to Ibn Ṭūlūn: “You once showed me the Commander of the Faithful’s writ appointing him to the succession; now show me the writ that removes him.”

Ibn Ṭūlūn replied, “The Caliph is being held under restraint.”

The judge retorted, “That is news to me.”

Ibn Ṭūlūn shot back, “You have lost your wits! He has been thrown into confinement, his ten-thousand-dinar stipend for the judiciary has been cut off, and al-Muwaffaq has ordered Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn to be cursed from the pulpits.” (1)

Ibn Ṭūlūn then marched out and laid siege to al-Miṣṣīsah, which was commanded by a eunuch. The eunuch opened the river’s sluice-gates against Aḥmad’s army; countless men perished, the rest broke camp, and the townspeople fell upon them as they fled. Aḥmad fell ill and died, bitterly aggrieved.

In Shawwal the great pitched battle took place between the villain and al-Muwaffaq. (2)

The Zanj were routed; they were in dire hunger and hardship—may Allah not lighten their burden—while several of the villain’s leading officers and intimates deserted him. In Dhu al-Qaʿdah al-Muʿtamid was brought to Wāsiṭ. The villain and al-Muwaffaq met once more; again the Zanj were scattered. The army surrounded them and besieged the villain in the governor’s residence. He slipped away to the house of al-Muhallabī, one of his commanders, but his womenfolk—about one hundred in all—were captured. Al-Muwaffaq treated them kindly, and the residence was burned.

At the beginning of the year 270 AH another fierce engagement occurred between al-Muwaffaq and the villain, followed by a second clash in which the villain was killed—may God grant him no mercy.

Some three hundred thousand troops, both regulars and volunteers, had gathered under al-Muwaffaq’s banner.

In the final phase the villain and his cavalry charged and dislodged the soldiers from their positions. Al-Muwaffaq counter-charged, routed them, and pursued them to the river’s far end. While the fighting still raged, a horseman reached al-Muwaffaq carrying the villain’s head. He could scarcely believe it, so he displayed it to a group who confirmed, “It is he indeed.” Al-Muwaffaq and the commanders dismounted, prostrated themselves to Allah, and the camp resounded with cries of “Allāhu akbar!” Abū al-ʿAbbās, al-Muwaffaq’s son, hastened forward with his retinue, bearing the villain’s head.