with goodness; he was steadfast in worship before the caliphate and after assuming it. Since the time of al-Muʿtaṣim no one had combined such mildness with his brand of majesty, together with asceticism and pious restraint, and his armies remained ever victorious.

I add: among his outstanding deeds was appointing the vizier ʿAwn al-Dīn ibn Hubayra (1). It was said that nothing took place in the state without his signed approval. During his reign the caliph personally copied three rubaʿāt (quarto Qur’an manuscripts). His viziers in succession were ʿAlī ibn Ṭirād (2), then Abū Naṣr ibn Jahīr (3), then ʿAlī ibn Ṣadaqa (4), and finally Ibn Hubayra. His chamberlains were Abū al-Maʿālī ibn al-Ṣāḥib, then Kāmil ibn Musāfir, then Ibn al-Muʿawwij, then Abū al-Fatḥ ibn al-Ṣayqal, and lastly Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Ṣāḥib.

He was brown-skinned, dark-complexioned, his face marked by smallpox, and his greying hair was becoming. He upheld the dignity of the caliphate and cut off the ambitions of the Seljuk sultans and others regarding it. Among the rulers contemporary with his caliphate were the master of Khurasan, Sanjar ibn Malikshah; the king Nūr al-Dīn, lord of Syria; and Nūr al-Dīn’s father, Qasīm al-Dawla.

We were informed by Ibn al-Jawzī, who said: I read in the handwriting of Abū al-Faraj al-Ḥaddād, who reported: A man I trust told me that six days before al-Muqtafi was invested as caliph he saw in a dream the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, saying to him, “This affair will come to you, so follow me.” Because of this he was given the laqab “al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allāh.” (5)

At that time the Seljuk sultan Masʿūd had entered Baghdad, while al-Rāshid had left it. The judges and leading men therefore gathered and deposed al-Rāshid—as we have mentioned—because he was not fit for the office,