Muʾnis entered Mosul, and troops converged upon him from every direction, placing themselves under his command. Because of the favors he had previously shown them—the people of Baghdad, Syria, and Egypt, as well as many of the Bedouin—he soon found himself at the head of mighty hosts.

As for the vizier al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Qāsim, his treachery and incompetence became evident, so al-Muqtadir dismissed him in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir (1) and appointed in his stead al-Faḍl ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Furāt, who was the last of al-Muqtadir’s viziers.

Muʾnis remained in Mosul for nine months. Then, in Shawwāl, he mounted with his armies and set out for Baghdad to demand the soldiers’ stipends and their due rights. He advanced—after sending out vanguards—until he camped at Bāb al-Shammāsiyyah outside Baghdad. There he was met, though unwillingly, by Ibn Yāqūt and Hārūn ibn Gharīb. The Caliph was advised to borrow from his mother whatever money might be spent on the troops, but he said, “She has nothing left.”

The Caliph resolved to flee to Wāsiṭ, leaving Baghdad to Muʾnis until matters settled and then returning, but Ibn Yāqūt dissuaded him and urged him to confront Muʾnis and his followers: once they saw the Caliph, he said, they would all turn to him and abandon Muʾnis. Reluctantly the Caliph rode out. The jurists went before him, holding open Qurʾans; he himself wore the burdah (mantle), and the people surrounded him. He halted on a high mound at some distance from the battlefield.

A proclamation was made in his army: “Whoever brings a head shall receive five dinars, and whoever brings a captive shall receive ten dinars.” His commanders then sent to him, strongly urging him to advance, but he refused to move into the fighting ground. They persisted until, after great reluctance, he went forward; yet he had scarcely reached them when they broke and fled, paying him no heed. The first of Muʾnis’s commanders to meet him was ʿAlī ibn Bulaīq. When he saw the Caliph, he dismounted, kissed the ground before him, and said, “May Allah curse whoever advised you to come out today.”

He then placed the Caliph in the charge of a band of Berbers from the Maghrib. When they were left with him, they drew their weapons. The Caliph said, “Woe to you, I am the Caliph.” They replied, “We know you, lowlife. You are the Caliph of Iblīs—you cry out to your army, ‘Whoever brings a head shall have five dinars’!” One of them struck him on the shoulder with his sword (2), so that he fell to the ground, and another slit his throat. They left his body, having stripped him of everything—including his trousers—so that he lay naked, face-down on the earth, until a man came, covered his nakedness with grass, buried him on the spot, and erased all trace of him.

The Maghribīs raised al-Muqtadir’s head on a pole, cursing him as they marched. When they brought it to Muʾnis—who had not been present at the battle—he no sooner saw the head than he struck his own head and face and exclaimed, “Woe to you! I did not order you to do this.”