During his caliphate, in 434 AH, a man called Sikīn appeared in Egypt. He closely resembled al-Ḥākim, and he claimed to be the imam himself who had returned from occultation. A rabble of commoners who believed in al-Ḥākim’s re-appearance flocked to him. They marched on the palace, unrest broke out, and the pretender was captured; he and a number of his followers were crucified in Cairo (1).

That same year (434 AH) al-Mustansir outfitted an army to confront the lord of Aleppo, Thimāl ibn Mirdās (2).

In 440 AH al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs (3), the Fatimid governor of Kairouan, cast off their authority, switched the Friday sermon to the name of the Abbasids, and struck out the mention of al-Mustansir (4). Al-Mustansir sent him threatening letters, but he took no notice, so the caliph mustered against him a force of Bedouin Arabs—the Banū Zughba and Banū Riyāh (5). They fought him, and a chain of events followed whose full account would be lengthy (6).

At about the same time the Ghuzz (Turkmen) campaigned with—or, according to another report, without—Ibrāhīm Yinal the Seljuk. They advanced almost to Constantinople, seizing booty and taking more than one hundred thousand captives. It was also said that the spoils were hauled away on ten thousand wagons—an immense victory (7).

In that year al-Mustansir removed Nāṣir al-Dawla and Damascus’s military chief Ibn Ḥamdān from the deputyship of the city, appointing in their place Ṭāriq the Ṣaqlabī (8). A few months later he dismissed Ṭāriq as well, and before long his successor, too, was relieved of duty.