and he instructed his deputy to treat the Caliph well, saying, “Deal gently with that old man, for he is one of us. Once the dominions of Iraq and Khurasan are firmly in their hands, they will then wheel in a single sweep against Syria and its people, wrest it from the Muslims and ‘deliver’ it—so they claim—while Destiny proclaims, ‘By your life, they wander blindly in their drunkenness.’ ”
Sultan Alp Arslan met him with his army—about twenty thousand strong—at a place called al-Rahwa (1) on Wednesday, five days before the end of Dhu al-Qaʿdah. Alarmed at the vast numbers of the unbelievers, the jurist Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Bukhari advised that the battle be joined on Friday after the sun had passed the meridian, when the preachers would be supplicating for the warriors. When that hour arrived and the two hosts halted face-to-face, the Sultan dismounted, prostrated himself before Allah—exalted is He—rubbed his face in the dust and implored his Lord for victory. Allah sent His help to the Muslims and turned the backs of the polytheists; countless numbers of them were slain and their king Romanos was captured. His captor was a Byzantine slave whom the Sultan thereupon appointed an amir and rewarded generously. That same slave had earlier been presented to the vizier Niẓām al-Mulk among other gifts, but the vizier declined to take him; when his owner praised him, Niẓām al-Mulk, jesting, said, “Perhaps he will one day bring us the Byzantine king Romanos as a prisoner,” and events unfolded exactly as he had said—praise and thanks be to Allah.
When Romanos was brought before Sultan Alp Arslan, the Sultan struck him three times with his hand and asked, “If I were the captive standing before you, what would you have done to me?” He replied, “Every vile thing.” The Sultan said, “And what do you think I shall do with you?” Romanos answered, “Either you will kill me, or parade me through your lands, or pardon me and accept ransom, then send me back.” The Sultan replied, “I have resolved on nothing but pardon and ransom.” Romanos ransomed himself for one million and five hundred dinars, on condition that every Muslim prisoner in Byzantine lands be released and that a truce of fifty years be concluded, during which he would pay one thousand dinars for every day. He then stood before the Sultan, who gave him a drink; he kissed the ground at the Sultan’s feet and in the direction of the Caliph as a mark of reverence. The Sultan granted him ten thousand dinars for his journey, released a number of patricians who had been captured with him, accompanied him for a parasang, and sent a detachment of troops to serve, guard and protect him all the way to his realm, bearing a banner inscribed: “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”
On reaching his country, Romanos found that the Byzantines had enthroned another ruler. He therefore wrote to the Sultan apologising and sent gold and jewels amounting to nearly three hundred thousand dinars. He adopted an ascetic life, put on wool, and later hosted the king of the Armenians, who seized him, blinded him, and reported the deed to the Sultan in hopes of currying favour.
In this same year, the ruler of Aleppo, Maḥmūd ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Mirdās, had the Friday sermon delivered for the Caliph al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allah and, alongside him, for Sultan Alp Arslan. The Caliph sent him robes of honour, gifts and precious presents, together with the diploma of investiture, dispatching them with the Sharif Ṭirād al-Zaynabī.
Also in this year, Abū’l-Ghanāʾim al-ʿAlawī, entitled Nūr al-Hudā, led the people in the pilgrimage, the khutbah in Mecca was given for the Caliph al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allah, and it was discontinued.