As for his celebration of the Mawlid (1), words can hardly convey its scale. People flocked to him from Iraq and the Jazīrah. Wooden pavilions were erected for him and for his amirs, elaborately decorated and filled with troupes of singers and entertainers. Each afternoon he would come down, stop at every pavilion, and watch the festivities, continuing in this manner for several days. Great numbers of cattle, camels, and sheep were brought out, slaughtered, and an array of dishes prepared. He had many robes of honour made for the Sufis, while preachers addressed the crowds in the open square, and he spent lavishly on all of it.

Ibn Dihyah compiled for him a work entitled The Book of the Mawlid, and he rewarded him with a thousand dinars.

He was humble, upright, and a committed Sunni; he loved the jurists and hadith scholars, and would at times give to the poets. No report exists of his ever suffering defeat in war. Ibn Khallikan records this and similar facts and excuses himself for any shortcomings in his account.

He was born in Muharram (2) of the year 549 AH in Irbil.

Ibn al-Saʿī said: “After a long period of having to appease al-ʿĀdil’s sons, he took the keys and citadels of Irbil and handed them over to the caliph al-Mustanṣir at the beginning of 628 AH.”

He added: “They held a celebration for him; he met the caliph, who honoured him, investing him with two swords, standards, robes of honour, and sixty thousand dinars.”

Sibṭ al-Jawzī (3) said: “Muẓaffar al-Dīn spent three hundred thousand dinars each year on the Mawlid, two hundred thousand on the khanqah, and one hundred thousand on the guesthouse (4).” He went on to enumerate other expenditures of the same extravagant kind.