four and eighty, and this man (1) was restored to the vizierate; he remained in office for nine years. Yet the caliphs’ vizierate in those days stood below the rank of the sultan’s vizierate, so Niẓām al-Mulk held the higher position.

ʿAmīd al-Dawlah was insightful, politically astute, brave, magnanimous, proud, eloquent, cultured, and fluent; in his orations he affected the elaborate style of Ibn ʿAbbād. He commanded great awe, his words were few and measured, and poets celebrated him in their verse.

In the end al-Mustazhir imprisoned him and, together with the sultan’s vizier, confiscated his property. He was later taken out lifeless in Shawwāl of 493 AH. His pride had once been proverbial, but in calamity he was humbled, his resolve crumbled, and he turned back to Allah. The last thing heard from him was the declaration of faith—may Allah pardon him.

He lived fifty-nine years.

He transmitted hadith from Abū Naṣr al-Zaynabī and others, and he left behind some fine poetry.

98 – Abū Muṭīʿ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ḍabbī *

The shaykh, hadith scholar, centenarian, and leading transmitter of his time: Abū Muṭīʿ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad ibn Zakariyyā al-Ḍabbī, of Medina, a copyist and book-binder,