ibn al-Mahdi ʿUbayd Allah (1), lord of the Maghrib. He was thirty-nine years old, and his caliphate lasted seven years and sixteen days.

He was intelligent, courageous, and formidable; he subdued Abū Yazīd the Kharijite, a man whose bravery, daring, and endurance were thought impossible to withstand. Gifted with eloquence, he could deliver an extemporaneous sermon whenever the moment required. The cause of his death was a weakening of his innate heat for a reason recorded by Ibn al-Athīr in his al-Kāmil (2), over which the physicians disagreed.

Before dying he entrusted authority to his son al-Muʿizz the Fāṭimid—the builder of Cairo, as will be explained later (3). His given name was Maʿadd, and at that time he was twenty-four years old (4). He too was brave, intelligent, and firm in judgment. A great multitude of Berbers and other inhabitants of the region obeyed him. He dispatched his freedman, the commander Jawhar, who built for him the city of Cairo adjoining Miṣr and established there the royal residence, namely the two palaces that still stand (5); all of this took place in 364 AH (6).

Abū Jaʿfar al-Marwarūdhī relates: I accompanied him (7) when he crushed Abū Yazīd the Kharijite. As we were riding together, his lance fell; I dismounted, picked it up, and handed it to him. Wishing to amuse him (8), I quoted the poet:
“She laid down her staff and found at last a place of rest,
As the traveller’s eye is cooled by his homeward return.”
He replied, “Could you not instead have said, as Allah the Exalted declares: ‘And We revealed to Moses, “Throw down your staff,” and behold, it swallowed…’”