The Shahanshah laqab controversy

In Ramadan 429 AH it was proposed to add the title "Shahanshah al-Aʿzam, Malik al-Muluk" (Greatest King of Kings) to the titles of Jalal al-Dawla, the Buyid sultan of Baghdad. The caliph al-Qadir billah ordered that the khutba be given with the title, but the common people objected, threw bricks at the preacher, and a riot broke out. ¹

The caliph wrote to the jurists. Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Saymari, a Hanafi, permitted the title on the ground that kings may be ranked above one another. Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari permitted it by analogy with the title "chief judge" (qadi al-qudat), and al-Tamimi wrote in similar terms. But the chief judge al-Mawardi refused to permit it and withdrew from serving Jalal al-Dawla. The king then summoned him early on the morning of the feast, and he came in apprehension. The king said to him: "I am certain that if you had favoured anyone, you would have favoured me, and that only religion led you to oppose me. That has brought you closer to me and increased your standing in my heart." ¹