Arslan—who was a cousin of Ṭughril Beg—mustered troops, gathered equipment, and made elaborate preparations, and Alp Arslan grew fearful of him. The vizier said to the king, “Your Majesty, do not be afraid, for I have enlisted for you a night army—whenever they confront any force, they break it, no matter who it is.”
The king asked, “Who are they?” He answered, “They are an army that prays for you and lends you victory by turning to Allah in their prayers and secluded devotions: the scholars, the poor, and the righteous.” Alp Arslan’s heart was set at ease, and when he encountered Qutlumush he did not delay before routing him, killing many of his soldiers. Qutlumush himself was slain in the battle, and all parties united behind Alp Arslan.
In this same year he dispatched his son Malik Shāh, together with his vizier Niẓām al-Mulk, at the head of a great army to the land of the Georgians (1). They captured numerous fortresses, seized immense spoils, and the Muslims rejoiced at their victory. He contracted the marriage of his son to the daughter of the Great Khan, ruler of Transoxiana, and she was escorted to him; he also married his son to the daughter of the ruler of Ghazna, thus joining the Seljuq and Maḥmūdid houses.
That year Alp Arslan gave permission for the Lady, the Caliph’s daughter, to return to Baghdad, sending with her several judges and amirs. She entered Baghdad in splendid array, and the people went out to gaze upon her; she came in by night amid great pomp. The Caliph and her family rejoiced, and the Caliph commanded that prayers for King Alp Arslan be offered from the pulpits during the Friday sermons. The wording of the supplication was: “O Allah, set aright the exalted sultan, Support of the State and Crown of the Community, Arslan Abū Shujāʿ Muḥammad ibn Dāwud.”
The Caliph then held a general audience and took the people’s oath of allegiance on behalf of King Alp Arslan, sending him robes of honor and the diploma of investiture with the sharif, the ʿAbbāsid naqīb, Ṭirād ibn Muḥammad al-Zaynabī, together with Abū Muḥammad al-Tamīmī and Muwafaq the chamberlain. He conferred on the vizier Niẓām al-Mulk the title “Qiwām al-Dīn wa-al-Dawla, the Pleasure of the Commander of the Faithful”; previously he had simply been called Khwāja Buzurg. King Alp Arslan sent magnificent presents and precious, boast-worthy gifts, and his authority over Baghdad and the whole of Iraq was firmly established.
Ibn al-Jawzī (2) relates: In Rabīʿ al-Awwal a rumor spread in Baghdad that a group of Kurds had gone out hunting and, in the wilderness, had come upon black tents. Inside they heard fierce chest-beating and loud wailing, and someone proclaiming: “Sayyidūk (3), king of the jinn, has died. Any land that fails to beat its breasts for him and hold a mourning ceremony will have its foundation uprooted and its people destroyed.”
Accordingly, the prostitutes of Baghdad’s harems went out to the cemeteries, beating their breasts for three days, tearing their garments, and disheveling their hair, and some worthless men did the same. This was repeated in Wāsiṭ, Khūzistān, and other regions. Such foolishness, he said, had never before been recorded.