those who thought they saw in him the zeal and uprising of the awaited leader from the line of Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik of the Umayyads.

Later he settled in one of the Arab encampments of Egypt, teaching children while affecting piety, austerity, devotion, and scrupulousness. He also claimed knowledge of certain unseen matters, until the people humbled themselves before him and venerated him greatly. He then summoned them to pledge allegiance to his own person, telling them that he was the very Umayyad claimant whose cause he had been preaching. They answered his call, submitted to him, and addressed him as Commander of the Believers, while he styled himself “the one who rises by Allah’s command, victorious over the enemies of Allah.”

He entered Barqah at the head of a mighty host (1). The inhabitants there raised for him almost two hundred thousand dinars. He also seized a Jew whom he accused of withholding deposits and extracted from him another two hundred thousand dinars. He had dirhams and dinars struck with his titles, delivered the Friday sermon, and in it cursed al-Hākim—rightly so. About sixteen thousand soldiers then gathered around Abū Rakuwa.

When al-Hākim learned of these developments, he sent five hundred thousand dinars and five thousand silk garments to the commander of Abū Rakuwa’s forces, al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd Allah (2), hoping to win him over and turn him against Abū Rakuwa. Once the money reached him, al-Faḍl deserted Abū Rakuwa and said, “We have no strength to face al-Hākim. So long as you remain among us we are wanted on your account; choose a land in which to stay.” Abū Rakuwa replied, “I ask that you send two horsemen with me to escort me to Nubia, for affection and friendship exist between me and its king.” Al-Faḍl let him go, but then dispatched men after him who returned him to al-Hākim in Egypt.

When Abū Rakuwa arrived, al-Hākim mounted him on a camel and paraded him publicly, then executed him the next day. Al-Hākim honored al-Faḍl, granting him many estates. Al-Faḍl later fell ill, and al-Hākim visited him twice; yet when he recovered, al-Hākim killed him as well, repaying him with “the crocodile’s recompense.”

In Ramadan Qirwāsh was deposed from his holdings, which were given to Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mazīd, who received the title Sanad al-Dawlah.

That same year Yamīn al-Dawlah Maḥmūd ibn Subuktakīn defeated Ilak Khān, the Turkic ruler, driving him from Khurāsān and slaying vast numbers of Turks.

In the same year Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Wāṣil was killed; his head was sent to Bahāʾ al-Dawlah and paraded through Khurāsān and Fars.

During that year, while the pilgrims were on the road, a pitch-black, oppressive wind arose against them. Ibn al-Jarrāḥ, the chief of the Bedouin, waylaid them and prevented them from proceeding, so they missed the ḥajj that year and returned to Baghdad, entering it on the Day of Tarwiyah.

The Friday khutbah in the Two Sanctuaries (3) was delivered in the name of the Egyptians.

Among the notable figures who died this year was ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, Abū al-Qāsim al-Dīnwārī, the preacher and ascetic.