the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and proceeded to the maqsura. The sultan came after him; they performed the prayer, then emerged and walked to where the caliph’s mount stood at Bab al-Barid, whereupon the sultan returned to Bab al-Ziyadah. (1)

Al-Quṭb (2) reports: The caliph and the ruler of Mosul then traveled to al-Rahbah and there parted ways. The caliph, with those who were with him, continued on to Mashhad ʿAlī. When they reached ʿĀna they found the governor there with seven hundred men; he came to al-Mustanṣir, pledged allegiance, and camped with him. The caliph took possession of ʿĀna and granted portions of it to several people. He next reached al-Ḥadītha, whose inhabitants opened the town to him.

When news of this reached the Mongol vanguard in Iraq and the shihna (military governor) of Baghdad, they marched out with five thousand men, encamped at al-Anbar, plundered its inhabitants and slew many of them. The caliph moved on to Hīt, besieged it, and entered it at the end of Dhu al-Ḥijjah, sacking its dhimmīs (non-Muslim protégés). He then descended to al-Dūr and dispatched scouts who reached al-Anbar on the third of Muḥarram, 660 AH.

That night the Tatars crossed the river in boats and through the fords, and the two armies met the next morning. First the shihna was routed and most of his men were swept into the Euphrates. Then an ambush sprang upon them; the Bedouin and the Turcomans fled, and the ambush surrounded the caliph’s forces. The caliph charged, whereupon the Tatars opened a passage. About fifty men under the governor escaped, while a number of others were killed. The apparent outcome is that the caliph was slain, though some claim he survived and lay in hiding, a report that has not been verified.

Another version says that only three Tatars were killed that day, and that the caliph himself was killed in the early days of Muḥarram, at middle age. Two years later al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh Aḥmad was proclaimed caliph.