As soon as al-Mustansir was dead the wazir al-Afdal al-Juyush entered the palace and placed Abu l-Kasim Ahmad al-Mustali, a youth of eighteen years of age and the youngest son of the late Khalif on the throne. At the same time he sent for the other sons of Mustansir who were near at hand, Nizar the eldest son, and his brothers ʿAbdullah and Ismaʿil, bidding them come quickly. As soon as they entered the room where the wazir awaited them and saw their youngest brother enthroned they were filled with indignation, and when al-Afdal bade them do homage to Mustali as the new Khalif, Nizar burst out, “I would rather be cut in pieces than do homage to one younger than myself, and moreover I possess a document in the handwriting of my father by which he names me successor, and I shall go and bring it.” At this he went out, presumably to get the document, but as he did not return the wazir sent after him, and it was found that he had left the city. Very soon afterwards he appeared at Alexandria, supported by his brother ʿAbdullah and an emir named Ibn Massal, and there he assumed the title of Khalif with the surname of al-Mustafa li-dinillah (“the chosen for God’s religion”), and received the oath of allegiance from the Alexandrians. He promised Nasir ad-Dawla Iftikin, the Turkish governor of Alexandria, that he should be wazir. As we have already seen, there was a party ready to support Nizar even before Mustansir’s death, and his claims seemed to have fair prospects of success. No doubt we may say that the sectarian supporters of the Fatimid Imamate were with him, whilst al-Afdal headed the secularist party: but there would, no doubt, be many aggrieved with the existing administration, and even perhaps remnants of those whom al-Afdal’s father had suppressed with such severity, who were ready to throw in their lot with the opposition to the wazir’s nominee in Cairo.