Then the year 275 AH began.

In Muḥarram of that year a quarrel broke out between Ibn Abī al-Sāj and Khumarawayh. They fought at Thaniyyat al-ʿUqāb (1) to the east of Damascus, where Ibn Abī al-Sāj was defeated and put to flight. His stores were in Ḥimṣ, so Khumarawayh dispatched a detachment that reached the city ahead of him, seized the supplies, and barred him from Ḥimṣ. Ibn Abī al-Sāj therefore made for Aleppo, and Khumarawayh pursued him (2). He next headed to al-Raqqah, and Khumarawayh kept up the chase; he then turned to Mosul, but abandoned it for fear of Khumarawayh. Khumarawayh advanced to Balad, where he set up a throne with long legs and would sit on it over the Euphrates.

At that point (3) Isḥāq ibn Kundājīq thought he could take advantage of the situation, so he followed after Khumarawayh hoping to seize something from him, but achieved nothing. The two forces met on one of the days, and Ibn Abī al-Sāj displayed extraordinary endurance, emerged safely, and went on to Abū Aḥmad in Baghdad. Abū Aḥmad honored him, bestowed a robe upon him, and kept him in his entourage to al-Jabal, while Isḥāq ibn Kundāj returned to Diyār Bakr and Mudar in the Jazīrah.

In the same year, during Shawwāl, Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaq imprisoned his son Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Muʿtaḍid in the Government Palace. The reason was that he had ordered him to head out on a certain campaign, but al-Muʿtaḍid refused to go anywhere except to Syria—the province his uncle al-Muʿtamid had assigned to him. Al-Muwaffaq became angry and ordered his confinement; the amirs rebelled and Baghdad fell into turmoil. Al-Muwaffaq rode to the Maydān (4) and said to the people, “Do you imagine that you are more compassionate toward my son than I am?” The crowd quieted and returned to their homes, after which al-Muʿtaḍid was released—praise and thanks be to Allah.

Also in this year Rāfiʿ (5) advanced against Muḥammad ibn Zayd, the brother of al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd al-ʿAlawī, and wrested from him the city of Jurjān. Muḥammad fled to Istarābādh, where Rāfiʿ besieged him for two years, until prices soared so high that a dirham-weight of salt sold for two dirhams. Muḥammad slipped away by night to Sāriyah, and over a prolonged period thereafter Rāfiʿ took many lands from him (6).

In Muḥarram—or in Ṣafar—of that same year al-Mundhir ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the Umayyad ruler of al-Andalus (7), died at the age of forty-six. His reign had lasted one year, eleven months, and ten days.