He was also fond of recreation, and was passionately devoted to construction: digging canals, erecting bridges and walls. In Baghdad he built a large congregational mosque, and he abolished customs dues and local tolls throughout all his lands.

This, Ibn Khallikan (1) reports.

He adds: along the road to Mecca the sultan built a series of installations. It is said that he kept a precise tally of every animal he brought down with his own hand, and the number reached ten thousand head of game. He therefore gave ten thousand dinars in charity and said, “I fear the taking of souls for no lawful nourishment.”

Once he accompanied the Iraqi pilgrims’ caravan as far as al-‘Udhayb (2). He hunted a great deal there and from the animals’ hooves and horns constructed the “Minaret of the Horns” (3). He then stood watching the pilgrims; his heart softened, so he dismounted, prostrated, rubbed his face in the dust, and wept. In Persian he said, “Convey my greetings to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and say: The disobedient runaway slave Abū al-Fath is at your service and says, ‘O Prophet of Allah, had I been worthy of that sacred presence, I would have been among your companions.’” The people cried aloud, wept, and prayed for him.

In his reign the highways were secure and prices fell. The caliph al-Muqtadī married his daughter through the mediation of the Shāfiʿī shaykh Abū Isḥāq (4); her wedding took place in the year 480 AH, and a banquet was held for the sultan’s army the like of which had never been heard before. Among what was brought in were forty