al-Muʾayyad and bore witness that he had delegated authority to this cousin of his. Shanjul’s power then waned; Muḥammad captured him and slaughtered him in that same year, when he was a little over twenty years old (1).

Ibn Abī al-Fayyāḍ relates: Shanjul’s circumcision took place in 380 AH, and the expenditure that day reached five hundred thousand dinars; together with him they circumcised five hundred and seventy-seven boys.

As for Muḥammad ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, he assumed the title al-Mahdī (2). He set up a chancery and began appointing officials—there was not an ascetic, an ignoramus, or even a barber who failed to come—so that about fifty thousand men gathered around him. The ministers and the Slavic guard submitted to him and swore allegiance. He ordered the plundering of the houses of al-Manṣūr Abū ʿĀmir’s family and the looting of everything in al-Zahrāʾ, wealth and weaponry alike; even the doors were ripped out.

It was said that five million dinars, not counting the silver, reached this Mahdī’s treasury. He led the Friday prayer in Córdoba, and his decree cursing Shanjul was read aloud. He then marched out to fight him, while the judge Ibn Dhakwān incited the people, proclaiming, “He is an unbeliever.”

Shanjul, for his part, had sought help from the Frankish army—his mother being one of them—and Ibn Ghumash joined him. He advanced on Córdoba, but his troops slipped away. Ibn Ghumash said, “Turn back with us before you are seized,” yet he refused. Instead he headed for the monastery of Sharabash, hungry and sleepless. A monk set before him a chicken and some bread; he ate, drank, and became drunk. The Mahdī’s cousin and chamberlain, Muḥammad ibn al-Mughīra al-Umayyī, then came out against him and apprehended him. Panic showed on Shanjul’s face, and he kissed Ibn al-Mughīra’s foot, saying, “I—”