text:  Though the bigotry of Al-masur led him to order the destruction of those volumes in the library of Al-hakem which treated of philosophy and the abstruse sciences on the ground that such studies tended to irreligion he was yet liberal to the learned men who visited his court at Az-zahirah where he resided in royal splendour during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared hinself to the people by his generosity his rigid justice and the strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers