Again in the time of the 'Abbásid Caliphs, in the reign of al-Mustarshid bi'lláh*

(may God make his tomb fragrant and exalt his rank in Paradise!), the son of al-Mustadhhir bi'lláh, the Prince of Believers came forth from the city of Baghdad with a well-equipped army in full panoply, and much treasure, and many muniments of war, marching against Khurásán, on account of a reparation which he would exact from the King of the World Sanjar.*

Now this quarrel had been contrived by interested persons, and was due to the machinations and representations of conspirators, who had brought matters to this pass. When the Caliph reached Kirmánsháh, he there delivered on a Friday a homily which in eloquence transcended the highest zenith of the sun, and reached the support and crown of the guard-stars.*

In the course of this harangue, after expressing his distress and despair, he complained of the House of Seljúq, in such wise that the orators of Arabia and the rhetoricians of Persia have confessed that, after the companions of the Prophet (God's blessing and peace rest on him and his family), who were the disciples of the Focus of the Prophetic Function and the expounders of his pithy aphorisms, no one had composed a discourse so weighty and eloquent. Said al-Mustarshid: “We entrusted our affairs to the House of Seljúq, but they contended against us, and the time lengthened over them, and their hearts were hardened, and many of them sinned,”*

that is to say, withdrew their necks from our commands in the Religion of Islám.