his hand, tearing the sleeve, while his foot was still caught in the stirrup; the horse reared and he was thrown.

Ibn Ḥamdān shouted to his retainers, “Kill him!” Swords fell upon him, and his followers outside the camp scattered in confusion. He was buried, every trace of him effaced, and his wealth was plundered (1).

One man related that he found a purse containing a thousand dinars, but, fearing the soldiers, he said, “I threw it into a pot of sikbaj (2), hoisted the pot onto my head, and so escaped unharmed.”

Ibn Ḥamdān then came to al-Muttaqī and said, “Ibn Rāʾiq meant to kill me.” Al-Muttaqī therefore appointed him to Ibn Rāʾiq’s position, styling him Nāṣir al-Dawla, and gave his brother the title Sayf al-Dawla; he set out with them.

Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Barīdī fled Baghdad (3), and Badr al-Kharshanī marched off and assumed the governorship of Damascus.

A month later word spread that Ibn al-Barīdī was coming; the populace panicked. Al-Muttaqī went out to be with Nāṣir al-Dawla, while Sayf al-Dawla advanced to confront Ibn al-Barīdī, and a fierce engagement took place near al-Madāʾin.

They fought for two days. Sayf al-Dawla was the first to break, but Nāṣir al-Dawla rallied the fleeing troops. The final defeat fell upon Ibn al-Barīdī, who withdrew in misery to Wāsiṭ, pursued by Sayf al-Dawla until he fled on to Basra (4).

Afterward Abū Manṣūr Isḥāq ibn al-Muttaqī married Nāṣir al-Dawla’s daughter for a dowry of two hundred thousand dinars. Nāṣir al-Dawla thus entrenched his power, seized al-Muttaqī’s landed estates, confiscated the government bureaux, and dealt unjustly.

When news reached him that his brother Sayf al-Dawla had escaped from Wāsiṭ, Nāṣir al-Dawla grew afraid, withdrew to Mosul, and his residence was looted (5). He installed ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī ibn Muqlah as vizier.

Tūzūn then set out from Wāsiṭ. Al-Muttaqī clothed him with a robe of honor, bestowed on him the title Amīr al-Umara, but the matter did not come to completion.