In the year 640 AH (1): Ghāzī, the ruler of Mayyāfāriqīn, confronted the forces of Aleppo; the Aleppans prevailed, a savage slaughter befell the Khwarazmians, Naṣībīn and other towns were plundered, and Ghāzī went on to seize the city of Khilāṭ.

In Muḥarram, the Tatars captured Arzan al-Rūm and put it to the torch. A man related: “Naṣībīn was looted this year seventeen times by men from Mosul, Mardin, and Mayyāfāriqīn; were it not for its orchards, the townspeople would have abandoned it altogether.”

Al-Mustanṣir had a gallery from which he would sit and listen to the lectures of the Mustanṣiriyyah. He kept a vast army—some said it numbered more than one hundred thousand—and he was known for courage and daring. His brother al-Khafājī, himself a champion, used to declare: “Should I come to power, I will lead the army across the Jayḥūn and win back the lands, extirpating the Tatars.”

When al-Mustanṣir died, al-Duwaydār and al-Sharābī steered the caliphate away from him out of fear of his prowess. Ibn al-Buzūrī informed me that al-Mustanṣir passed away on Friday morning, the tenth of Jumādā al-Ākhirah. Al-Mundhirī (2) said it was Jumādā al-Ūlā, but he was mistaken. He lived fifty-one years and some months.

The Friday sermon was delivered in his name on the day of his death, yet the news was suppressed. Iqbāl al-Sharābī and the attendants then went to his son al-Mustaʿṣim, greeted him as Commander of the Believers, seated him upon the caliphal throne, and that very night informed the vizier and the chamberlain, who thereupon pledged allegiance to him.