In the same year:

The caliph had his vizier Ibn Mahdī al-ʿAlawī arrested after it was alleged that he aspired to the caliphate—other motives were also mentioned. In any case, he was imprisoned in the house of the amir Tash-Takin until he died there. A stubborn, overbearing man, he was the target of the poets’ invective, until one of them said about him (1):

O my two friends, speak to the caliph (2) and counsel him—
Beware, and may you be spared all harm, of what you intend to do.
Your minister now stands between two alternatives in which (3)
Whatever step you take, O best of mankind, will be wasted.
If he is truly of Ḥaydar’s lineage (4),
Then here is a minister who covets the caliphate;
But if the claim he makes is false,
Your favors to him have been squandered in vain.

It has also been said (5) that he was chaste regarding money, of upright conduct, and competent in administration. Allah—exalted and sublime—is the One who knows his true state.

In the Ramadan of that year the caliph established in Baghdad twenty guest houses where poor people who were fasting could break the fast. Every day abundant food was cooked for them, and large quantities of fine bread and sweets were brought in as well—may Allah reward him. The measure resembled the rifāda (public provisioning) that Quraysh used to sponsor during the pilgrimage season; it had been undertaken (6) by his uncle Abū Ṭālib, while al-ʿAbbās was in charge of the siqāya (watering). Quraysh also held the safāra (diplomatic representation), the liwāʾ (the banner), and the nadwa (the council), as detailed elsewhere. All of these offices eventually came, in their fullest form, to the Abbasid caliphs (7) (may Allah be pleased with them).

Also in this year the caliph dispatched Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (8), accompanied by Sunqur al-Silahdar (9), to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil with the noble robe of honor, which included the collar and two bracelets; robes of honor were likewise sent to each of his sons.

And in the same year al-Awhad, son of al-ʿĀdil and ruler of Mayyafariqīn, seized the city of Khilāṭ after its lord, Ibn Buktemur (10), had been killed.