famously nicknamed al-Khalīʿ, the judge Ṣadr al-Dīn ibn Saniyy (1) al-Dawlah once seated him among the court witnesses (2) beneath the public clocks. Later, al-Nāṣir, the ruler of the province, summoned him and made him (3) one of his close companions and drinking partners, bestowing upon him the military robes of honor (4). He therefore abandoned that craft for another and compiled a book that he entitled al-Zarajūn fī al-Khilāʿah wa-l-Mujūn (The Zarajūn on Debauchery and Licentiousness), in which he set down many pieces of poetry, prose, and ribaldry. Among his verses—hardly commendable—(5) are the following (metre: al-khafīf):

Life’s delight is five things—so take them:
from a libertine who became a cultured jurist;
a boon companion, a songstress, and a beloved;
old wine, and cursing whoever reproaches them.

The vizier (6) Ibn al-ʿAlqami—may Allah disfigure this Rāfiḍī—(7) is Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (8) ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the minister Muʾayyad al-Dīn Abū Ṭālib Ibn al-ʿAlqami, vizier of al-Mustʿaṣim of Baghdad. During the reign of al-Mustanṣir (9) he served for a long time as steward of the caliphal palace, after which al-Mustʿaṣim appointed him vizier. He was by no means a faithful minister; rather (10) he was a minister of evil—to himself, to the caliph, and to the Muslims—(11) even though he was distinguished in composition and letters. He was (12) a vile, malicious Rāfiḍī, harboring ill will toward Islam and its people. In al-Mustʿaṣim’s days he attained a degree of prestige and influence unmatched by any other (13) vizier, after which he colluded against Islam and its adherents with the Tatars, the retainers of (14)