by Lady Umm Fātik who, together with his relatives, assigned to him the kharāj (land-tax revenues) of their estates. They thus amassed wealth until his following reached nearly forty thousand fighting men, and he took to warfare. He would say, “The time has come, the matter is at hand—you will one day witness with your own eyes what I am telling you.”

He then rose up in the territory of Khawlān, ravaged the land, took captives and destroyed the populace. I met him at Jiblah in 549 AH, in the presence of the Dāʿī, from whom he was seeking aid; the Dāʿī refused him. He next plotted the murder of the vizier of the house of Fātik, after which he advanced on Zabīd. Its people fought him in more than seventy engagements, and multitudes on both sides were killed. Fātik, the governor of Zabīd, was slain, and Ibn Mahdī seized the city in Rajab 554 AH. He did not enjoy it long, however, for he died three months later. His son ʿAbd al-Nabī (1) succeeded him, rose in power until he controlled all of Yemen, and gathered wealth beyond reckoning.

The father adhered to the Ḥanafī school—so I mean the father—and held that major sins constitute disbelief (2). He deemed lawful intercourse with the female captives of those who opposed him, and his followers entertained regarding him beliefs surpassing what any people hold about their own prophet.

He (the narrator) said: I was told that he would not trust the oath of anyone who accompanied him until that man had slaughtered his own son or brother. He executed people by torturing them under the sun, and no one could intercede with him. None of his soldiers owned a personal horse or weapon; everything remained in his possession until the moment of battle. Anyone who fled was certainly killed; the drunkard was killed; whoever committed fornication or listened to singing was killed; and whoever delayed the congregational prayer was killed.

215 – Khwarazmshāh Ātsiz ibn Muḥammad ibn Nushtekin*
He was the ruler of Khwarazm, King Ātsiz ibn Muḥammad ibn Nushtekin.