In that same year al-Qāhir biʾllāh ordered the abolition of wine, the music houses (maghānī) and the singing slave-girls (qiyān); he further commanded that all singing slave-women be put up for sale in the Sūq al-Nakhs on the pretext that they were untutored novices.

Ibn al-Athīr said: “Al-Qāhir only did this because he was enamoured of singing and hoped to buy the singing slave-girls at the lowest possible price. We seek refuge in Allah from such conduct.” (1)

That year the common folk spread the rumour that the chamberlain ʿAlī ibn Bulaīq (2) intended to curse Muʿāwiyah from the pulpits. When this reached the chamberlain, he summoned the head of the Hanbalīs, the preacher Abū Muḥammad al-Barbahārī (3), to confront him on the matter, but al-Barbahārī fled and went into hiding. The chamberlain therefore had a group of his followers seized and sent under guard to Basra.

During the same year the caliph exalted his vizier Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqlah, addressing him with every mark of respect and honour. Before long, however, the vizier, Muʾnis the eunuch, ʿAlī ibn Bulaīq and a number of commanders consulted together about deposing al-Qāhir biʾllāh and installing Abū Aḥmad ibn al-Muktafī. They swore allegiance to him in secret, restricted al-Qāhir’s allowance and that of those who associated with him (4), and resolved to arrest the caliph without delay. News of this plot reached al-Qāhir through Ṭarīf al-Sabakrī (5), who set out to detain them. The powerful amir al-Muẓaffar Muʾnis al-Khādim fell into his hands, and the caliph ordered him imprisoned before granting him audience, placing his houses and property under guard—Muʾnis was notorious for his haste, boldness, recklessness and extreme impetuosity. In his stead, over the office of Amīr al-Umara and command of the army, al-Qāhir appointed Ṭarīf al-Sabakrī, who had previously been one of the amirs (6) under Muʾnis. He next arrested Bulaīq, whereupon Bulaīq’s son ʿAlī went into hiding; the vizier Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqlah likewise fled. The caliph then made Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh vizier at the beginning of Shaʿbān, bestowed robes of honour upon him, and ordered the burning of Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqlah’s house. Plundering broke out in Baghdad and turmoil erupted. Al-Qāhir biʾllāh commanded that Abū Aḥmad ibn al-Muktafī be bricked up alive between two walls with baked bricks and gypsum, and he died there.

He then proclaimed to those still in hiding: “Whoever conceals them [will be killed and] (7) his house will be demolished.” ʿAlī ibn Bulaīq was discovered and slain—slaughtered before the caliph as a sheep is slaughtered. Al-Qāhir lifted his head into a basin, went in person to his father Bulaīq and set the head before him. On seeing it, the father wept, kissing and fondling it; the caliph thereupon ordered his slaughter as well, and he too was killed. Al-Qāhir then took the two heads in