It was perhaps in this year, as De Sacy thinks, although Abu l-Mahsin refers to 400, the Tarikh Jafari to 404, that a crowd of men, presumably Shiʿites, came to the palace demanding justice against the Egyptians. It seems that, as Hakim was now passing through an orthodox phase and, as we have seen, had abandoned some of his pro-Shiʿite legislation, the orthodox Egyptians had been teasing the Shiʿites and paying them back for the insults they had ventured upon in the time of their ascendancy. They were not able to obtain an interview with the Khalif, but were told to come again next day. Some go away, but many pass the whole night before the palace. Next day the clamours recommenced, until at length the Kaʾid appeared and ordered them to withdraw. They then went to the Qadi who assured them that he had no power of dealing with their complaints, and they left his court cursing the “Companions,” that is to say, the early Khalifs who, though regarded by the Shiʿites as usurpers and enemies of ʿAli, were admittedly companions of the Prophet (Maq. ii. 288). This was followed by an order strictly forbidding any persons to curse the “Companions,” and before long several persons were punished for this offence. One day Hakim saw such curses written up on a public inn, no doubt so written at the time when he had commanded the putting up of inscriptions of this sort. These he ordered to be effaced and sent officials through the streets reading out an order that all such inscriptions on inns, shops, streets, etc. must be removed, and great care was taken to see that the order was carried out. All this was a bid for popularity with the orthodox, and this year he made a further bid by assigning property for the support of the indigent, and for the doctors in the various mosques and the muezzins.