Ra'iq returned 
 secretly to Baghdad, where he hid. On Thursday the 
 middle of Dhu'l-Qa'dah (Sep. 13, 938) a second robe of 
 honour was bestowed by Radi on Bachkam, and he went 
 off to the palace of Mu'nis in the Tuesday Bazaar, which 
 had been the residence of Ibn Ra'iq ; and on Thursday 
 —8 Dhu’l-Qa'dah (Sep. 20, 938) a third robe of honour 
 was bestowed by Radi on Bachkam ; the Caliph tied a 
 banner for him and appointed him Prince of princes. 
 
 The duration of Ibn Ra'iq's Emirate had been a year, 
 ten months and a fraction of a month. 
 
 On Friday—7 Dhu'l-Qa'dah (Sep. 21) Radi sent 
 Bachkam a messmate's robes, called him by his kunyah, 
 and together with the robes sent liquor, perfume and 
 greetings. Thus his title was complete. 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 441 
 
 ( 397 ) A story about Bachkam illustrating his astuteness 
 
 and ingenuity. 
 
 The following was narrated by Abu Zakariyya 
 Yahya b. Sa'id of Sus. When I acted as messenger 
 between Bachkam and Ibn Ra'iq, 1 I advised the former 
 not to declare war against the latter; and when Bach¬ 
 kam asked me the reason why I gave this advice, I 
 replied : Because Baghdad is in his power, he has the 
 Caliph with him, he is prince, his army is large, and the 
 provinces with their revenues are in his hands. The 
 cash at your disposal is small, and the numbers of your 
 followers few.—He said : As for the numbers of his 
 followers, they are an empty nutshell, which I have 
 cracked and whence I have extracted the kernel; I 
 care not whether they are many or few. The fact of 
 the Caliph being with him will not hurt me in my 
 followers' eyes. As for your notion that I have little 
 money, the case is not as you suppose. I have paid my 
 followers what is their due, and not one of them has a 
 claim upon me ; and my coffers contain a sum on which 
 I can fall back, and how much do you suppose it is ?— 
 I told him I did not know. He said : (398) Well, make 
 a suggestion.—I suggested a hundred thousand dirhems. 
 —He said : God forgive you ! I have fifty thou¬ 
 sand dinars which I do not require.—I said : You know 
 best what your choice should be.—When Ibn Ra'iq fled, 
 and Bachkam had become monarch, he said to me one 
 day : Do you remember how once I told you I had 
 plenty of money, and you guessed the amount at a 
 hundred thousand dirhems, whereas I told you that it 
 was fifty thousand dinars ?—I do, I said.—He said : 
 Do you know how much I had in reality ?—I said No.— 
 Fifty thousand dirhems, he said.—This shows, I retorted, 
 that you had no confidence in me, and would not tell me 
 the truth.—Not at all, he said : only you were my 
 representative and my envoy, and I did not want you 
 
 Cf. above, p. 379. 
 
442 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 to know how small it was in reality, lest the knowledge 
 should weaken your nerve, and that should weaken your 
 tone, and the hopes of my adversary in consequence be 
 roused. I wanted you to go to him with a stout heart, 
 and talk to him in a style which should make his heart 
 palpitate and his courage fail. 
 
 This year Lashkari b. Mardi got possession of 
 Adharbaijan ; this is not the same Lashkari whose story 
 has already been told 1 ; but a more eminent man and of 
 higher rank, a follower of Mardawij, who was his deputy 
 over the Jabal provinces. Collecting money in large 
 quantities and men, he abandoned his master and pro¬ 
 ceeded to Adharbaijan to take possession of the province. 
 Daisam b. Ibrahim was in power there at the time, and 
 he collected a vast army of Kurds and other races. After 
 depositing his goods in some region, he advanced to meet 
 Lashkari, twice gave him battle within the space of two 
 months, and was defeated on both occasions. Lashkari 
 obtained possession of his country with the exception 
 of Ardabil, whose inhabitants are brave and hardy, 
 bearers of arms ; their city, which is the capital of 
 Adharbaijan and the seat of the government, is fortified 
 with a wall. Lashkari sent envoys to them, making 
 courteous speeches and fair promises, but they rejected 
 his advances, having heard reports of the Jil and the 
 various tortures which they had inflicted on the people 
 of Hamadhan and other places. So the place was 
 besieged by Lashkari, and there was a protracted war 
 between the parties; ultimately ( 399 ) some of his 
 followers found a place in the wall where they could 
 mount, while a number of places in it were dug through. 
 They opened the gate, and the troops of Lashkari were 
 able to enter the town, when they were overtaken by 
 night. 
 
 1 Above, pp. 212, 213 ; and cf. 277. 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 443 
 
 Account of an imprudent act on the part of Lashkari 
 
 following upon this situation and resulting in his 
 being routed and most of his followers being slain. 
 
 When Lashkari had got Ardabil in his grasp, feeling 
 sure of his conquest, he was afraid the town might be 
 plundered and the property be lost to him and his 
 followers. He decided therefore to return to his camp 
 which was at a distance of a mile from the town, spend 
 the night there, and enter next morning by daylight. 
 When he did this, the people of the town hastily repaired 
 the breach, stopped up the holes, locked the gates, and 
 renewed the war. Lashkari was astounded, and per¬ 
 ceived the mistake which he had made, when he had 
 neither entered the city by night nor left guards at the 
 breaches. His officers bitterly reproached him with in¬ 
 competence, and he could do nothing but confess that he 
 had blundered. The inhabitants of the city speedily 
 sent messengers to Daisam, explaining the situation, 
 and advising him to come quickly on a day to be ap- 
 appointed by him when they might make a sortie against 
 Lashkari, and Daisam might simultaneously fall upon 
 his rear. This stratagem succeeded. On that day 
 Daisam advanced with vast hordes of Su'luks 1 and 
 Kurds, while the inhabitants made a sortie in Dailemite 
 guise, with shields and lances ; there were some ten 
 thousand of them. Lashkari gave them battle ; then 
 Daisam appeared and charged his rear ; Lashkari was 
 disgracefully routed and vast numbers of his followers 
 were slaughtered. Lashkari moved off in the direction 
 of Muqan, defeated and despoiled without horses or arms. 
 The Ispahbad of Muqan, named I bn Dalulah came out 
 to meet him, and entertained him and his officers. Lash¬ 
 kari expressed his gratitude, and requested him to 
 furnish hospitality to his followers while he himself 
 returned to his own town, which was four days' journey 
 from Muqan, to remove his treasure, fetch his son and his 
 
 1 Ordinarily used for brigands, but here apparently the name of a tribe. 
 
444 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Ral>i. 
 
 brother, and muster his forces. To this Ibn Dalulah agreed. 
 So Lashkari hurried away, and returned speedily, bring¬ 
 ing his son ( 400 ) and his nephew, with a thousand young 
 Jiiites, well supplied with arms and war-material. He 
 invaded Adharbaijan afresh, and pursued Daisam, aided 
 by the Ispahbad Ibn Dalulah and his followers. Daisam 
 fled, crossing a river called the Rass, of which the current 
 is strong ; he seized the crossings whereby it is possible 
 to get over to the side on which he was. Lashkari took 
 up a position facing him, and for a time was unable to 
 reach him. Presently his son, his nephew, and the 
 young Jiiites, who were all good swimmers, their country 
 being on the sea coast, 1 came to him in a body, and in¬ 
 formed him that having followed the course of the river 
 both ways they had discovered at a distance of three 
 parasangs from their camp a place where the current 
 was sluggish, and they asked his permission to risk a 
 crossing. He gave it. Coming to the place at night 
 with a number of trumpeters, they swam across, and 
 stretched strong ropes which they attached to stakes 
 firmly planted on the two banks ; the rest then crossed 
 with their shields and weapons, charged Daisam’s camp, 
 sounded their trumpets, and killed some of Daisam’s 
 men ; Daisam fled, and the Jiiites got possession of his 
 baggage and stores. They were satisfied with their 
 booty and Lashkari’s victory was complete. 
 
 Daisam now went to Washmagir who was in Rayy, 
 and told him what he had suffered at the hands of Lash¬ 
 kari, who was now master of Adharbaijan, and had been 
 aided by the Ispahbad of Muqan, Ibn Dalulah. He 
 pointed out to Washmagir that the country of the Jil 
 was near his own, and that Lashkari could easily draw 
 reinforcements from it; he would very soon be attacking 
 Rayy and disputing the possession of it with Washmagir. 
 Daisam therefore requested Washmagir to supply him 
 
 1 The coast of the Caspian. 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 
 
 445 
 
 with a force of Jilites and Kurds which would enable 
 him to resist Lashkari. He proposed then that Wash- 
 magir should furnish him with a force of ten thousand 
 cavalry, Kurds and others, that he (Daisam) should 
 furnish the pay of this force from the day on which he 
 entered Khunj, which is just at the frontier of Adhar- 
 baijan from the direction of Rayy, should cause the 
 khutbah to be pronounced in Washmagir’s name on all 
 the pulpits of Adharbaijan, should transmit to him a 
 hundred thousand dinars net every year, and return 
 the force which was to be despatched with him after he 
 had finished with Lashkari.—When Washmagir heard 
 this statement, he regarded the affair as serious ; Daisam 
 assented to ( 401 ) all his demands, each swore loyalty to 
 the other, and Washmagir commenced equipping the 
 force. Before this operation was completed news came 
 that the Ispahbad Ibn Dalulah and many of his followers 
 had died of small-pox ; the rest of them stayed with 
 Lashkari, who despatched one of his chief officers, 
 Balsuwar b. Malik b. Musafir (nephew of Mohammed 
 b. Musafir) Lashkari 1 to the neighbourhood of Miyanij, 
 which was like the frontier between him and Washmagir, 
 with orders to guard the roads, follow and examine those 
 who passed, and read their papers by way of precaution 
 and prevision. Very soon Balsuwar seized a runner 
 who was conveying letters from officers in Lashkari's 
 army to Washmagir, apologizing for their enrolment in 
 the forces of Lashkari, and declaring that when they were 
 so enrolled they had supposed themselves to be still in 
 their original service ; and that if they saw one of his 
 banners advancing towards them, they would join it 
 and oppose Lashkari in a body.—When Lashkari became 
 acquainted with these letters, he folded them up and 
 said nothing about them. Hearing of the departure of 
 Daisam from Rayy with Washmagir's army accompanied 
 by his chamberlain Shabushti, he rode out into the fields, 
 
 1 If this is right, it will be a name in the style of Ra'iqi above, 
 
446 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 gathered his officers, and informed them of the approach 
 of that army, stating that he was afraid if he were to 
 en g a § e the Jilites and Dailemites that he would be 
 attacked from the rear by Daisam, and there would be 
 a repetition of the affair of Ardabil. He had there¬ 
 fore decided to take them on a raiding expedition into 
 Armenia, whence after pillaging the country he would 
 take them off to Mausil and Diyar Rabi'ah, which were 
 fertile and wealthy regions thinly populated.—As they 
 supported this scheme, he led them into Armenia, where 
 the inhabitants were unprepared for an attack ; so he 
 plundered their goods and cattle and took many 
 prisoners, penetrating as far as Zawazan. He and his 
 officers were by that time in possession of immense 
 droves of cattle which they had plundered, and had been 
 unable to count. They put them in charge of the herds¬ 
 men, who led them out to pasture in the morning and 
 brought them back ( 402 ) at eventide to the camp. 
 
 Near Zawazan there was an Armenian fortress held 
 by one of their chieftains named Atom son of Jurjin ; 
 he was a kinsman of Ibn al-Dairani, 1 king of the 
 Armenians. He sent a courteous message to Lashkari 
 requesting him to spare the Armenians, as they were 
 under a treaty and paid tribute ; and he held out hopes 
 of money being transmitted to him peacefully.—Lash¬ 
 kari assented to his request. 
 
 Account of a scheme whereby this Armenian succeeded in 
 killing Lashkari and the bulk of his followers . 
 
 This Armenian, knowing the speed and the levity of 
 Lashkari's methods in war, how he advanced without 
 reflexion, and hurried on without a plan, set an ambush 
 
 1 According to Thomas Ardzruni, Petrograd, 1887, p. 285, there were three 
 sons of Deranik, Ashot, Gagik and Gurgin ; the second of these, also called 
 Khachik, is the king of the Armenians ” to whom allusion is made here; he 
 was king of Vaspurakan 904-936. See Gfrorer, Byzantinische Geschichten 
 iii. 412. The name of Atom s fortress is given by Thomas as Kanguar, and 
 this agrees with Yaqut’s statement that Kinkiwar was a fortress near the Jazirat 
 Jbn ‘Umar,’ reckoned among the fortresses of the Zawazan region, 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 
 
 447 
 
 on two hills near the place where Lashkari was encamped. 
 Between these hills there was a narrow ravine. The 
 Armenian then sent a party of his countrymen to raid 
 the cattle in Lashkari’s camp, killing the herdsmen and 
 driving the beasts into the ravine. One of the herdsmen 
 fled wounded to Lashkari, and found him coming out 
 from the bath in the bazaar of Zawazan. He told Lash¬ 
 kari the news ; and the latter started off at once, with 
 the herdsman in front of him to show him the way, 
 accompanied by six only of his retainers, one of whom 
 was Fat# Lashkari (now an officer of the Sultan in 
 Baghdad, where I have myself seen him 1 ), a man of 
 marked courage and daring ; and sending a message to 
 the rest of his followers in the camp to join him. 
 
 Account of a lucky accident that befell this retainer Fath, 
 in consequence of which he alone escaped the slaughter. 
 
 It happened that the horse of the secretary 2 went 
 lame, God having decreed his escape, so he dismounted 
 to see to the hoof and set it right. Lashkari went on in 
 front, without waiting for him, with his five remaining 
 companions, and reached the pass before he had been 
 joined by the followers whom he had summoned from 
 the camp. He plunged into the defile ; when he was in 
 the middle of it, the men in ambush sprang up and killed 
 him and the retainers who accompanied him. They 
 removed their heads and their limbs, leaving their 
 trunks, and departed. Presently the army came up 
 ( 403 ) with this retainer Fat h, and went after Lashkari. 
 When they saw the group of bodies, they recognized 
 them, and retired. The officers of his army met and 
 appointed his son Lashkaristan chief ; they then decided 
 to go in a body in the direction of a steep and inaccessible 
 ridge called the Dragon's Ridge, place their baggage, 
 valuables, and cattle in safety behind it, and then return 
 to the town of Atom b. Jurjin to execute vengeance upon 
 him and bring upon it slaughter and pillage. 
 
 1 Cf. ii. 84. 2 This must mean Fatft. 
 
448 A.H. 326. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 Account of a second scheme which was successfully carried 
 out against them and resulted in their being slaughtered 
 in a mass save a very few, and all owing to their un¬ 
 wariness concerning the defiles, their ignorance of the 
 routes, and their self-conceit. 
 
 Atom b. Jurjin had sent out scouts to learn their 
 doings, and ascertained this plan. He anticipated it 
 by posting on the mountain heights on their road com¬ 
 panies of Armenians who flung stones at them. Their 
 road on these mountains went over a place some five 
 cubits wide, with a mountain on the left and a vast 
 stream on the right, at a depth of more than a hundred 
 cubits. The Armenians stationed men in ambush on 
 that spot, and Atom himself went with a party from his 
 fortress, and lay in ambush on the way to that defile, 
 so that if any of the enemy escaped he might attack 
 them. When the Jilites and Dailemites had reached 
 the defile, the Armenians flung stones upon them ; a 
 rock would be hurled down and crush rider and mount, 
 foot-soldiers, cattle and camels. Nothing could evade 
 it and they fell into the stream and perished. Some of 
 the cavalry dismounted and got between their horses’ 
 legs, and thus one and another escaped; but more than 
 five thousand men perished at that spot. Still some 
 escaped, among them Lashkaristan, who proceeded with 
 his followers to take refuge with Nasir al-Daulah 1 
 at Mausil, who furnished them with a little pay. Some 
 of them elected to accept journey-money and depart ; 
 some chose to stay with Lashkaristan; those who 
 accepted the journey-money received passports and 
 ( 404 ) went down stream to Wasit, where they joined 
 Bachkam. The remainder, who were five hundred in 
 number, were despatched by Nasir al-daulah with his 
 cousin Abu ‘Abdallah Husain b. Hamdan to Adharbaijan 
 when Daisam the Kurd advanced thither. 
 
 1 Jf the date be correct, he had not yet that title, 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 
 
 449 
 
 This Daisam had been one of the officers of Ibn Abi’l- 
 Saj ; and Abu 'Abdallah idusain b. Sa'id b. idamdan 
 had been appointed minister of public security in Adhar- 
 baijan by his uncle Abu Mohammed idasan b. 'Abdallah 
 b. idamdan (Nasir al-daulah). 
 
 In this year the Judge of judges Abu’l-idusain 'Umar 
 b. Mohammed rose high in favour with Radi, and occu¬ 
 pied the position of a vizier, being consulted by Radi 
 on all subjects and given a share in the administration. 
 He used to be admitted with 'Abdallah b. 'Ali Niffari, 
 the deputy of the vizier al-Fadl b. Ja'far, and nothing 
 was carried out without his being consulted about it. 
 
 In this year Radi accompanied by Bachkam visited 
 Diyar Rabi'ah and Mausil. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 The reason for this was that Nasir al-daulah delayed 
 ( 405 ) sending the money which had accumulated and 
 was due from him as farmer of the revenue of Mausil, 
 and further delayed sending the proceeds of the estates 
 which were for the use of Radi in his province. Radi 
 was incensed against him, and arranged with Bachkam 
 to attack him. 
 
 Year 327. 
 
 On Tuesday 3 Mu/^arram (Oct. 30, 938) 1 the two 
 started. Radi remained in Takrit, while Bachkam went 
 on to Mausil following the Eastern bank of the Tigris. 
 He was met by boats despatched by Nasir al-daulah, 
 bringing wheat, barley and cattle as a present to Radi. 
 These were taken by Bachkam, who distributed their 
 loads among his staff and followers, and after emptying 
 them, used them to cross over to the Western bank, 
 whereon he advanced till he met Nasir al-daulah at 
 Kutoil. 2 A battle ensued wherein the followers of Bach- 
 
 1 A Monday, according to Wiistenfeld. 
 
 2 Between the two Zabs. In Yaqut’s time there was no trace of this city, 
 which had once been considerable, left, 
 
450 
 
 A.H. 327. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 kam were routed, only Bachkam personally charged 
 Nasir al-daulah gallantly, whereupon Nasir al-daulah 
 took to flight, and was pursued by Bachkam who did not 
 stop at Mausil or before he reached Nisibin. Ibn 
 H amdan fled to Amid, but Bachkam remained in Nisibin, 
 whence he sent the tidings of victory to Ra^i, who then 
 left Takrit with the intention of proceeding to Mausil 
 by water. 
 
 Before the arrival of Bachkam's despatch announcing 
 the victory, the Qarmadans who were with Radi in 
 Takrit had been stinted in their allowances, and returned 
 in ill humour to Baghdad. When they reached the city, 
 Ibn Ra’iq came out of his hiding-place there and was 
 joined by them ; indeed it is said that their retirement 
 from Takrit was due to messages sent to them by him, 
 and letters wherein he allured them. News of this were 
 brought by carrier-pigeon to Takrit, and Radi was afraid 
 that Ibn Ra’iq and the Qarmadans would undertake an 
 expedition and catch him. So he hastily left the water, and 
 proceeded by land to Mausil which he entered, accompanied 
 by his secretary ( 406 ) ‘Ali b. Khalaf b. Tinab, and in 
 great fear of Ibn Ra'iq. When idasan b. 'Abdallah b. 
 flamdan learned of BachkanTs retirement from Nisibin, 
 he proceeded thither from Amid ; Nisibin and the dis¬ 
 tricts of Diyar Rabi'ah were evacuated by the officers 
 left behind by Bachkam, who all gathered to Mausil. 
 Thus Diyar Rabi'ah came into Ibn idamdan's possession. 
 This increased the perplexity of Bachkam, whose 
 followers began to slink away, and depart from Mausil 
 for Baghdad. He was at last compelled to block the 
 outlets of the streets of Mausil, and keep watch on his 
 followers. This added yet more to the troubles of Bach¬ 
 kam who said at last : It has come to this that nothing 
 remains in the hands of the Caliph and the Prince of 
 princes except the town of Mausil. 
 
 Before Ibn flamdan heard about the reappearance 
 of Ibn Ra’iq in Baghdad, he despatched Abu Ahmad 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 451 
 
 Taliqani, whom he had taken prisoner, to Bachkam, 
 to solicit peace, offering to pay down at once a sum of 
 half a million dirhems. When the envoy arrived with 
 this message, Bachkam was relieved, and delighted that 
 the initiative in demanding peace had been taken by 
 the .ffamdanids ; for he had been considering the plan 
 of surrendering Mausil to Ibn iJamdan and descending 
 the river to expel Ibn Ra’iq. So he immediately rode 
 over to Ra^i to inform him of the proposals brought by 
 Taliqani, and to solicit his permission to ratify the peace. 
 Ra^i resisted, being deeply offended with Ibn i^amdan ; 
 only Bachkam showed him that the right course was to 
 accept Ibn Z/amdan's offer, and hasten to Baghdad, the 
 seat of government, which was out of his possession. 
 Ra^i accordingly gave permission for the peace, sending 
 Taliqani back the same day with the message that Ibn 
 ii/amdan's terms were accepted, and bearing robes of 
 honour and a banner for Ibn #amdan. With him there 
 was despatched the qa^i Abu’l-#usain Ibn Abi’l- 
 Shawarib to take the oath of Ibn JTamdan. He 
 returned bringing the money paid down. 
 
 ( 407 ) After the departure of Taliqani Ja'far b. 
 Warqa and Takinak came from Baghdad 1 to Mausil, 
 and were followed by Mohammed b. Yanal the Inter¬ 
 preter in a muraqqa ah? flying from Ibn Ra’iq. ( 408 ) 
 They narrated that when he came out of his hiding-place 
 in Baghdad, three hundred Qarmafians attached them¬ 
 selves to him. He was met by Badi‘, retainer of Ja‘far 
 b. Warqa, whom he routed. A number of men belonging 
 to the army and the #ujaris, and some of the populace 
 then went out to Ibn Ra'iq, who was in the Oratory, 
 and offered to fight on his side. He gave them pay at 
 the rate of five and in some cases three dirhems. Ja'far 
 b. Warqa, Ahmad b. Khaqan, and Ibn Badr the Butler 
 were in the Palace or its neighbourhood ; Ibn Ra'iq 
 
 1 The text has “ from with Bachkam,” which is clearly not intended. 
 
 2 Some sort of rivercraft, 
 
452 
 
 A.H. 327. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 sent a message to them requesting them to leave the 
 route free for him to proceed to his house, i.e., the palace 
 of Mu'nis, in which Bachkam had been lodged. They 
 refused ; so he gave them battle ; they were routed and 
 Ibn Badr was killed. A number of their troops deserted 
 to Ibn Ra'iq, who promised them pay, and gave them 
 clay stamps as records of his promises. He then pro¬ 
 ceeded to the Sultan's Palace, ordered that no injury 
 should be done to its inmates, and sent a civil message 
 to the mother of Radi and his harem; he then went to 
 the palace of Mu'nis, where Bachkam resided ; Takinak 
 tried to resist, but was defeated, and Ibn Ra'iq obtained 
 possession of the palace. Then Mohammed b. Yanal 
 the Interpreter advanced from Wasit with four thousand 
 Turks, Dailemites and other troops to expel Ibn Ra'iq 
 from Baghdad ; he was met by Ibn Ra'iq at the Nahra- 
 wan, where a fierce engagement took place. The Inter¬ 
 preter was defeated and departed for Mausil in a 
 muraqqa‘ah. 
 
 Ibn Ra'iq began to hunt up the deposits of Bachkam, 
 and despatched Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad to Mausil 
 with a request for peace ; Bachkam ordered Ibn Shirzad 
 to remain with him, and despatched the Judge of judges 
 Abu'l-idusain 'Umar with the reply to the message. It 
 was to the effect that Ibn Ra'iq was to be made governor 
 of the Euphrates Road, Diyar Mudar, Jund Qinnasrin 
 and the ‘Awasim, and should proceed to his province. 
 Taliqani and the qadi Ibn Abi'l-Shawarib also 
 returned from ( 409 ) Ibn idamdan bringing the 
 ratification of the peace and part of the money. Radi 
 with Bachkam now proceeded Southwards from Mausil. 
 When the Judge of judges came to Ibn Ra'iq, he was 
 admitted to his presence, and settled with him that he 
 should undertake the governorship of the provinces men¬ 
 tioned. Ibn Ra'iq then left Baghdad for his provinces, 
 and the capital was reached by Radi and Bachkam on 
 Saturday 9 Rabi' i (Jan. 4, 939). 1 
 
 1 A Friday according to Wiistenfeld, 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 
 
 453 
 
 This year the vizier Abu’l-FatA al-Fadl b. Ja'far b. 
 al-Furat died at Ramlah. Ra^i had sent a eunuch to 
 summon him, but he was dead by the time the eunuch 
 arrived. The period during which he bore the title 
 vizier was a year, eight months and twenty-five days. 
 Ra^i appointed in his place Abu Ja'far Mohammed b. 
 Yahya b. Shirzad, to whom he delivered 'Ali b. Khalaf. 
 The vizier fined the latter fifty thousand dinars. The 
 vizier also endeavoured to make peace between Bachkam 
 and Baridi. He was successful; Abu 'Abdallah Baridi 
 was assigned the farming of the revenues of the depend¬ 
 encies of Wasit for 600,000 dinars a year. 
 
 The death of the vizier Abu'l-FatA and the peace with 
 Baridi having come about, Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad en¬ 
 deavoured to get Abu 'Abdallah Baridi appointed vizier. 
 He suggested this to Radi, who despatched Abu’l-idusain 1 
 to offer him the appointment. Baridi at first declined, 
 but afterwards accepted. He was appointed vizier and 
 'Abdallah b. 'Ali Niffari proceeded to act as his deputy 
 in the capital as he had acted for al-Fadl b. Ja'far. 
 
 Bachkam had made Balaba the Turk minister of 
 public security in Anbar. Balaba wrote to Bachkam 
 requesting to be given all the provinces on the Euphrates 
 Road, that he might be in the face of Ibn Ra’iq, who was 
 in Syria. Bachkam gave him the appointment, and he 
 proceeded to RaAbah, which he seized ; he then wrote 
 to Ibn Ra’iq and ordered the name of the latter to be 
 mentioned in the sermons ( 410 ) in the provinces of the 
 Euphrates Road. He became a power in these regions, 
 and reports of his proceedings reached Bachkam. 
 
 Account of the rapidity with which Bachkam adjusted the 
 affair of Balaba before it became serious. 
 
 Bachkam despatched his retainer Bustakin, his 
 chamberlain 'Adl, and a detachment some four hundred 
 strong, who reached Anbar the afternoon of the same 
 
 1 The qadi ‘Umar b. Mohammed. 
 
454 A.H. 328. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 day ; by the dawn of the following day they had got to 
 Hit, where they obtained guides ; taking the desert road 
 they arrived at Ra^bah in five days, entering the town 
 by two of the gates. All this was done in accordance 
 with the plans and instructions of Bachkam. Balaba 
 was at a meal when he heard of their arrival; he leapt 
 on the roof and went and hid with a weaver, at whose 
 house he was taken ; his captors proceeded with him to 
 Anbar, and presently brought him into Baghdad exposed 
 on a camel, bearing an " ostrich ” 1 whereon he was 
 crucified. What became of him afterwards is not 
 known ; some say that Bachkam poisoned him. 
 
 Year 328. 
 
 In this year Bachkam married Sarah, daughter of 
 the vizier Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi in the presence of Ra^i; 
 the wedding gift was 200,000 dirhems. 
 
 Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad was very harsh with the 
 cultivators, increasing the surveys, 2 and alleging in 
 excuse the high prices ruling ; he demanded payment in 
 accordance with arbitrary assessments both of the pro¬ 
 duce and the price, and advance payments besides ; 
 thereby manifesting his indifference to justice. 
 
 This year the prince Abu 'Ali Hasan b. Buwaihi 
 advanced to Wasit. The Baridis were there; the 
 prince quartered himself on the Eastern side, while the 
 Baridis remained on the Western. 
 
 Account of the reason for this. 
 
 Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi had despatched an army to 
 Sus, which put a Dailemite officer to death, ( 411 ) and 
 compelled Abu Ja'far Saimari, who was minister of 
 kharaj there, to entrench himself in the fort of Sus. 
 Abu l-Husain A/unad b. Buwaihi, fearing that Baridi 
 
 1 See above, p. 38. 
 
 2 Of this practice there was an illustration given above, p. 30. Others will 
 be found in volumes iii and iv. 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 455 
 
 would attack Ahwaz from Basrah, wrote to his brother 
 Abu 'Ali flasan b. Buwaihi, who was encamped at the 
 gate of Istakhr, imploring his help; and Abu 'Ali 
 #asan came to him by forced marches, taking ten days. 
 Necessity had compelled Abu’l-iiusain A/unad to quit 
 Sus ; when his brother Abu 'Ali came to Sus, Abu’l- 
 #usain AAmad entered Ahwaz. The followers of Wash- 
 magir had got possession of Ispahan ; and the prince 
 Abu 'Ali #asan now proceeded to Wasit hoping to get 
 possession of the place. His troops however became 
 disorderly, because he had not paid them for a year ; 
 and a hundred of them deserted to the Baridis. Bach¬ 
 kam and Ra^i advanced from Baghdad to make war 
 upon him ; fearing a joint attack, and that his troops 
 would desert, he departed to Ahwaz, thence to Ram- 
 hurmuz, and thence to Ispahan which he reconquered. 
 He took more than ten of Washmagir's officers captive. 
 Radi and Bachkam returned to Baghdad. 
 
 Account of the reason for Bachkam’s expedition to the 
 fabal , and for the rupture of relations between him 
 and Baridi after peace had been made between them 
 and they had become allied. 
 
 When Bachkam had become Baridi's son-in-law, and 
 there was union between them, he wrote to his father- 
 in-law bidding him undertake an expedition for the re¬ 
 conquest of the Jabal, whilst he himself undertook one 
 for the reconquest of Ahwaz and the expulsion of Abu’l- 
 idusain AAmad b. Buwaihi thence. He sent him his 
 chamberlain 'Adl with a body of five hundred men as 
 reinforcements for his own troops. Abu Zakariyya 
 Susi says : He sent me with 'Adl to rouse Baridi up and 
 urge him to start out with his whole army, since they 
 had commenced with Sus. When I got to Wasit, Baridi 
 professed to acquiesce in the proposals which were 
 brought by ( 412 ) 'Adl the chamberlain and myself; only 
 when Bachkam had reached #ulwan, Baridi felt a desire 
 
456 A.H. 328. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 to proceed to Baghdad and seize the treasures buried by 
 Bachkam in his palace, which were of vast amount, and 
 which Baridi hoped to bring back to Wasit. So he 
 began to delay and procrastinate, and to “ put one foot 
 forward and another back,” at one time hankering after 
 the treasure and at another dreading to break openly 
 with Bachkam, and hoping all the time that Bachkam 
 might meet with some reverse, be killed or defeated, so 
 that he might get his opportunity; and so our time 
 passed and we stayed more than a month, receiving 
 letters constantly from Bachkam, in which he ordered 
 us to inform him of what he had been doing. When 
 we showed them to Baridi, his reply was I am starting at 
 once. Nevertheless he lingered, and we perceived what 
 was in his mind. So I secretly told ‘Adi to despatch some 
 one to Bachkam to inform him of the facts. He immedi¬ 
 ately sent a despatch-rider in whom he had confidence, 
 and when he had reached Bachkam, the latter without 
 delay mounted a fast camel and returned to Baghdad, 
 leaving his army behind. 
 
 The carrier-pigeons brought Baridi the news of 
 Bachkam’s arrival in Baghdad, but he did not know 
 whether Bachkam was flying from an enemy or merely 
 passing; he was therefore in a state of doubt and per¬ 
 plexity, and bethought him of arresting me and dragging 
 me to Basrah. I made up my mind to go into hiding, 
 only was afraid he would hunt me out, as Wasit was a 
 small place. So for all that I put on a bold face and 
 constantly visited him. One afternoon he sent a number 
 of retainers to summon me. I had no doubt that my 
 arrest was intended. I reached him at sunset. He 
 had risen and got inside a mosquito curtain to escape 
 the insects. He asked me whether I had heard the 
 news.—What news ? I asked—Oh, he said, before the 
 afternoon prayer a pigeon brought a message that 
 Bachkam has started for Wasit.—I said : This must be 
 false. When did he return to Baghdad and when did he 
 
457 
 
 Emirate of Bachkam. 
 
 leave it ?—He said : Never mind about that, for I have 
 no doubt about it; but do you go out to him at once, 
 and put an end to his suspicions of me. Now give me 
 your hand.—I did so. He put it on his ear, and said to 
 me : Take me to the slave-market and sell me, I will 
 make no opposition, only extricate me from this diffi¬ 
 culty. And don't ask me what you are to do.—I kissed 
 his hand and foot and the ground in front of him, and 
 said to him : I will go and get ready.—He said : I have 
 made the preparations for you, furnished a barge, and 
 provided ( 413 ) fifty retainers for your escort. So get 
 down into the barge, where there are stores which will 
 last you the whole way to the capital, and your 1 retainers 
 will gradually catch you up.—I could scarcely contain 
 myself for joy, but presently began to fear that it was 
 a plot, and that when I left his presence I should be taken 
 off to Basrah. My mind did not come back to me till 
 I had reached Fam al-Sil/z. 2 When I got to the Sabus 
 Canal, 3 I was met by one of my household slaves from 
 Baghdad, bringing an order from Bachkam to me to 
 go into hiding, which the slave whispered into my ear. 
 The retainers of Baridi who were with me asked me 
 what message the slave had brought. I replied that he 
 had brought me news of a female relation who was ill, to 
 the effect that she was at the point of death. So I 
 hurried on, and meanwhile Baridi had begun to regret 
 that he had sent me, and despatched people in search 
 of me. For a pigeon had brought him a message which 
 made him despair of reconciliation with Bachkam, and 
 provoked him against me ; God however delivered me. 
 
 I reached Dair al-‘Aqul, where was A/unad B. Nasr Qus- 
 huri, to whom I went out ; he wanted to seize the barge, 
 and attack the retainers. I did not allow this, but called 
 out to them and sent them home in their barge, while I 
 
 1 i.e., " my." 
 
 2 He could then be sure that the direction was not that of Basrah. 
 
 * A day’s journey above Wasit. 
 
458 
 
 A.H. 328. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 myself embarked in a barge belonging to A/unad b. Nasr, 
 in which I reached Za'faraniyyah, where I met Bachkam. 
 I disembarked and told him the story. I did my best 
 to affect a reconciliation between him and Baridi, and 
 induce him to return to Baghdad. He declined, saying : 
 Had I met him on the steps of my house, it would not 
 have been possible for me to return ; as that would be 
 equivalent to defeat. Still less is it possible when I 
 have actually started and got thus far. So I descended 
 the stream with him. 
 
 In Wasit Bachkam arrested Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad, 
 who had been Baridi's agent at the former's court, and 
 the person who had recommended alliance with Baridi. 
 Bachkam publicly dismissed Baridi from the vizierate, 
 withdrawing the title from him, and conferring it upon 
 Abu'l-Qasim Sulaiman b. #asan, on whom the robes 
 of honour appropriate to the office were bestowed, while 
 the business was managed by Bachkam's secretary Ibn 
 Shirzad prior to his arrest. The period during which 
 Abu ‘Abdallah Baridi bore the title vizier was a year, 
 four months and fourteen days. 
 
 When Bachkam brought his tent out to Za'faraniy- 
 yah on his way to Baridi, ( 414 ) he wished the fact of his 
 expedition to be concealed. The boat which conveyed 
 him was a h udaidi ; 1 and he had the roads guarded pre¬ 
 venting the transmission of letters lest some one should 
 send word of his expedition. 
 
 Account of an interesting and wonderful coincidence. 
 
 Bachkam had with him on board his boat a clerk who 
 looked after his household and the stipends of his staff, 
 who had a brother in Baridi’s service. When Bachkam 
 sat down in the h udaidi, a bird alighted on the bows, which 
 Bachkam's retainers caught and brought to their master. 
 On the bird's tail a letter was found, which being read 
 was found to be an autograph missive from this clerk 
 
 1 Some sort of rivercraft. See glossary. 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 459 
 
 to his brother, telling him of Bachkam's expedition, 
 about the army which he was sending by land, and the 
 rest of Bachkam's secrets and plans. When Bachkam 
 learned this, he was surprised and angry. Sending for 
 the clerk, he flung the letter to him ; " it fell upon his 
 hand,” 1 but he could not disown it, as it was in his well- 
 known script. He confessed and Bachkam ordered that 
 lances should be hurled at him till he was dead. 
 The body was then thrown into the water. Bachkam 
 then proceeded to Wasit, where he found that Baridi 
 had not stayed ; he had descended the river. 
 
 In Dhu'l-ffijjah of this year (Sep. 7—Oct. 5, 940) 
 there came news that Ibn Ra'iq had dealt a blow to Abu 
 Nasr ibn Tughj, brother of the Ikhshid. Abu Nasr's 
 followers were routed, his chief officers captured, while 
 he himself had been killed. Ibn Ra’iq took the body, 
 had it laid out and embalmed, and conveyed in a coffin 
 to the dead man's brother the Ikhshid ; with it he sent 
 his own son Muza#im, bearing a letter of condolence on 
 his brother's death and apologizing for the occurrence. 
 Ibn Ra'iq assured the Ikhshid that he had not designed 
 his brother's death, and was now sending his own son 
 that the Ikhshid might retaliate upon him if he so 
 desired. The Ikhshid received this proceeding favour¬ 
 ably, bestowed a robe of honour upon Abu'l-Fat# 
 Muzahim, and sent him back to his father. They 
 arranged terms of peace whereby Ibn Ra'iq was to cede 
 Ramlah to the Ikhshid, but was to retain the rest of 
 Syria, and receive from the Ikhshid for the cession of 
 Ramlah 140,000 dinars. 
 
 ( 415 ) In this year Abu Nasr Mohammed b. Yanal the 
 Interpreter came to Baghdad from the Jabal where he 
 had been routed by the Dailemites. The news of his 
 defeat reached Bachkam in Wasit; the latter sent to 
 
 
 1 Allusion to Qur’an vii. 147, where however the phrase is supposed to mean 
 to repent.” 
 
460 A.H. 329. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 have him scourged in his own house, put in fetters and 
 imprisoned ; he was kept in this condition for some time, 
 after which Bachkam was reconciled. 
 
 Year 329. 
 
 It was in this year that Bachkam arrested his secre¬ 
 tary Ibn Shirzad, and gave his place to Abu 'Abdallah 
 Kufi. The length of time wherein Ibn Shirzad had 
 been secretary to Bachkam, managed the empire and 
 occupied the place of a vizier was nineteen months and 
 thirteen days. When Bachkam decided to arrest Ibn 
 Shirzad, he wrote to Takinak his deputy, sending the 
 missive by a swift messenger, bidding him summon 
 Abud-Qasim Kalwadhani, the heads of the bureaux, the 
 finance ministers and engineers, and order them to dis¬ 
 cuss the requirements of the Sawad, and draw up a 
 memoir on the needs of each district separately ; when 
 this was finished he was to receive it from them, and 
 arrest various clerks whom he named. When they had 
 arrived he was to send the announcement of their arrival 
 by a number of birds. Takinak accordingly summoned 
 them, examined them in Bachkam’s palace on the re¬ 
 quirements, and when they had finished and wished to 
 leave, placed those whose names had been given him in 
 confinement. Among them were Abu'l-JTasan Tazad 
 b. Tsa, Mohammed b. #asan b. Shirzad, a man called 
 Zahzamah, and a number of clerks and finance ministers 
 besides. He then sent the announcement of the arrest. 
 Then, when Bachkam had ascertained the arrest of these 
 persons he arrested his vizier Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad. 
 
 ( 416 ) An illustration of his astuteness is to be found 
 in a story told by Thabit after Abu ‘Abdallah Kufi. 
 After Bachkam’s arrest of Abu Ja'far Ibn Shirzad, he 
 said: I had been told that Abu Ja'far was a man of 
 great wealth ; I supposed that his enemies exaggerated, 
 and wished to find out the truth of the matter. One day 
 I said to him : I have buried a great deal of money in 
 
Emirate of Bachkam. 461 
 
 the ground, and should like to deposit another hoard 
 with some persons. There is no-one whom I trust as I 
 trust you, so I should like to deposit some with you. Do 
 you rise to it ?—How much ? he asked.—A hundred 
 thousand dinars, I replied.—He quickly said Yes, with¬ 
 out remarking on the magnitude of the sum, nor could I 
 see on his face any sign that he thought it enormous. 
 Perceiving then his nonchalance and readiness to under¬ 
 take the trust, and that the amount neither alarmed 
 nor overwhelmed him, I was convinced that the state¬ 
 ments about his wealth were true. So I handed over 
 to him a hundred thousand dinars, and after leaving 
 them with him for a certain time, told him that I was 
 in need of them and he must give them back. He said 
 Yes, and after some days brought me a portion ; after 
 a further demand he brought another portion, and after 
 yet another demand a further portion. I exhibited 
 vexation at this procedure and said to him : I delivered 
 it to you in one sum, and do you return it in instal¬ 
 ments ?—He was terrified by my angry exclamation, 
 exhibited alarm and shame, and said : I will tell the 
 Prince the truth ; there is no-one whom I trust in these 
 matters except my sister ; she is not strong enough to 
 carry the whole sum at once, and has no expedient except 
 bringing it part by part. I made no remark except 
 " That may be so,” but inferred that the person who 
 managed deposits for him was his sister ; so when after 
 arresting him I demanded money of him, and he began 
 to display obstinacy, I sent a message to him that he had 
 best not be obstinate, as his sister had fallen into my 
 hands. She had not in fact; only I wanted to frighten 
 him. He gave way and my purpose was achieved. 
 
 And in this year on the night of Friday the middle 
 of Rabi' i (Dec. 17, 940) Ra^i died. ( 417 ) There was a 
 total eclipse of the moon at the time. 1 He died of asciti- 
 
 1 The date is correct according to the Julian Calendar. 
 
462 A.H. 329. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 cal dropsy. His secretary Abu'l-^asan Sa'id b. 'Amr 
 b. Sanjala went into hiding. 
 
 Thus ended the days of Ra<fi, who was a scholar and 
 a poet, with a command of elegant language ; a man 
 who loved the society of the learned, and was never 
 without companions ; a man of liberal mind and 
 generous disposition. Bachkam was attracted by many 
 of his courtiers, and fancied that he, foreigner as he was, 
 would benefit by their acquirements ; but upon investi¬ 
 gation, he found no-one capable of making him under¬ 
 stand what was useful to him except Sinan b. Thabit. 
 Sinan was one of the messmates of Ra^i. 
 
 . Sinan says : I was summoned by Bachkam, who 
 paid me some compliments and gave me a present, after 
 which he said : I wish to rely upon you in my adminis¬ 
 tration, and in my diet and matters of health ; but 
 besides in a matter more important to me than the state 
 of my body, and that is the state of my character. I 
 have confidence in your intelligence and virtue. I am 
 vexed at the hold which anger and passion have upon 
 me, and their vehemence, which at times leads me to 
 order scourgings or executions which I afterwards regret. 
 I beg of you to make a study of my conduct, and then 
 treat me for those qualities of which you disapprove. If 
 you find any fault in me, do not hesitate to mention it 
 to me, and show me how to treat it so that it may dis¬ 
 appear. I said to him .* With all my heart. Only just 
 now let me give you a general idea of the way to deal 
 with the failing which you notice in your character, and 
 details may follow later.—Know, O prince, that you are 
 in a position in which no creature's hand is above yours, 
 neither has any one power to hinder you from doing what 
 you wish or to come between you and the instantaneous 
 gratification of your desires. Whenever you want a 
 thing, you obtain it so soon as you want it, and no part 
 of it can escape you. Now know that anger and passion 
 
463 
 
 Emirate of Bachkam. 
 
 produce in a man an intoxication that is far more serious 
 than that produced by liquor. And just as a man under 
 the influence of liquor commits ( 418 ) that which he 
 1 egrets, cannot comprehend and cannot recollect when he 
 is sober, so does he and worse under the intoxication of 
 anger. When therefore you feel your wrath beginning 
 to be stirred, beginning to get the better of you and 
 intoxicate you, then before it becomes uncontrollable, 
 make up your mind to defer the punishment of the 
 offence, to let it stay over for a night: in the confidence 
 that you will not on the morrow lose the chance of doing 
 what you wish to do at the moment. There is a saying : 
 Who has no fear of missing well may wait . If you do 
 this, pass a whole night without taking any step, the 
 storm of passion will necessarily subside, and the intoxi¬ 
 cation produced by your anger be sobered ; and indeed 
 it is said that the time when a man sees clearest is when 
 he has the night behind him and the day in front of him . 1 
 When you are sobered from your intoxication, consider 
 the matter which aroused your anger; if it be something 
 which admits of pardon, or is sufficiently punished by 
 remonstrance, threat, rebuke, or dismissal, go no further 
 than these ; for forgivenness is the most honourable 
 course and that which will most surely win the favour 
 of God Almighty. Neither the culprit nor any one else 
 will attribute your conduct to weakness, inability to do 
 more. But if the offence be one which does not admit 
 of pardon, then punish in proportion to its gravity ; do 
 not go to lengths which will soil your fame, make you 
 an apostate from your faith, and render you detestable 
 to yourself. The course which I recommend will be 
 hard only the first, second or third time that you try it ; 
 then it will become a habit which you will find easy ; 
 then when you have ascertained its virtues, you will 
 enjoy it.—Bachkam approved this homily, and promised 
 
 1 Compare in general Philostratus, Life of Apollonius i. § 37, where it is 
 stated that dream-interpreters pay attention to dreams seen at this time only. 
 
464 A.H. 329. Caliphate of Radi. 
 
 to carry out the instruction ; Sinan continued to point 
 out to him one thing and another till his character was 
 reformed, so that he restrained himself from ordering 
 executions and barbarous punishments, and found 
 pleasure in carrying out Sinan's suggestions for the doing 
 of justice and the removal of injustice. Finally he 
 said : I have ascertained that justice is by far the most 
 profitable course for a sovereign and that it procures 
 for him both this world and the next. The profits of 
 injustice, however great they may be and quickly won, 
 are speedily exhausted ; they disappear and fail, there 
 seems to be no blessing in them ; accidents occur which 
 annihilate them, and their result to him is the devasta¬ 
 tion of this world and the loss of the next. (419)—I said 
 to him : And conversely the proceeds of justice grow 
 and thrive ; they last and there is a blessing on them 
 from the moment the operation of justice begins. 
 
 Bachkam built a hostel in Wasit at the time of the 
 famine, and a hospital (420) in Baghdad. He treated 
 the people of Wasit with justice and beneficence. Only 
 he did not last ; he was put to death ere long. 
 
 God is the governor of His world and has a purpose 
 which He compasses. 
 
 End of the First Volume. 
 
 Printed by Fox, Jones & Co., Kemp Hall Press, High Street, Oxford,