Muhammed divided his forces into two corps, placing in the vanguard all those who carried lances; he himself was in the rear with ten thousand picked men. Saif ed-Dowlah charged the vanguard and routed it, but the rear stood firm; this resistance saved el-Ikshid from total defeat. The two armies separated after a somewhat indecisive engagement, and Saif ed-Dowlah, who could claim no advantage save the capture of his adversaries' baggage, went on to Maubej, where he destroyed the bridge, and, entering Mesopotamia, proceeded towards Rakkah; but Muhammed el-Ikshid was already stationed there, and the hostile armies, separated only by the Euphrates, faced one another for several days. Negotiations were then opened, and peace was concluded. The conditions were that Hemessa, Aleppo, and Mesopotamia should belong to Saif ed-Dowlah, and all the country from Hemessa to the frontiers of Egypt remain in the possession of Muhammed el-Ikshid. A trench was dug between Djouchna and Lebouah, in those places where there were no natural boundaries, to mark the separation of the two states. To ratify this solemn peace, Saif ed-Dowlah married the daughter of Muhammed el-Ikshid; then each prince returned to his own province. The treaty was, however, almost immediately set aside by the Hamdanites, and el-Ikshid, forced to retrace his steps, defeated them in several engagements and seized the town of Aleppo. Thus we see that the year 334 of the Hegira (a. d. 946) was full of important events, to which was soon added the death of Muhammed el-Ikshid. He died at Damascus, in the last month of the year (Dhu'l-Kada), aged sixty, and had reigned eleven years, three months, and two days. He was buried at Jerusalem. Muhammed el-Ikshid was a man possessing many excellent talents, and chiefly renowned as an admirable soldier. Brave, without being rash, quick to calculate his chances, he was able always to seize the advantage. On the other hand, however, he was so distrustful and timid in the privacy of his palace that he organised a guard of eight thousand armed slaves, one thousand of whom kept constant watch. He never spent the entire night in the same apartment or tent, and no one was ever permitted to know the place where he slept. We are told that this prince could muster four hundred thousand men; although historians do not definitely specify the boundaries of his empire, which, of course, varied from time to time, we may nevertheless believe that his kingdom, as that of his predecessors, the Tulunites, extended over Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, as far as the Euphrates, and even included a large portion of Arabia. The Christians of the East charge him with supporting his immense army at their expense, and persecuting and taxing them to such an extent that they were forced to sell many possessions belonging to their Church before they could pay the required sums.