The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—(1) assumed authority, followed by Abu Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī, and then al-Ḥasan, who was deposed (2).
Then came Muʿāwiyah, Yazīd, Muʿāwiyah ibn Yazīd, Marwān, and ʿAbd al-Malik; after them ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who was deposed (3) and killed.
Next were al-Walīd, Sulaymān, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Yazīd, and Hishām; the sixth was al-Walīd ibn Yazīd, who was deposed and killed.
No stable governance remained for the Umayyads (4) after him until the Abbasid al-Saffāḥ came to power, followed by his brother al-Manṣūr, then al-Mahdī, al-Hādī, and al-Rashīd; the sixth, al-Amīn, was deposed and killed.
Thereafter ruled al-Maʾmūn, al-Muʿtaṣim, al-Wāthiq, al-Mutawakkil, and al-Muntaṣir; the sixth, al-Mustaʿīn, was deposed and killed.
Next were al-Muʿtazz, al-Muhtadī, al-Muʿtamid, al-Muʿtaḍid, and al-Muktafī, followed by al-Muqtadir (5), who was deposed, reinstated, and then killed.
He was succeeded by al-Qāhir, al-Rāḍī, al-Muttaqī, al-Mustakfī, and al-Muṭīʿ; the sixth, al-Ṭāʾiʿ, was deposed.
After them came al-Qādir, al-Qāʾim, al-Muqtadī, al-Mustazhīr, and al-Mustarshid, the sixth being al-Rāshid, who was deposed and killed (6).

Anushirwan (7) ibn Khālid ibn Muḥammad al-Qashānī (8) al-Qayni (9)—he hailed from the village of Qayn in Qashān—better known as the vizier Abū Naṣr (10). He served as vizier to Sultan Maḥmūd and to the caliph al-Mustarshid. Intelligent, awe-inspiring, and of imposing stature, he was the one who compelled Abū