In that same year the Byzantines, together with al-Dumastuq—may Allah curse him—advanced to besiege Āmid. The city was being defended by Mard, a mamlūk of Abū al-Hayjāʾ ibn Ḥamdān. Mard wrote to Abū Taghlib imploring his aid, so Abū Taghlib sent his brother Abū al-Qāsim Hibat-Allāh ibn Nāṣir al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān. The two forces united and confronted the enemy on ⦗1⦘ a day in Ramadan, in a narrow spot where there was no room for cavalry. A fierce battle ensued; the Byzantines resolved to flee but could not, slaughter ran through their ranks, and al-Dumastuq was taken prisoner. He was cast into jail, where he remained until he fell ill and died the following year, although Abū Taghlib had assembled physicians for him, to no avail.

That year the Karkh quarter of Baghdad was burned. The incident began when the superintendent of the tax stipend (ṣāḥib al-maʿūna) struck a commoner who died from the blow. The populace, joined by a contingent of Turks, rose against him. He fled and hid in a house, but they dragged him out, killed him, and burned his corpse. The vizier Abū al-Faḍl al-Shīrāzī—an ardent supporter of the Sunnah—mounted at once and sent his chamberlain to the people of Karkh; their houses were set ablaze, and a great many dwellings and properties were consumed: three hundred shops, thirty-three mosques, and seventeen thousand souls. Thereupon ʿIzz al-Dawlah Bakhtiyār ibn Muʿizz al-Dawlah dismissed this vizier and appointed Muḥammad ibn Baqiyyah in his stead, to the people’s astonishment. The new vizier was held of little account; his father had been a peasant in the village of Awāna, and he himself had once served ʿIzz al-Dawlah by bringing in food and carrying the greasy napkin on his shoulder—until elevated to the vizierate. Yet he proved even more oppressive to the subjects than his predecessor, brigand bands (ʿayyārūn) multiplied in Baghdad, and affairs deteriorated.

Dissension ⦗2⦘ then broke out between ʿIzz al-Dawlah and his chamberlain Subuktikīn, but they were reconciled, though a trace of ill-feeling remained.

In this same year al-Muʿizz the Fāṭimid entered the Egyptian lands, bringing with him the coffins of his forefathers. He reached Alexandria in Shaʿbān, where the notables of Egypt came out to receive him. There he delivered, extemporaneously, an eloquent sermon in which he praised their virtues and noble rank—a false claim—asserting, “Allah has rescued the subjects through them and through their state.” This was related by the Egyptian judge, who was sitting beside him. The judge asked al-Muʿizz, “Have you ever seen a caliph better than I?” He replied, “I have seen no caliph except the Commander of the Faithful.” Al-Muʿizz asked, “Have you performed the pilgrimage?” He answered, “Yes.” “And visited the grave of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him?” “Yes.” “And the graves of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar?” He narrates, “I was at a loss for words; then I saw his son al-ʿAzīz standing ⦗3⦘ with the chief emirs, so I said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, occupied me from them just as the Commander of the Faithful has occupied me from greeting the heir apparent.’ I rose, greeted him, and withdrew, whereupon the assembly opened up for others.”

From Alexandria al-Muʿizz proceeded to Fusṭāṭ, entering it on the fifth of Ramadan that same year, and took up residence in the Two Palaces.