[Then the year 471 AH began.]

Next, the Sultan—al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Tāj al-Mulūk (1) Tutush ibn Alp Arslan, the Seljuk (2)—took possession of Damascus and had its ruler, Iqis, put to death. The reason was that Iqis had written to him seeking aid against the Egyptians; yet when Tutush arrived, Iqis did not ride out to receive him. Tutush therefore ordered his execution, and he was killed on the spot. In his treasuries they found a red ruby weighing seventeen mithqāls, sixty pearls each larger than a mithqāl, ten thousand dinars, two hundred gold-plated saddles, and other valuables.

This same Iqis was Atsiz ibn Uq (3) al-Khwarazmī, known as al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam. He was among the best of kings—upright in conduct and pure of heart. He removed al-rafḍ (Rafidite Shiʿism) from the people of Syria, abolished the adhān formula ḥayy ʿalā khayr al-ʿamal (come to the best of deeds), and ordered that blessings be invoked upon all the Companions. In Damascus he built the citadel that serves as the bulwark of Islam in protected Syria. May Allah have mercy on him, moisten his grave with His mercy, and make the Garden of Firdaws his abode.

In the same year: The vizier Ibn Jahīr was dismissed at the suggestion of Niẓām al-Mulk because of his collusion with the Shāfiʿīs. Later, the caliph al-Muqtadī wrote to Niẓām al-Mulk asking for his reinstatement; his son was therefore restored to office and he himself was released (4).

Also in this year: Saʿd al-Dawlah [Jawhar] (5) arrived in Baghdad as amīr. Drums were beaten at his door at the prayer times, he behaved discourteously toward the caliph, and he set up horse courses at Bāb al-Firdaws. A complaint was dispatched to the sultan about him, and a reply came back from the sultan condemning his conduct. The pilgrimage that year was led by Khatlag the Turk, governor of Kūfa.

Among the notable deaths this year: Saʿd ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, Abū al-Qāsim al-Zanjānī (6). He travelled far and wide, heard a vast number of ḥadiths, and was an imām, a ḥāfiẓ, devout and pious. During the latter part of his life he kept to Mecca, and people sought blessings by kissing his hand. Ibn al-Jawzī said: “They kissed his hand more often than they kissed the Black Stone.” (7)