He then roused his men and led them in a determined charge; they routed the caliphal army and captured Yūsuf ibn Abī al-Sāj, the commander of the force (1). They killed a great many of the caliph’s troops and seized Kūfah. When news of this reached Baghdad it spread that the Qarmaṭī meant to march on the city and take it, so the Muslims were alarmed and thought the report true.

The vizier therefore met with the caliph and said, “O Commander of the Faithful, wealth is stored up only to help us fight the enemies of Allah. Nothing so dreadful as this has happened since the days of the Companions. This unbeliever has blocked the pilgrimage route and time after time has massacred the Muslims, yet nothing remains in the public treasury. Fear Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, and speak to the Lady—meaning your mother. If she has put money aside for a time of hardship, then that time is now.”

He entered upon his mother, and she herself initiated the matter, offering him 500,000 dinars. An equal amount was in the treasury, so the caliph handed it all to the vizier to be spent on sending armies against the Qarmaṭīs. The vizier accordingly equipped an army of 40,000 under a commander named Bulaīq (2). [He set out against them, and when they heard of his approach] (3) they blocked the roads—he had been aiming to enter Baghdad. They met him in battle and the caliph’s army was soon routed; to Allah we belong and to Him we return.

Yūsuf ibn Abī al-Sāj [was with them] (4), shackled inside a tent, watching the fighting. When the Qarmaṭī returned he said, “So you meant to escape?” Then he ordered him beheaded.

The Qarmaṭī withdrew from the vicinity of Baghdad toward al-Anbār, and then turned toward Hīt. The people of Baghdad, together with the caliph, his mother, and the vizier, gave abundant charity in gratitude to Him—may He be exalted—for having turned that wretch away from them. All praise and favor belong to Allah.

In this same year the self-styled Mahdī—who claimed to be a Fāṭimid and had appeared in the Maghrib—dispatched his son Abū al-Qāsim at the head of an army (5), but the force was routed and many of his followers were killed. During the year that same Mahdī also laid out his city of al-Muḥammadiyya (6).

That year as well, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Dākhil al-Umawī (7) besieged the city of Ṭulayṭila. Although its inhabitants were Muslims, they had violated the covenant they had made with him. He took the city by force and killed many of its people.

Among the notable figures who died this year was Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ the jeweler (8), al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ, known as al-Jawharī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Baghdādī.