five million dinars. Part of that wealth was burned in various places (1) and vanished.

In 421 AH al-Qādir bi’Llāh fell ill, but he later resumed public audiences and openly proclaimed his son Abū Jaʿfar as heir apparent (2).

At the same time the “Tyrant of the Byzantines” advanced on Syria with three hundred thousand troops, his treasure loaded onto seventy jammazah (swift pack animals) (3). When a mere one hundred Bedouin horsemen and one thousand infantrymen appeared on a rise overlooking his camp, the Byzantines assumed they were facing a surprise attack. Their king slipped on a pair of black boots to disguise himself and fled, and from his private baggage four hundred mules laden with supplies were plundered (4).

Many of his soldiers were killed, and the brigand al-Burjumī (5) and his confederates seized the newly minted coins and the major storehouses, sacked the markets, and the calamity spread (6). Jalāl al-Dawlah’s own troops then rebelled against him because their stipends had been withheld (7).

In Dhū al-Ḥijjah of 422 AH al-Qādir bi’Llāh died on the first of the Days of Tashrīq. His son al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh led the funeral prayer over him, pronouncing four takbīrs.

He was initially buried within the palace precincts, but ten months later his coffin was transferred to al-Ruṣāfah. He lived eighty-seven years, less one month and eight days (8), and I know of no other caliph of this community who attained such an age—not even ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with him.