There was exorbitant inflation and devastating mortality in Baghdad (1), and the calamity that befell Transoxiana was beyond all description (2).

In 450 AH Naṣir al-Dawla al-Ḥamdānī came from Egypt to take up the governorship of Damascus (3).

In 455 AH the Commander of the Armies, Badr, was appointed governor of Damascus (4).

In 457 AH a major pitched battle was fought in the Maghrib between Tamīm ibn al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs and his kinsman al-Nāṣir, the founder of Bijāya (5). Al-Nāṣir was routed, and twenty-four thousand Berbers were slain (6).

That same year Bijāya was founded (7), and in Baghdad the Niẓāmiyya college was built (8).

In 461 AH the Great Mosque of Damascus was gutted by fire; its splendour was obliterated, and the Khadraʾ—which had served as the royal palace—burned with it. The blaze was sparked by fighting that broke out between the Iraqi troops and the Egyptian troops (9).