his son ʿIzz al-Dawla, Bakhtiyār. He leaned toward Shiʿism, yet it is reported that during his final illness he repented: he invoked Allah’s good pleasure for the Companions, gave alms, manumitted slaves, poured out the wine, regretted the injustices he had committed, and returned inheritances to the rightful relatives.

He was known as al-Aqṭaʿ (“the Maimed”). In one battle his left hand was cut off and part of the right as well; he fell among the slain but survived. He seized Baghdad without effort, nations acknowledged his sovereignty, and in the beginning he had been subordinate to his brother, the ruler ʿImād al-Dawla.

He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir 356 AH, at the age of fifty-three. He had built a palace that cost forty million dirhams; it stood until after 400 AH, when it was torn down. The stripped gold from its ceilings alone was sold for eight thousand dinars.

134 – Kāfūr Abū al-Misk al-Ikhshīdī, “the Black”

Ruler of Egypt, the eunuch court-master, Abū al-Misk Kāfūr al-Ikhshīdī, the Black. He rose high in the favor of his master al-Ikhshīd, becoming prominent for his judgment, resolve, and courage, so that he was counted among the latter’s leading commanders. He later fought Sayf al-Dawla, then served as atabeg to Anujur, his master’s son, and firmly established himself.

His steward related: “I served Kāfūr when his daily stipend was thirteen jarāya, and under my administration it reached thirteen thousand jarāya.” (1)