The Caliphate of al-Rāshid (1)
Abū Jaʿfar Manṣūr ibn al-Mustarshid (2)

His father had already arranged the oath of succession for him; later he sought to depose him but was unable to do so (3) [because he would not act treacherously].

When his father was killed at the Gate of Marāgha on Thursday, the seventeenth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah in the year 529 AH, as we have related, [al-Rāshid was in Baghdad, and when the news reached the city] (4) the amirs (5) and the leading men swore allegiance to him, and his name was proclaimed from the pulpits of Baghdad and all the provinces. At that time he was already a mature man with children. He was fair-skinned, stout, and handsome.

On the Day of ʿArafah of that same year al-Mustarshid’s body was brought—having been transported from there to Baghdad—and the funeral prayer was performed for him at Bayt al-Nūbah (the Drum House). The crowd was immense. The following day the people went out for the ʿĪd prayer still overwhelmed with grief for al-Mustarshid—may Allah have mercy on him—and a slight resurgence of Shīʿite agitation appeared during the first days of al-Rāshid’s reign.

Among the notable figures who died in that year (6) were:

• Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿUmar, Abū al-Muẓaffar, son of Abū Bakr al-Shāshī (7): he studied jurisprudence under his father; death overtook him after his brother, and he had not yet reached the age (8) required for the transmission of hadith (9).

• Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAlī, Abū al-Qāsim (10) al-Hākimī (11): he studied under Imām al-Ḥaramayn and was a companion of al-Ghazālī in his studies, being older than him; for that reason (12) al-Ghazālī respected and honored him. He was an accomplished jurist and a devout, scrupulous worshipper. [His death occurred this year in Ṭūs] (13) and he was buried beside al-Ghazālī—may Allah have mercy on them both.