while two hundred Turkish slave-girls surrounded the litter, each mounted on an astonishingly adorned conveyance that dazzled every eye. The procession entered the Caliphal residence in this fashion, and the night was one of unparalleled splendour and awe. The Ṭāhirī harem, too, had been decorated and candles were lit throughout. (1)

The next day the caliph summoned the sultan’s amirs, laid out a banquet such as had never been seen—so abundant that it satisfied both those present and those absent—and bestowed robes of honour upon the khātūn, the sultan’s wife, [the bride’s mother]. It was a memorable occasion. [At the time the sultan was away on a hunting expedition; he arrived some days later, and the marriage was consummated at the beginning of the year.] (2)

She bore the caliph a male child [in Dhu al-Qaʿdah], and all Baghdad was decked out in celebration (3).

In the same year Sultan Malik-Shah, too, was blessed with a son whom he named Maḥmūd, and he would later succeed his father on the throne.

That year the sultan appointed his son Abū Shujāʿ Aḥmad as heir-apparent, bestowing upon him the titles King of Kings, Support of the State, Crown of the Community, and Mainstay of the Commander of the Faithful. These titles were proclaimed for him from the pulpits of Baghdad and elsewhere, and gold was scattered over the preachers whenever his name was mentioned.

Also that year construction commenced on the Tajiyya at Bāb Abraz; [a garden was laid out there and date-palms and fruit trees were planted], and, by order of Sultan Malik-Shah, a wall was erected around the site.

The pilgrimage that year was led by Najm al-Dawla Khumārtakīn.

Among those who died this year was Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd Allāh (4) ibn Mūsā ibn Saʿīd (5), Abū al-Qāsim al-Nīsābūrī. He travelled far and wide in quest of hadith, venturing even beyond Transoxiana, and he possessed a substantial share of learning in literature and mastery of the Arabic language. He passed away in Nishapur in [Jumada I] of this year.

Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bandanījī (6), Abū al-Wafāʾ, was a distinguished poet. He composed two odes in praise of Niẓām al-Mulk, one written entirely with dotted letters and the other wholly without dots; the latter opens:
“They blamed—but had they known the nature of blame, they would not have blamed;
Repelling their blame brings nothing but care and pain.”

He died in his hometown in Ramadan, at a little over seventy years of age. May Allah have mercy upon him.