Qatru ʾl-Nadā ⦗1⦘—also called Badru ʾl-Dujā, and, according to some, her given name was ʿIlm—was the mother of the caliph al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allah. She was an elderly woman, over ninety years old, and of Armenian origin. During the time of al-Basāsīrī she fell into abject poverty, to the point that need compelled her to send him a note complaining of her destitution. He granted her a regular stipend and placed two maidservants at her service, one of the best deeds he ever performed. She did not die before Allah gladdened her eyes with the return of her son, his family, and their reinstatement in the Caliphal Palace as before. She passed away in Rajab of this year; the caliph attended her funeral, which was extremely well attended. May Allah have mercy upon her and honor her resting place.
[Then the year 453 AH began.]
Events of that year:
The sultan Tughril Beg asked for the hand of the caliph’s daughter. The caliph was disturbed and said, “Such a thing has no precedent.” Tughril then demanded many conditions, as though wishing thereby to dissuade the caliph: that he be granted the iqṭāʿs in the district of Wāsiṭ which had belonged to his late wife, a dowry of 300,000 dinars, and that the sultan should reside permanently in Baghdad and never depart from it. Agreement was reached on part of this, and Tughril sent her 100,000 dinars through his niece, Dāʾūd’s daughter—the caliph’s wife, Arslān Khātūn—together with numerous articles of gold and silver, scattered presentation-coins, maidservants, mounts, and jewels numbering 2,200 pieces, of which 720 were gemstones weighing between three mithqāls and one mithqāl each, in addition to many other items. The caliph withheld his consent because some of the conditions had not been met. ʿAmīd al-Mulk al-Kundūrī, the vizier, became angry on behalf of his master, the sultan. Lengthy troubles ensued, until the sultan sent an order that his niece, Lady Arslān Khātūn, be removed from the Caliphal Palace to the royal residence until the matter should be settled.
The caliph resolved to leave Baghdad and had the Ṭayyār barge made ready. This alarmed the populace. A letter then arrived from the sultan to the chief shihna of Baghdad, Barshaq ⦗2⦘, instructing him to withhold surveillance and to show great harshness, recompensing our refusal with deprivation. The sultan determined to move the lady Khātūn to the royal residence so that he might dispatch someone to convey her to the town where he himself was staying—all of it an expression of his anger toward the caliph. Surely to Allah we belong, and to Him we return.
Ibn al-Jawzī ⦗3⦘ relates: “In the month of Ramaḍān, a man who was chronically crippled saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in a dream. The Prophet was standing with three other persons. One of them came to the crippled man and said, ‘Will you not stand?’ He replied, ‘I cannot; I am a paralyzed man.’ The man took him by the hand and said, ‘Stand!’ He stood up, awoke, and found himself cured; he got up and went about his business on foot.”