'Aqíqí joined Sayyid Náṣir, and, having been given an army of Gílís and Daylamís, was sent to fight the Ispahbad Shahriyár. Between ´Aram and Kúlá, however, he fell into an ambush prepared for him by Shahriyár, and was slain. His troops fled, and his head was sent by Shahriyár to Ibn Ṣa'lúk. When news of Sayyid Náṣir’s rising power reached Bukhárá, Aḥmad the Sámánid sent Muḥammad b. 'Abdu`l-'Azíz to Ṭabaristán, but forty days after his arrival there he was defeated by Sayyid Náṣir, whose power now became paramount over Ṭabaristán. He wished to raise a tax of one-tenth on all produce, but the people complained, and he desisted from his intention. Aḥmad the Sámánid collected 30,000 of his own troops and sent to Turkistán for 10,000 more, intending to “transport the very earth of Ṭabaristán to Bukhárá” (f. 127a), but when he had only gone two stages on his journey, his attendants murdered him at midnight as he slept, and Sayyid Náṣir was for the moment left unmolested. Soon afterwards the Caliph al-Muqtadir bi`lláh appointed Aḥmad the Sámánid’s son Naṣr b. Aḥmad b. Isma'íl (Naṣr I) regent of Khurásán in place of his father, and he, incited by the messengers of Hurmazd-Káma and Sharwín the son of Rustam, sent Ilyás b. Ilísa' as-Sughdí at the head of 10,000 men to Ṭabaristán. When these reached Tammísha, Abu`l-Qásim Ja'far b. al-Ḥasan b. 'Alí an-Náṣir was at Sárí, with a thousand men. Entrenching himself there, he wrote to his father informing him of the Sámánid advance. Abu`l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad [b.] an-Náṣir went to Gílán and Daylamán, and spent much money in collecting an army, while the Ispahbad Shahriyár pitched his camp at Wínábád above Sárí, still retaining the black standard and draperies (of the 'Abbásids), though he sent reinforce­ments to Sayyid Abu`l-Qásim. An undecided battle took place at Sárí between Sayyid Abu`l-Qásim and Ilyás b. Ilísa', and the Sámánid troops at length retired, leaving Ṭabaristán to Sayyid Náṣir-i-Kabír. The Ispahbad Sharwín also made peace with him, whilst Hurmazd-Káma retired to Astarábád, and the Sayyid handed over most of the administratiòn to his cousin Abú Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. al-Qásim, whom he set over his own sons, who were thereby filled with envy, as one of them, Sayyid Abu`l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. an-Náṣir, commonlyknown as Ṣáḥibu`l-Jaysh (“the Commander in Chief”) says in a poem (f. 127b):

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He also reproaches his father, who was of the Imámí sect, in these lines: