Next morning ʿAbbas went to the palace and asked for the Khalif with whom, he said, he had important business. The household slaves went in search of him but could not find him either in his own rooms or in the harim, and brought the wazir word that they were unable to find where he was. At this ʿAbbas, who had remained at the palace gate, dismounted and went into the palace with a band of trusty followers and asked for the Khalif’s two brothers, Jibrila and Yusuf, who were soon brought. According to one account he bade one or the other then assume the Khalifate as the state could not go on without a head, but they declined. “For,” they said, “we have no share in the government, az-Zafir’s father disinherited us when he passed it to az-Zafir: after him it is to his son that the authority belongs” (Osama, _op. cit._). According to the much more likely account given by Ibn Khallikan ʿAbbas asked the two brothers where az-Zafir was, and they replied that he ought rather to ask his son, thus making it clear that they knew whither he had gone the night before. At once he declared, “These two are his murderers,” and at his command they were beheaded. ʿAbbas then sent for the late Khalif’s son al-Faʿiz, then aged five (or two) years, set him on his shoulder and sent for the emirs. As soon as they had assembled he said, “Here is the son of your master: his uncles have murdered his father, and I put them to death as you may perceive. What is essential now is, that the authority of this infant should be fully recognised.” The emirs reply, “We hear and obey.” They then gave a great shout which so troubled the infant on the wazir’s shoulder that he was ever afterwards subject to fits of trembling (Ibn Khall. ii. 425-6). ʿAbbas then took charge of the government, but subsequent events rather belong to the reign of al-Faʿiz. Az-Zafir was only twenty-two years of age at his death. His tastes had been frivolous, and it would not seem that there was much reason to regret him, but the circumstances of his murder and the general detestation of ʿAbbas threw round his memory a halo of loyalty. He was the founder of a mosque known as the az-Zafiri mosque, near the Bab Zawila. XVII THE THIRTEENTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-FAʿIZ (A.H. 549-555 = A.D. 1154-1160.)