In 301 AH, Ibn al-Mahdī, the ruler of the Maghrib, advanced with forty thousand men by land and sea to seize Egypt. Several engagements were fought; al-ʿUbaydī occupied Alexandria and then withdrew to Barqa (1).

That same year the Rasibī, amir of Fars, died (2), leaving one thousand horses, one thousand camels, and one million dinars.

In 302 AH al-ʿUbaydī advanced again, but the caliph’s army confronted him and routed him (3); his field-commander Ḥabāsa was killed (4). The caliph spent six hundred thousand dinars on the circumcision of his five sons (5).

Al-Muqtadir entrusted the Jazīra to Abū al-Hayjāʾ ibn Ḥamdān, while the tribe of Ṭayyʾ plundered the Iraqi caravans, and multitudes died of hunger and thirst (6).

In 303 AH the vizier Ibn al-Jarāḥ corresponded with the Qarmaṭians, granted them concessions, and courted their allegiance (7).

The army was meanwhile occupied with Muʾnis in a campaign against the Berbers. Taking advantage of this, al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥamdān renounced his obedience (8). Rāʾiq marched against him, but Ibn Ḥamdān defeated him. Muʾnis then arrived, engaged al-Ḥusayn, captured him, and brought him into Baghdad mounted on a camel (9). Afterwards Muʾnis campaigned in Byzantine territory, captured several fortresses, and his prestige grew greatly.