Al-Nāṣir passed away in Ramadan of the year 350 AH. His life will be narrated once more, in abridged form but with significant additions—among them the fact that he captured seventy fortresses.
- Al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, al-Mustanṣir bi-Llāh
Commander of the Faithful in al-Andalus, Abū al-ʿĀṣ, al-Mustanṣir bi-Llāh, son of al-Nāṣir, of the Umayyad-Marwānid line.
He received the pledge of allegiance after his father, in Ramadan 350 AH. He was of commendable conduct, encyclopedic in knowledge, generous toward people of excellence, of lofty rank, and possessed an overwhelming zeal for learning and virtue, devoting himself constantly to reading.
He amassed a library the like of which no other ruler—before him or after him—ever assembled. He pursued books wherever they could be found, spent lavishly on their purchase, and had them brought from distant lands at the highest prices. All this he combined with purity of heart, sound judgment, liberality, and closeness to the scholars.
He narrated extensively from Zakariyyā ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and Qāsim ibn Thābit (1) granted him authorization to transmit his book The Proofs Concerning Rare Hadith Terminology. He also took transmission from many others, among them: Qāsim ibn Aṣbagh, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Khushani, and Aḥmad ibn Duḥaym.
His treasuries became so crammed with books that they overflowed into his own quarters, and he preferred them to the pleasures of the body