In that year, 388 AH, several kings died: among them King Fakhr al-Dawla ʿAlī (1) ibn Rukn al-Dawla ibn Būya, lord of Persian ʿIrāq, whose vizier was al-Ṣāḥib Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād. After his death they installed his son Majd al-Dawla Abū Ṭālib Rustam, who was only four years old.

Also in that same year King Ṣamṣām al-Dawla, son of ʿAḍud al-Dawla, was killed at the age of thirty-six. He had reigned for a period before his kingdom collapsed; he was captured, his eyes were put out, and he was imprisoned. After some time he was released—now blind—and they set him over Fārs for a few years until he was finally killed.

In 391 AH the ruler of Mosul, King Ḥusām al-Dawla Muqallad (2) ibn al-Musayyab ibn Rāfiʿ al-ʿUqaylī—brother of its former governor—was slain. His dominion had lasted five years. His son Qirwāsh (3) then took power, consolidated his position, and went to war against the Buyids.

371 – al-Maʾmūnī Abū Ṭālib ʿAbd al-Salām ibn al-Ḥusayn *
The foremost poet of his age and a unique man of letters, Abū Ṭālib (4) ʿAbd al-Salām ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Maʾmūnī was a descendant of the caliph al-Maʾmūn.

Ibn al-Najjar has given a full account of him, saying: “His verse is exquisite. He praised kings and viziers, and when he extolled al-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād, the latter honored him generously. The Ṣāḥib’s boon companions and court poets envied him, so they slandered him, alleging that he was a daʿī (an illegitimate claimant). They branded him a nāṣibī (one hostile to the Prophet’s family) and accused him of having lampooned al-Ṣāḥib. Because of all this he recited, before setting out on his journey, (5):