the army, brought the treasury and the conduct of affairs firmly under control, and sent to the caliph requesting that her son Maḥmūd be made king after his father and that his name be proclaimed from the pulpits. He acceded to her request, dispatched the robes of investiture to him, and sent his vizier ʿAmīd al-Dawlah Ibn Jahīr with words of condolence and congratulation.

(1) At that time King Maḥmūd was five years old. His mother then set out with him toward Isfahān to consolidate his rule. They entered the city and achieved their aim; his name was mentioned in the Friday khutbah (sermon) in every province, even in the Two Holy Sanctuaries. Tāj al-Mulk Abū al-Ghanāʾim al-Marzbān ibn Khusraw was appointed his vizier. The king’s mother next asked the caliph to place the provincial governorships under Maḥmūd’s authority, but the caliph refused, supported by al-Ghazālī, who said, “The Sacred Law does not permit this.” Some scholars, among them al-Muṭayyib ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥanafī, issued fatwas allowing it, yet only al-Ghazālī’s opinion was followed.

Most of the sultan’s army defected to his other son, Barkiyāruq; they pledged allegiance to him and had the khutbah proclaimed for him in Rayy, while the Khātūn and her son were left with only a small detachment of troops and palace guards. (2) The Khātūn spent thirty million dinars to wage war against Barkiyāruq ibn Malikshāh. They met in Dhū al-Ḥijjah, but the Khātūn and her son were routed. It is recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (3): “A people who entrust their affairs to a woman will never prosper.”

That same year a severe hailstorm struck Basra; a single hail-stone weighed between five and thirteen pounds, destroying a great many trees. A fierce, devastating wind also toppled tens of thousands of date-palms—“Whatever calamity befalls you is because of what your own hands have earned, and He pardons much” (al-Shūrā 30).

[In Dhū al-Qaʿdah the Banū Khafājah waylaid the pilgrims. The soldiers accompanying the caravan, led by the amir Khumār Taqīn, fought them, routed them, and plundered the Bedouins’ goods; praise and gratitude belong to Allah.]

During this year Tāj al-Dawlah Tutush, lord of Damascus, captured the city of Ḥimṣ, the fortress of ʿArqah, and the fortress of Afāmiyah, with Qasīm al-Dawlah Āqsunqur at his side. [Earlier the sultan had dispatched a detachment to Yemen with Saʿd al-Dawlah Kuharāʾīn and another Turkmen amir; they entered the land and behaved oppressively. Saʿd al-Dawlah Kuharāʾīn died on the very day he entered Aden—praise and thanks be to Allah.] (4)

Among the notable deaths this year was Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (5) Abū al-Faḍl al-Tamīmī, known