Al-Muʿizz the Fāṭimid was a man of daring and strength, [resolute] (1) and possessed of unwavering determination. He had political acumen and outwardly appeared to rule with justice and champion the truth. Yet, for all that, he was an astrologer who relied (2) on what he observed of the movements of the stars. His court astrologer said to him, “A certain calamity (3) will befall you this year; withdraw from public view until this period has passed.”

So he had an underground chamber constructed for himself, summoned the emirs, commended to them his son Nizār—whose honorific was al-ʿAzīz—and delegated authority to him until his own return. They pledged allegiance on that basis, and he entered the chamber and remained hidden there for a year. Whenever one of the Maghribī horsemen saw a cloud, he would dismount and greet it, imagining that al-Muʿizz was inside that very cloud—“So he fooled his people, and they obeyed him” (4) (al-Zukhruf 43:54).

After a full year he emerged to the public, ascended the throne, and governed as before. His tenure, however, did not last much longer; the inexorable decree and allotted term overtook him, and he died in this very year—praise and bounty belong to Allah (5). The overall length of his reign (6) was twenty-three years, five months, and ten days, of which two years and nine months (7) were spent in Egypt. His total lifespan was forty-five years and six months, for he had been born in Ifrīqiyah on the eleventh of Ramadan, 319 AH, and he died in Egypt on the seventeenth (8) of Rabiʿ al-Akhir, 365 AH—the blessed year under discussion.

[Then the year 366 AH began.]
In it Rukn al-Dawlah Abū ʿAlī ibn Būyah (9) died, having surpassed seventy (10) [years] (11) of age. His period of dominion lasted a little over forty years, and in the preceding year he had divided his realms [among his sons] (12) as