“When a leader from among us passes away, another leader rises in his place.”

At that point the reciter became tongue-tied and could not remember the next line, so the caliph supplied it for him, saying:

“He speaks the noble words of the generous and puts them into action.”

Among the senior scholars who offered their pledge of allegiance were Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, Shaykh Abū Naṣr al-Ṣabbāgh—both Shāfiʿīs—and Shaykh Abū Muḥammad al-Tamīmī the Ḥanbalī.
The caliph then came out and led the people in the ʿAṣr prayer. About an hour later the coffin of his grandfather was brought forth in calm dignity, without screams or lamentation; he performed the funeral prayer over him, and the coffin was carried to the cemetery.

Al-Muqtadī bi-Amr Allāh was high-minded and courageous; all his days were blessed, provisions were plentiful, and the caliphate highly revered. Kings were humbled before him and diminished in his presence. The khuṭbah was delivered in his name in the two Holy Sanctuaries, in Jerusalem, and throughout all the Syrian territories. The Muslims recovered Edessa and Antioch from the enemy, Baghdad and other cities flourished, and he appointed Ibn Jāhir as vizier—then Abū Shujāʿ, and afterward reinstated Ibn Jāhir. His chief judge was Ibn al-Dāmaghānī, followed by Abū Bakr al-Shāshī; these were, praise be to Allah, among the finest of judges and ministers.

In Shaʿbān he expelled the corrupt women from al-Khawāṭiʾ and other quarters of Baghdad, parading them on she-mules (ḥumarāt) and ordering them to proclaim their own disgrace aloud. He demolished the taverns, brothels, and music-houses, resettling their inmates on the western bank of the city in humiliation and abasement. He also razed the pigeon-towers, forbade the game associated with them, instructed the public to guard their nakedness in the bathhouses, and prohibited bathhouse owners from emptying their waste water into the Tigris, obliging them instead to dig wells for that foul water so as to safeguard the drinking supply.

In Shawwāl fires broke out in several parts of Baghdad, even in the Palace of the Caliphate, destroying a great many houses and shops. In Wāsiṭ a blaze erupted in nine different places, consuming eighty-four houses, six caravanserais, and many other properties.

In this same year an observatory was constructed for Sultan Malikshāh. A number of eminent astronomers assembled for the project, vast sums were spent on it, and the observatory remained in operation until the sultan died, whereupon it was abandoned (1).

In Dhū al-Ḥijjah the khuṭbah in Mecca was restored to the Egyptians and the Abbasid sermon discontinued. This happened after the ruler of Egypt, previously weakened by the high prices in his land, regained strength once prices fell; people returned there and life became pleasant. The Abbasid khuṭbah in Mecca had lasted four (2) years and five months, and matters would later revert once again, as will be explained in its proper place.