and the remnants of the Zanj also joined him. He had once been a measurer of grain in Basra, a poor man who patched torn sacks while people belittled and mocked him—yet affairs turned out as they did. He routed al-Muʿtaḍid’s troops on several occasions and committed momentous deeds, until he was finally slaughtered in the bathhouse of his own palace.

He was followed by his son Sulaymān (1), the man who snatched the Black Stone and massacred the pilgrims around the Kaʿbah. Sulaymān was the grandfather of Abū ʿAlī, who later seized control of Syria and died at Ramla in 365 AH.

In the year 287 AH the Qarmaṭians grew formidable; they exceeded all bounds in killing and taking captives. Al-Janābī and the commander ʿAbbās met in battle; al-Janābī captured him along with most of his army, then put everyone to death except ʿAbbās. The latter reached al-Muʿtaḍid alone, in the worst imaginable state.

That same year a devastating mortality struck Adharbayjan, so severe that linen shrouds disappeared entirely and the dead had to be wrapped in coarse felt.

Al-Muʿtaḍid fell ill in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, recovered briefly, then relapsed and died later that month (2). Al-Muktafī assumed the caliphate with eight days of the month remaining; he had been absent in al-Raqqa, and the vizier al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allah secured the oath of allegiance for him.

Waṣīf the chamberlain said: “I heard al-Muʿtaḍid say at the moment of his death: