from the College; one of his eyes was already gone (1), and later he was struck by dysentery (2) for twenty days and died. During the whole course of his illness he never repealed a single one of the taxes he had recently introduced.

He went on to say: “His conduct was deplorable. In his days he ruined Iraq, its inhabitants were driven far and wide, and he seized their money and property…,” until he added: “All his concern was for shooting pellets, hunting ‘suitable’ birds, and wearing the wide trousers favoured by the futuwwa bands.”

Al-Zahir al-Kazruni related to us in the licence he granted (3) that, midway through his caliphate, al-Nasir actually considered giving up the caliphate altogether and retiring to a life of devotion. Ibn al-Dhahhak (4) drafted a decree for him to that effect, which was read out before the notables. He built a ribat for the poor, set up next to it a house for himself, and used to go there to converse with the Sufis; he even had large garments made for himself in their style.

I say: he soon cast this aside and tired of it (5).

Among the events of his reign was the arrival in Baghdad of Frankish prisoners after Saladin had routed them in the action at Marj al-‘Uyūn (6). Among the curiosities presented on that occasion was a whale’s rib ten cubits long and a cubit wide, together with priceless jewels.

Others, however, said that this took place at the end of al-Mustadiʾ’s reign.