to fight al-Barīdī the vizier (1). Bujkam then rebelled against him (2).

Muḥammad headed for Syria, entered Damascus, and claimed that al-Muttaqī lillāh had appointed him over the city. He expelled Badr the Ikhshidid, then advanced to take Egypt. There he met its ruler, Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj al-Ikhshid, and al-Ikhshid routed him.

A major battle took place at al-ʿArīsh; he was driven back to Damascus and stayed there for more than a year (3). When the news of Bujkam’s death reached him, he marched on Baghdad, and—after a succession of events too lengthy to detail here (4)—al-Muttaqī vested him with the robes of sovereignty. He then accompanied al-Muttaqī to Mosul (5), where Nāṣir al-Dawla, the city’s amir, laid out a banquet for him and, once it was over, killed him. He had been a cultured man—poet, warrior, and brave fighter, formidable in attack.

He was slain in Rajab of 330 AH (6).

161 – al-Nawbakhtī, ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās*
A fine poet, famous transmitter of historical reports, and leading notable. He held the agency of al-Muqtadir and lived to the age of eighty.

He died in 324 AH.

His son attained a high administrative rank, serving as the chief secretary who managed the affairs of the amir of commanders, Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq (7).