and assumed the title al-Mustaʿlī. Ibn Baqanna thereupon requested safe-conduct, but when he appeared before him al-Mustaʿlī had him killed, after which he put to death his cousin Yaḥyā ibn Idrīs ibn ʿAlī. Naja then returned to Ceuta, and Ḥasan al-Mustaʿlī himself died two years later (1).

Naja now crossed the straits intending to take command of the land, but the Berbers slew him. They released Idrīs ibn al-Muʿtalī from prison, pledged allegiance to him, and he adopted the honorific al-ʿĀlī (2). He was compassionate and gentle, yet base in character: he favored lowborn men, did not shield his womenfolk from them, and his administration was ill-devised (3).

Before long the Berbers grew to detest him and rallied instead around Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn Ḥammūd al-Idrīsī, who was then in Algeciras. They swore allegiance to him and styled him al-Mahdī. Affairs descended into utter confusion, for within a tract of al-Andalus no more than thirty parasangs by the same breadth, four men were simultaneously calling themselves Commander of the Faithful. After only a few days the Berbers abandoned Muḥammad, sending him away in disgrace; a few days later he died of grief, leaving eight sons (4).

Authority over Algeciras then passed to his son al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Idrīsī (5).

Málaga was governed by Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Muʿtalī. He remained in office until his death in 445 AH, during which whole period his father was deposed. After the son’s death they restored the father to the governorship of Málaga, and he was the last Idrisid to rule it (6). When he died, opinion coalesced