“You fear God, and thus your vigilance for the Muslims never sleeps, while every one of them slumbers secure under your protection.

He went on to say: He then discharged the duty of jihad in the best possible way—he mustered the armies, suppressed the rabble, spent freely, safeguarded the frontier posts, captured the fortresses, and the kings obeyed him.

He also said: In his days books of learning fetched the highest prices because of his eagerness for them and his desire to place them in waqf endowments.

When gray hair began to show, he dyed it with henna and later abandoned the practice.

I add: His reign enjoyed solid control; on the whole he was just and commanded deep respect.

When he learned of the rise of the Tatars, he raised a great host; it is said his forces reached 100,000 men—though that figure seems far-fetched. Perhaps the number grew because the kings of Egypt, Syria, and the Jazīrah had entered his obedience, and the Friday sermon was proclaimed in his name even in al-Andalus and other distant lands.

Al-Sāʿī said: I was present at his pledge of allegiance. When the curtain was lifted I beheld him—God had perfected his outward form and inward qualities. He was fair-skinned with a rosy hue, with arched eyebrows, large dark eyes, smooth cheeks, an aquiline nose, and a broad chest. He wore a white robe and a white baqiyār (1) cloak, with a white qasab scarf, and he remained seated until the time of the noon prayer.

He also said: I was informed that the number of robes of honour distributed on that occasion reached 3,570.

I further say: The annual income of the Mustanṣiriyyah endowment once exceeded seventy-thousand dinars. During his lifetime no sultan ruled over him; rather, the kings of the frontier regions were submissive to him, while their minds were occupied with the matter of the Tatars and their seizure of Khurasan.”