Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (23/168)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

Al-Nāṣir Dāwūd composed the following elegy for al-Mustanṣir:

“O cry of the death-announcer, you have toyed with my ear
and fanned the fire of grief within my ribs;
you have silenced in me a tongue once peerless in eloquence,
a tongue that used to fashion every mode of brocaded verse.
You have told me that courage, generosity, and wisdom are gone;
thus you arrested my hopes and opened the floodgates of my tears.”

Ṣafī al-Dīn Ibn Jamīl said:

“Consolation has grown scarce, and visitors of comfort are few;
time has reclaimed what it had once bestowed.
So let the eyes pour forth on the day of their parting—
blood in place of tears, and let no one blame them.
They are gone: my heart can find no rest from sorrow,
nor can my aching eyelid sleep.
Upon those I have lost and now lack
is the greeting of one in pain and a sorrowful salām.”

His reign lasted seventeen years—may Allah pardon him.

106 – al-Mustanṣir Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn al-Ẓāhir bi-Amr Allāh, the Hāshimite

The caliph, the Imām, Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad son of al-Ẓāhir bi-Amr Allāh, son of Abū Naṣr Muḥammad, son of al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh Aḥmad, son of al-Mustaḍīʾ, the Hāshimite, the Abbasid of Baghdad, brother of the caliph al-Mustanṣir billāh Manṣūr, founder of the Mustanṣiriyyah.

Aḥmad received the pledge of allegiance as caliph after the throne had stood without an Abbasid for three years and a half. At that time he had been held in Baghdad with other sons of the caliphs, so when

(*) These accounts are repeatedly cited in the main chronicles of the period: Ibn Shaddad, Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, p. 213; Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, Dhayl Mirat al-Zaman, 2:441–452; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam (Aya Sofya MS 3013), vol. 20, fols. 189–190; al-Dhahabi, Duwal al-Islam, 2:125; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, 5:258–259; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 13:231–233; Ibn Taghri Birdi, al-Nujum al-Zahira, 7:109–117, 206; al-Suyuti, Tarikh al-Khulafa, pp. 477–478.

وَلِلنَّاصِر دَاوُدَ يَرْثِي المُسْتَنْصِرَ: أَيَا رَنَّة النَّاعِي عَبَثْتِ بِمَسْمِعَي ... وَأَجَّجْتِ نَارَ الحُزْنِ مَا بَيْنَ أَضْلُعِي وَأَخْرَسْتِ مِنِّي مِقولاً ذَا بَرَاعَةٍ ... يَصُوغُ أَفَانِيْنَ القَرِيضِ المُوشَّعِ نَعَيْتِ إِلَيَّ البَأْسَ وَالجُودَ وَالحِجَى ... فَأَوْقَفتِ آمَالِي وَأَجرَيتِ أَدمُعِي وَقَالَ صَفِيُّ الدِّيْنِ ابْنُ جَمِيْلٍ: عَزّ العَزَاءُ وَأَعْوَزَ الإِلْمَامُ ... وَاسْترجَعَتْ مَا أَعْطَتِ الأَيَّامُ فَدَعِ العُيُونَ تَسُحُّ يَوْمَ فِرَاقِهِم ... عِوَضَ الدُّمُوعِ دَماً فَلَيْسَ تُلاَمُ بَانُوا فَلاَ قَلْبِي يَقِرُّ قَرَارُهُ ... أَسفاً وَلاَ جفنِي القَرِيحُ يَنَامُ فَعَلَى الَّذِيْنَ فَقَدتُهُم وَعَدِمْتُهُم ... مِنِّي تَحِيَّةُ مَوْجَعٍ وَسَلاَمُ وَكَانَتْ دَوْلَتُه سَبْعَ عَشْرَةَ سَنَةً ﵀ وَسَامَحَه -. ١٠٦ - المُسْتَنْصِرُ أَبُو القَاسِمِ أَحْمَدُ ابنُ الظَّاهِر بِأَمْرِ اللهِ الهَاشِمِيُّ * الخَلِيْفَةُ، الإِمَامُ، أَبُو القَاسِمِ أَحْمَدُ ابنُ الظَّاهِر بِأَمْرِ اللهِ أَبِي نَصْرٍ مُحَمَّد ابْنِ النَّاصِرِ لِدِيْنِ اللهِ أَحْمَد ابْن المُسْتَضِيْءِ الهَاشِمِيُّ، العَبَّاسِيُّ، البَغْدَادِيُّ، أَخُو الخَلِيْفَةِ المُسْتَنْصِرِ بِاللهِ مَنْصُوْرٍ وَاقِفِ المُسْتَنْصِرِيَّة. بُوْيِعَ بِالخِلاَفَةِ أَحْمَدُ بَعْدَ خُلوِّ الوَقْت مِنْ خَلِيْفَةٍ عَبَّاسِيٍّ ثَلاَث سِنِيْنَ وَنِصْفَ سَنَةٍ، وَكَانَ هَذَا مُعْتَقَلاً بِبَغْدَادَ مَعَ غَيْرِه مِنْ أَوْلاَدِ الخُلَفَاءِ، فَلَمَّا

(*) أخبار مشهورة في الكتب التي أرخت لهذا العصر فانظر ذيل الروضتين: ٢١٣، ذيل مرآة الزمان ٢ / ٤٤١ - ٤٥٢ تاريخ الإسلام للذهبي (أيا صوفيا ٣٠١٣) ج ٢٠ الورقة ١٨٩ - ١٩٠، دول الإسلام للذهبي ٢ / ١٢٥، العبر للذهبي: ٥ / ٢٥٨ - ٢٥٩، البداية والنهاية: ١٣ / ٢٣١ - ٢٣٣، النجوم الزاهرة: ٧ / ١٠٩ - ١١٧، ٢٠٦، تاريخ الخلفاء للسيوطي: ٤٧٧ - ٤٧٨.