the town, whereupon a woman stepped forward and said, “He was my husband, and I have a child by him.” Al-Muʿtaḍid therefore handed the gold over to her and ordered the murderer put to death.

Al-Tanūkhī relates: It also reached me that one night al-Muʿtaḍid rose and saw the beardless slave-boys, one sprawled atop another. He crept forward on three limbs, slipped in among the lads, placed his hand on one boy’s chest and felt his heart racing. He kicked him with his foot, the boy sat up, and al-Muʿtaḍid slit his throat.

It is further reported that a servant came to him and said that a fisherman had cast his net; it grew heavy, and when he hauled it in he found a sack. Thinking it held money, he opened it and discovered a brick with a severed hand dyed with henna inside. Al-Muʿtaḍid was horrified. He ordered the fisherman to throw the net again; another sack emerged containing a leg. Al-Muʿtaḍid exclaimed, “Is there someone in my own city who does this? Such a realm is no kingdom!”

He ate nothing the entire day. Then he summoned a trusted agent, gave him the sack and said, “Go round to all who make sacks—find out to whom he sold this.” The man was gone for a while, then returned having identified the seller. A perfumer had bought one of the sacks. Al-Muʿtaḍid went to the perfumer, who said, “Yes, so-and-so the Hāshimī purchased ten sacks from me. He is a tyrant…,” until he added:

“It should suffice you to know that he was infatuated with a singing-girl. He hired her from her master, then claimed she had run away!”

When al-Muʿtaḍid heard this he prostrated himself in gratitude, had the Hāshimī brought in, and produced the hand and the leg. The man turned pale and confessed. Al-Muʿtaḍid paid the girl’s owner her price and imprisoned the Hāshimī; it is said that he had him killed.

Al-Tanūkhī also narrates from his father: “I saw al-Muʿtaḍid—still a youth—wearing a yellow qubāʾ (short coat) as he set out to fight Waṣīf in Tarsus.”

Khafīf al-Samarkandī said: “I went hunting with al-Muʿtaḍid. The army became separated from him and a lion appeared before us. Al-Muʿtaḍid said, ‘Khafīf, hold my horse!’ He dismounted, girded up his garments, drew his sword and advanced on the lion. The beast charged; al-Muʿtaḍid met it head-on, severed its foreleg, and while it was distracted he struck again and split its skull, then wiped his sword on…"