and people regarded that fortress as an ill omen. They would say: “Its guide was a dog, the one who advised its construction was an infidel, and whoever entrenched himself in it was a zindīq (heretic).” (1)

In this year: many battles broke out between the Banū Khafāja and the Banū ʿUbāda. ʿUbāda defeated Khafāja and took revenge for the earlier blood that had been shed.

In this year: Sayf al-Dawla Ṣadaqah ibn Manṣūr al-Asadī took possession of the city of Tikrīt after much fighting. [Also in this year, Sultan Muḥammad sent the commander Jawālī Saqāwū to Mosul and granted it to him. He went there and wrested it from Emir Jakarmaq after engaging him, routing his troops, and capturing him; he then killed him, even though Jakarmaq had been among the best of the emirs in conduct, justice, and benevolence. Next, Qilij Arslān ibn Qutlumish advanced, besieged Mosul, and seized it from Jawālī. Jawālī withdrew to al-Raḥbah, captured it, then returned to fight Qilij, defeated him, and Qilij threw himself into the Khabur River and perished.] (2)

In this year: many wars flared up between the Rūm (Byzantines) and the Franks. They fought a mighty battle in which thousands were killed on both sides, and, by every reckoning, the rout fell upon the Franks. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. (3)

On the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, Fakhr al-Mulk, the eldest son of Niẓām al-Mulk and vizier of Sultan Sanjar in Nishapur, was killed while he was fasting. A Bāṭinī assassin struck him down. The night before, he had seen al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) in a dream saying, “Hasten to us and break your fast with us tonight.” He woke astonished and resolved to fast that day. Some of his companions advised him not to leave his house, yet he did not go out until late in the afternoon. He encountered a young man seeking redress, holding a petition in his hand. Fakhr al-Mulk asked, “What is the matter?” The youth handed him the paper, and while he was reading it the assassin struck him with a dagger and killed him. [The Bāṭinī was seized and brought before the Sultan for interrogation. He falsely accused a group of the vizier’s attendants of ordering the murder. He was executed, and they were executed as well.] (4)

On the fourteenth of Ṣafar, the Caliph dismissed the vizier Abū ʾl-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Jahīr and demolished the mansion his father had built from the ruins of people’s homes. In this there was a lesson and an admonition for those of insight and sound understanding. The judge Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn al-Dāmaghānī, together with another, was appointed to the vizierate. (5)