and the two armies drew up in battle array. Ibrāhīm was captured, his forces scattered, and ten thousand men from both sides were slain, while Ibrāhīm himself was slaughtered in cold blood.⦗1⦘
From the spoils, one hundred sheep were sold for a single dinar.

Tutush then sent envoys to the caliph, requesting formal investiture with the sultanate. He went on to seize Mayyafāriqīn, Diyār Bakr, and parts of Azerbaijan. His nephew Barkiyāruq hastened against him; the two armies met, whereupon Qasīm al-Dawlah and Buzān lost heart and defected to Barkiyāruq. Tutush’s strength failed and he withdrew to Syria.⦗2⦘

At the beginning of 487 AH the Friday sermon in Baghdad was proclaimed in the name of Sultan Barkiyāruq Rukn al-Dawlah, and al-Muqtadī affixed his endorsement to the diploma of investiture. The very next day al-Muqtadī died suddenly.⦗3⦘ He had eaten lunch and washed his hands; his concubine Shams al-Nahār was with him when he said, “Who are these people who have entered without permission?” She became alarmed; his colour changed, his hands went limp, and he collapsed. Thinking he had only fainted, the girl called for his vizier, but he had already expired. The oath of allegiance was thereupon given to his son Aḥmad, al-Mustazhir biʾllāh, on the eighteenth of Muḥarram.

He died aged thirty-nine after a caliphate of twenty years, and because his death was so sudden they delayed his burial for three nights.⦗4⦘

Ibn al-Najjār states that his mother’s name was ʿAlam.⦗5⦘ He adds: The Caliph loved the sciences and honoured their scholars. Throughout his reign he enjoyed irresistible power and dazzling authority. He was abundantly virtuous, possessed perfect reason, and was eloquent in prose. Among his maxims are:
• “The promise of the noble is more binding than the debts of the insolvent.”
• “Articulate tongues are more beneficial than handsome faces, and sound consciences are more eloquent than articulate tongues.”
• “The subjects’ right is an inescapable duty.”