al-ʿĀḍid, in one of the years in the mid-560s AH. It is astonishing that the Caliphate of Prophethood, which immediately followed the time of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace), lasted thirty years, exactly as stated in the sound hadith (1). During that span the authority passed to Abu Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthman, then ʿAli, and finally to his son al-Hasan ibn ʿAli for six months, so that the full thirty years were completed, as we have demonstrated in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah. Thereafter rule became a kingship. The first Muslim king from the house of Abū Sufyān was Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān, Sakhr ibn Ḥarb ibn Umayya; after him came his son Yazīd, then his grandson Muʿāwiya ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya. That branch—opened with a Muʿāwiya and closed with a Muʿāwiya—then came to an end.

Power next passed to Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Quṣayy, followed by his son ʿAbd al-Malik, then al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, then his brother Sulaymān, then their cousin ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, then Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, then Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, then al-Walīd ibn Yazīd, then Yazīd ibn al-Walīd—nicknamed al-Nāqiṣ—then his brother Ibrāhīm, likewise a son of al-Walīd, and finally Marwān ibn Muḥammad ibn Marwān, known as al-Ḥimār. He was the last of them. Thus (2) the first of them was named Marwān and the last of them was named Marwān, [and they perished, one and all, from first to last] (3).

The first of the Abbasid caliphs was al-Saffāḥ, whose given name was ʿAbd Allāh, and the last of them was al-Mustaʿṣim, whose given name was likewise ʿAbd Allāh (4). In like manner, the first of the Fāṭimid caliphs bore the name ʿAbd Allāh al-Mahdī (5), and the last of them was ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿĀḍid. This is a most curious coincidence to which few people pay heed. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

Here follows a rajaz poem composed by one of the learned, in which he enumerates all the caliphs:

Praise be to Allah, Lord exalted on His Throne,
the One, the Subduer, of irresistible might;
Who turns the days and the ages,
Who shall gather all mankind for the Resurrection.

Unending blessings, for all eternity,
be upon the chosen Prophet, Muhammad,
and on his family and noble Companions—
the masters, the eminent guiding imams.

Now then, (6) this is a brief rajaz ode
I have composed—concise and refined—
wherein I set down the rightly guided caliphs,
those who rose after the Chosen Prophet (7)
and those who followed them, and so forth;
I made it a lesson and a reminder
so that the rational, discerning mind
may learn how the events of history unfolded.