Later that same day two commanders sent by the caliph al-Muqtadir came to him; they entered his house—into the very quarters of his womenfolk—and led him out bare-headed, in the height of humiliation and disgrace (1). They placed him on board a ḥarrāqa (2) bound for the opposite bank. When the populace realized what was afoot, they pelted Ibn al-Furāt with bricks; the Friday mosques fell silent, the commoners blackened (3) the miḥrābs, and no one performed the congregational prayer in them. A written bond for two million dinars was taken from him, and another for three million dinars from his son; both were delivered to Nāzūk, the chief of police. They were detained for a time while their wealth was extracted.
When Muʾnis the Eunuch arrived, the vizier Ibn al-Furāt was handed over to him. He subjected him—and his criminal son al-Muḥsin, who was anything but “muḥsin”—to the harshest degradation, beating and rebuking them, and then had them both put to death. Thus this, his thirteenth term in office, lasted only a few months.
Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh (4) ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khāqān was appointed vizier on the ninth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal of that same year.
The caliph had already summoned Muʾnis the Eunuch to return; he entered Baghdad in magnificent array, and Ibn al-Furāt, as noted, was handed over to him, whereupon he punished him. He then interceded (5) with Ibn Khāqān that a letter be sent to ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā—who, having been banished, had reached Ṣanʿāʾ in Yemen—so that he might return to Mecca; the vizier further dispatched instructions to him to look into the affairs of Syria and Egypt.
The caliph ordered Muʾnis the Eunuch to march toward the Kūfa region on account of the Qarmaṭians, and spent one million dinars on outfitting him for that campaign.
The Qarmaṭian released the pilgrims held captive by him—two thousand men and five hundred women—and also freed Abū al-Hayjāʾ, the deputy-governor of Kūfa, who returned with them. He then wrote to the caliph requesting control of Basra and Ahwāz, but the request was refused.
Al-Muẓaffar Muʾnis the Eunuch advanced with great armies toward the lands of Kūfa, brought them under control, then moved down to Wāsiṭ for fear that the Qarmaṭians might seize it, appointing Yāqūt the Eunuch as his lieutenant over Kūfa. Order was restored and matters set right.
In this same year a man appeared between Kūfa and Baghdad claiming to be Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar (6) ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. A band of Bedouins and rabble believed him and gathered around him.