Then the year 364 AH began.

In that year ʿAḍud al-Dawla ibn Rukn al-Dawla ibn Būyah arrived in Wāsiṭ, accompanied by his father’s vizier Abū ʾl-Fatḥ ibn al-ʿAmīd. Aftekīn thereupon fled with a detachment of Turks to Baghdad, so ʿAḍud al-Dawla pursued him and encamped on the eastern side of the city (1). He ordered Bakhtiyār to station himself on the western bank, laid a tight siege to the Turks, and instructed the Bedouin chiefs to raid the outskirts and cut the provisions reaching Baghdad. Prices therefore soared, people found it impossible to make a living because of the many ʿayyarīn (brigands) and the widespread looting, and Aftekīn even broke into houses in search of food. The situation became extremely grave.

At length the Turks engaged ʿAḍud al-Dawla, who routed them; they fled to Tikrīt, and he gained control of Baghdad and the surrounding districts. The Turks had taken the caliph with them, but ʿAḍud al-Dawla brought him back and restored him, honoured, to the Palace of the Caliphate, while he himself took up residence in the Dār al-Mulk. The power of Bakhtiyār ʿIzz al-Dawla was now utterly broken; nothing at all remained to him. He closed his door, dismissed the chamberlains and secretaries, and asked to be relieved of the emirate—and all this (2) was on ʿAḍud al-Dawla’s advice. Outwardly ʿAḍud sought to placate him, while privately counselling him not to accept; and so he did not accept.

Messages (3) were exchanged between them, but Bakhtiyār publicly persisted in his refusal. ʿAḍud al-Dawla therefore compelled him to stand by it and announced to the people that Bakhtiyār had acted only because he was incapable (4) of bearing the burdens of rule. He then ordered Bakhtiyār’s arrest along with that of his family and brothers, an event that delighted the caliph al-Ṭāʿiʿ li-Allāh.

ʿAḍud al-Dawla showed a respect for the caliphate that had long faded; he renovated the caliphal palace until every part of it became pleasant, and he sent the caliph large sums of money and fine, precious goods (5). He also executed a number of trouble-makers from the rebellious Turks and the leading ʿayyarīn.

Ibn al-Jawzī writes:

In this same year the calamity of the ʿayyarīn in Baghdad became enormous. They burned the Bāb al-Shaʿir market, seized great quantities of wealth, mounted horses and styled themselves “commanders,” levied protection money (6) from the markets and alleyways, and the trial they caused grew very severe indeed. Their power became so great that one of them—a black man who had previously been of no account—rose among them (7) and his wealth multiplied.