meaning their grandfather—Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam. When this reached Mu‘izz al-Dawlah he neither disapproved nor altered it. Later he was told that the Sunnis had erased the inscription, so he ordered that the following be written in its place:
“May Allah curse the wrongdoers against the family of Muḥammad, from the first of them to the last,” explicitly naming Mu‘āwiyah among those to be cursed. And so it was inscribed.
May Allah disgrace Mu‘izz al-Dawlah and his Rāfiḍi faction! The same applies to Sayf al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān in Aleppo; he, too, is inclined toward Shi‘ism and favors the Rāfiḍah. Small wonder, then, that Allah grants no victory to such people but instead gives their enemies the upper hand, for they follow their passions, imitate their chiefs, elders, and forefathers, and abandon the guidance of the prophets and the scholars. Thus, when the Fāṭimids came to rule Syria, the Franks seized all its coasts as far as Jerusalem. Nothing remained in Muslim hands save Aleppo, Ḥoms, Ḥamāh, Damascus, and some of its environs; the entire coastline lay with the Franks, while church bells and evangelical priests blared from the lofty towers of their fortresses and citadels, echoing even in places that had once been mosques and in the noblest of sanctuaries. ⦗1⦘

In this same year a riot erupted in Baṣrah over the issue of cursing, in which a vast number of people were killed.

That year Sayf al-Dawlah also rebuilt ʿAyn Zarbah and dispatched his freedman Najā, who penetrated Byzantine territory, slew great multitudes, captured many prisoners, took spoils, and returned unscathed. He likewise sent his chamberlain with the army of Tarsus; they entered the land of the Byzantines, plundered and took captives, and came back safely—praise and gratitude be to Allah.

During the same year the Fāṭimid ruler al-Mu‘izz captured the fortress of Ṭabarmīn ⦗2⦘ in the Maghrib—one of the strongest Frankish strongholds—taking it by force after a siege of seven months and a half. The Franks then attacked the island of Crete; its inhabitants sought aid from al-Mu‘izz, who dispatched an army that defeated the Franks—praise be to Allah.

Among the notable deaths this year was al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn ⦗3⦘, Abū Muḥammad al-Muhallabī, vizier to Mu‘izz al-Dawlah ibn Būyah. He held the vizierate for thirteen years and was known for forbearance, generosity, and patience. Abū Isḥāq al-Ṣābī relates:
“I was with him one day when an inkwell and its stand, richly ornamented and made especially for him, were brought in. Abū Muḥammad al-Faḍl ibn …”