in Baghdad; later he was dismissed from the vizierate and replaced by Sulaymān ibn al-Ḥasan, while al-Buraydī undertook the tax-farm of Wāsiṭ and its districts for six hundred thousand dinars.

That same year the Chief Judge Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf died, and his son Abū Naṣr Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf succeeded him. The caliph al-Rāḍī invested the son on Thursday, five days before the end of Shaʿbān. (1)

When Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Buraydī set out for Wāsiṭ, he wrote to Būjkum urging him to march against the Jabal so as to capture it, and to help him wrest Ahwāz from the hands of Muʿizz al-Dawla ibn Būya. (2) His real purpose, however, was to lure Būjkum away from Baghdad so that he could seize the city himself.

Once Būjkum had broken camp with his troops, news reached him of the stratagem Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Buraydī was counting on. He therefore hurried back to Baghdad, advanced with a large army, and blocked the roads from every direction so that his adversary would not sense his approach until he was upon him.

It happened that he was riding in a small boat with one of his secretaries when a pigeon dropped down, a letter tied to its tail. Būjkum took the letter and read it; it proved to be a message from that very secretary to one of al-Buraydī’s confidants, reporting Būjkum’s movements. He said to the man, “Woe to you! Is this your handwriting?” “Yes,” the secretary replied, unable to deny it. Būjkum ordered his execution; he was put to death and thrown into the Tigris.

When al-Buraydī learned of Būjkum’s arrival, he fled to Basra—and did not stay there either, but escaped elsewhere. (3) Būjkum seized Wāsiṭ, while the Daylamite troops overpowered the detachment he had left in the Jabal, so they fled in haste to Baghdad.

In that same year Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq took possession of Syria. He entered Ḥimṣ first and captured it; then he came to Damascus, whose governor—on behalf of the Ikhshīd Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj—was Badr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ikhshīdī, known as Budayr. Ibn Rāʾiq expelled him by force and occupied the city.

Ibn Rāʾiq then set out with an army toward al-Ramla and captured it. Next he advanced on al-ʿArīsh, intent on entering Egypt. There he met Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj; they fought, and Ibn Rāʾiq defeated him. His troops, however, busied themselves with plunder and settled in the Egyptians’ tents, whereupon the Egyptians wheeled round, killed them in great numbers, and Ibn Rāʾiq fled with seventy of his men, entering Damascus in the worst of circumstances. Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj dispatched his brother Naṣr ibn Ṭughj with an army against him. They engaged at al-Lajjun (5) on the fourth of Dhū al-Ḥijja; the Egyptians were routed, and the Ikhshīd’s brother was among the slain. Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq washed the body, shrouded it, and sent it to his brother in Egypt, sending his own son along and writing to swear that he had never intended to kill him: “Here is my son—take him in retaliation if you wish.” Al-Ikhshīd honored Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq’s son, and the two men agreed that al-Ramla