He said: A letter arrived from Egypt reporting that three thieves had tunnelled into a house; at daybreak they were found dead—one at the mouth of the breach, the second on the stair-landing, and the third sprawled upon the bundled clothes [li-yaʾkhudhahā fa-lam yumhal] (he had reached out to seize them, but was given no respite).

That same year the Head of the Heads ordered black standards to be raised in al-Karkh, which alarmed its inhabitants. He was harsh in persecuting the Rāfiḍīs, and the only person who defended them was ʿAmīd al-Mulk al-Kundarī, vizier of Sultan Ṭughril Beg.

In that year a violent wind blew; a vast dust-cloud rose and darkened the sky, so that people in the markets had to light lamps during the day.

Ibn al-Jawzī says in al-Muntaẓam (1): “That year, during the second ten days of Jumādā al-Ākhira, at the pre-dawn hour a star appeared with a white tail, which to the naked eye was about ten cubits long and a cubit wide. It remained so until mid-Rajab, then disappeared. People said: ‘A similar star rose over Egypt and the country was conquered; likewise over Baghdad—when it rose here, the city was conquered and the khuṭbah was delivered for the Egyptians.’”

Also that year the Rāfiḍīs were compelled to omit the phrase ḥayya ʿalā khayri l-ʿamal from the adhān, and the muʾadhdhin was ordered, in the dawn call, to announce al-ṣalātu khayrun min al-nawm (“prayer is better than sleep”) twice after the two ḥayya lines. The inscriptions fixed to the doors of their mosques and shrines reading Muḥammad wa ʿAlī khayru l-bashar (“Muḥammad and ʿAlī are the best of mankind”) were removed. Poem-chanters then entered al-Karkh from the Basra Gate and recited [al-qaṣāʾid] praising the Companions and extolling their virtues. This occurred because the former ascendancy [of the Rāfiḍa] had waned; in earlier times the Buyids had strengthened and supported them (2), but they vanished and perished, and Allah abolished their power. Allah then brought another people—the Seljuq Turks—who love the sunnah, befriend its adherents, recognise its lofty station, and raise its banner [wa-Allāhu al-maḥmūdu abadan ʿalā ṭūli l-madā] (and Allah is eternally praised through endless ages) (3).

The Head of the Heads, vizier of the caliphate, ordered the governor to execute Abū ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Jallāb, the shaykh of the drapers (4), at Bāb al-Ṭāq because of his blatant excess in Rāfiḍī doctrine. He was killed and crucified at the door of his shop. Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭūsī fled, and his house was plundered [wa-lillāhi al-ḥamdu wa-l-minna] (and to Allah belong praise and favour) (5).

That year al-Bāssāsīrī—may Allah disfigure him—came to Mosul together with Nūr al-Dawla Dubays at the head of a large army. He fought the city’s ruler Qirwāsh; Qutulmush, the cousin of Ṭughril Beg and forefather of the Seljuq kings of Rūm, supported Qirwāsh. Al-Bāssāsīrī defeated them both, seized the city by force, and the Friday sermon there was delivered for the Egyptian Fāṭimids. He released his secretary from prison— the man had professed Islam, thinking it would help him—but he was executed.