he set out for Mardin, whereupon Hamdan fled from him; he besieged the town, accepted its surrender, then captured Hamdan and imprisoned him. After that he surrounded a Kurdish fortress whose commander was Shaddad; he seized the man and demolished the stronghold.

He also tore down the Dār al-Nadwah in Mecca and turned the site into a mosque.

In the year 282 AH al-Muʿtaḍid abolished the ceremonial lighting of fires as well as the Nowruz celebrations.

That same year Qatr an-Nada (1), the daughter of the ruler of Egypt, arrived with her uncle—others say with her aunt al-ʿAbbāsah. Al-Muʿtaḍid consummated the marriage with her. Her trousseau was valued at more than one (2) million dinars, and her dower amounted to fifty thousand dinars. Another report states that her outfit contained four thousand gem-studded tikka ornaments. She was strikingly beautiful and of keen intellect.

It is related that on one occasion al-Muʿtaḍid was alone with her and fell asleep with his head in her lap. She gently placed his head on a pillow and left the room. When he awoke he called for her in anger and said, “Did I not allow you to stay here as an honor to you, yet you do this?” She answered, “I am not unaware of the honor you show me, but my father trained me never to sleep among those who are sitting and never to sit among those who are sleeping.”

It is also said that she possessed a thousand gold mortars.

In that same year Khumarawayh, the ruler of Egypt and Syria, was killed by his own pages because he had tried to seduce them. They were seized and crucified. His son Jaysh then took power, but they killed him shortly afterward and placed his brother Hārūn on the throne. Hārūn undertook to send al-Muʿtaḍid an annual tribute of one million five hundred thousand dinars.