The people then set out, as was their custom, searching for his return and leading spare mounts with them, and they kept this up for an entire week.
Then, on the second of Dhu’l-Qaʿdah, Muzaffar, the bearer of the state parasol ⦗1⦘, together with Nasim and several others, rode out. They reached Dayr al-Qusayr ⦗2⦘, pressed deep into the mountain, and there they sighted his grey mule, called Qamar; its forelegs had been slashed and the blows had left clear marks, while its saddle and bridle were still in place. They followed the mule’s tracks and saw the footprint of one man behind it and another ahead of it. Tracing the trail to a pool east of Hulwan, one of the men went down into the water and found his clothing—seven robes in all—still buttoned and bearing knife cuts. At that point they had no doubt he had been killed ⦗3⦘.
To this day a faction of the Ismaʿili rabble swear by al-Hakim’s occultation; they believe nothing except that he is still alive and will one day reappear—we seek refuge with Allah from ignorance.
Hulwan is a pleasant village about five miles from Cairo. It once contained the palace of the emir ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Marwan, and—so it is said—his son ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz was born there ⦗4⦘.
(1) A yellow silk canopy richly woven with gold and topped by a gilded silver bird was carried above the sultan’s head during the two ‘Eid processions; it was known as the jit r (with a soft g). See Al-Qalqashandi, Subh al-aʿsha, 4:7–8.
(2) Situated on the road to Upper Egypt, near Helwan, it stands on a hill overlooking the Nile.
(3) See Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-aʿyan, 5:297–298. Al-Maqrizi, citing the court chronicler al-Musbihi, records another version of al-Hakim’s assassination: “In Muharram 415/1024 a member of the Banu Husayn who had rebelled in Upper Egypt was captured. He confessed that he and three accomplices—now scattered in different regions—had killed al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. He produced a fragment of the caliph’s scalp and a piece of the cloth that had been on him. Asked, ‘Why did you kill him?’ he answered, ‘Out of zeal for God and for Islam.’ When they asked, ‘How did you kill him?’ he drew a knife, plunged it into his own chest, and died, saying, ‘That is how I killed him.’ His head was then severed and sent to the capital together with the evidence.” Al-Maqrizi adds that this is the sound account of al-Hakim’s death, not the eastern story that he was killed by his sister; see Ittiʿaz al-hunafa, 314.
(4) Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-aʿyan, 5:298.