the direction of his brother Sulayman—namely the king ʿAḍud al-Dawla Alp Arslan Muḥammad ibn Dāwud—for the army leaned toward him and flocked to his side. The people of the Jabal had already delivered the Friday sermon (khuṭba) in his name, together with Nizam al-Mulk Abu ʿAli al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAli ibn Isḥaq, his vizier. When al-Kunduri perceived the strength of his position, he too caused the khuṭba to be proclaimed for him in Rayy, and thereafter for his brother Sulayman ibn Dāwud.

King Ṭughril Beg was intelligent and forbearing, immensely patient, a strict keeper of secrets. He was diligent in the prescribed prayers and in fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, and he was constant in wearing white. He died at the age of seventy, leaving no offspring. His reign in the presence of the Caliph al-Qaʾim bi-Amr Allah lasted seven years, eleven months, and twelve days. Upon his death matters were thrown into turmoil and conditions deteriorated sharply: Bedouin marauders roamed the countryside of Baghdad and the lands of Iraq, plundering goods and stripping travelers. Cultivation became possible only at great risk, and the people were deeply distressed.

In that same year a violent earthquake struck Wāsiṭ and the region of Syria, knocking down a section of the wall of Tripoli.

That year also saw a devastating mortality from smallpox and sudden death, and in Egypt a severe plague raged—some one thousand funerals were said to leave the city each day.

During the year as well, the Sulayhid ruler of Yemen seized Mecca, brought provisions into the city, and treated its inhabitants generously.

At the beginning of this year Lady Arslan Khātūn, the caliph’s wife, requested to be transferred from his household to that of her uncle, for the caliph had utterly abandoned her and she had become of no worth to him. The caliph therefore sent her off with the vizier al-Kunduri. When she reached her uncle he was gravely ill and bedridden, and he dispatched a message to the caliph reproaching him for his negligence toward her. The caliph replied extemporaneously with these verses:

My vigor is gone, and passion has slipped away;
The return of youth is a hope never to be attained.
The nights have stripped from me what once was new,
And the nights themselves grow weak, as do the days.
So farewell to the memories of my youth,
And farewell to the fair ones who once were mine.

Among the notable deaths recorded for this year were:

Zuhayr ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAli (1) ibn Khaddām, Abū Naṣr al-Khaddāmī (2). He came to Baghdad and studied jurisprudence under Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāyinī; in Basra he heard the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd from Qāḍī Abū ʿUmar. He transmitted many traditions and was consulted for legal opinions and the resolution of difficult questions. He died at Sarakhs in this same year.