His first appearance was on Wednesday, four days remaining in Ramadan of the year 255 AH, and he was killed on Saturday, the night of the second of Ṣafar, 270 AH. His dominion thus lasted fourteen years, four months, and six days—praise and bounty belong to God.

A great deal of poetry (1) was composed on the downfall of the Zanj and the victory gained over them. One such piece is by Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad al-Aslamī (2):

I spoke when the herald arrived with tidings of a battle
that strengthened Islam where it once had grown frail.
May God reward, with the best a benefactor can be paid,
the best of men for men whose sanctuary had been laid bare.
He stood alone when none would rise to aid God’s cause,
renewing a faith that had become worn thin,
And restoring (3) a sovereignty that, after its glory, had decayed,
exacting revenge that utterly destroyed the foe.
He brought back buildings that had been razed and ruined
so that lost endowments might once again return in full;
And towns once pillaged and burned time and again
were made to prosper after lying desolate.
He healed the hearts of the believers with a single blow,
setting at rest the eyes that had been weeping.
The Book of God is now recited in every mosque,
while the pretender to the Ṭālibid line stands humbled (4).
He turned away from his loved ones and their delights,
from worldly pleasure, and rose as a warrior in God’s path.

[It is a long ode; this is but an excerpt] (5).

In this same year the Byzantines advanced with one hundred thousand fighting men and encamped near Tarsus. The Muslims marched out against them, surprised them by night, and—in a single night until dawn—killed nearly seventy thousand of their soldiers. Praise and bounty belong to God. Their commander, the supreme patrician, was slain; most of the survivors were wounded. The Muslims seized enormous spoils: seven crosses of gold and silver, their greatest cross—solid gold, encrusted with jewels—four chairs of gold, two hundred chairs of silver, many silver vessels, ten thousand silk banners, vast quantities of silk fabric, fifteen thousand beasts of burden, richly worked saddles, arms, swords adorned with gold, and a wealth of other goods beyond count. Praise and bounty belong to God—awwal-an wa-ākhir-an (first and last) (6).