He was a scholar of historical reports, dignified, a man in a class of his own. His brother ʿAbd Allah—nicknamed “al-Walad”—shared his passion for learning, but he was killed during their father’s lifetime.

Al-Hakam was reliable in his transmissions; it is hard to find a book of his without his critical remarks and useful annotations. He would record the author’s name, lineage, and place of birth, ever seeking what was rare and beneficial.

Among his commendable acts was his strict stance on wine: he banned it entirely throughout his dominions until it disappeared.

He treated scholars and devotees with courtesy. He asked the Andalusian ascetic Abū Bakr Yaḥyā ibn Mujāhid al-Fazārī to visit him, but the latter declined. Later, as the caliph’s procession passed by, al-Hakam greeted him; Yaḥyā returned the greeting, prayed for him, and resumed his recitation. Passing the study circle of the chief Qurʾān reader, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Anṭākī, al-Hakam sat with them and forbade anyone to rise for him, so not a soul moved.

He died in the Cordoba palace in Ṣafar 366 AH.

His son Hisham, nine years old or a little more, was then given the oath of allegiance and the honorific al-Muʾayyad bi-Allah. This became the cause of the Marwānid state’s decline, though the ḥājib known as al-Manṣūr, Abū ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī ʿĀmir al-Qaḥṭānī, set the kingdom’s affairs right; all authority rested with him, and he governed with consummate skill.

Al-Mustansir (1) has already been mentioned together with their forefather al-Dākhil.

164 – ʿIzz al-Dawla Bakhtiyār ibn Aḥmad ibn Buwayh al-Daylamī *
Sovereign of Iraq, the king, Abū Manṣūr Bakhtiyār, son of the ruler Muʿizz al-Dawla