77 – al-Fāʾiz bi-Allāh ʿĪsā ibn al-Ẓāfir ibn ʿAbd al-Majīd

The ruler of Egypt, Abū al-Qāsim ʿĪsā, son of al-Ẓāfir Ismāʿīl, son of al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Majīd, son of Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanṣir bi-Allāh the ʿUbaydid, an Egyptian.

When the vizier ʿAbbās assassinated al-Ẓāfir, he feigned distress, for the people of the palace still knew nothing of the murder. They searched for the caliph in the women’s apartments but did not find him; they combed the place until they despaired. ʿAbbās then said to the caliph’s two brothers, “You are the ones who have slain our caliph!” They insisted on their innocence, so he executed them to divert suspicion from himself.

He immediately summoned this ʿĪsā, who was a child of five years—some said only two—and hoisted him onto his shoulder, standing there weeping and downcast. He ordered the amirs to enter, and they did so. He said, “This is your master’s son. Your master has killed his two uncles, and I have killed them on his behalf, as you see. Your duty now is to devote yourselves sincerely and obey this child.” They all replied, “We hear and obey,” and raised a mighty clamor. The noise terrified the boy, who urinated on ʿAbbās’s shoulder. They granted him the honorific al-Fāʾiz (“the Victorious”), sent him back to his mother, and from that moment his mind became disturbed: he would writhe about and suffer fits. The provinces thereupon submitted to ʿAbbās (1).

As for the palace household, they uncovered the reality of the affair, held mourning rites for the three victims, resorted to stratagem, and wrote to Ṭalāʾiʿ ibn Ruzzīk, the Armenian Rafidi (2), the governor