failed to appreciate the significance of the ceremony in which he was taking part". In a further move to bind the caliph closer to himself, in the second half of 980, Adud al-Dawla arranged for the marriage of one of his daughters with al-Ta'i'. If Adud al-Dawla may have hoped, as the contemporary historian Miskawayh has it, that the offspring of this union would one day unite the Abbasid caliphate with the Buyid kingship, it was not to be. Al-Ta'i' saw this marriage at worst as forced upon him, and at best as a token of distinction and condescension towards the Buyid emir, and resolutely refused to consummate it. This led to the final breach between al-Ta'i' and Adud al-Dawla, who introduced the provocative, Persian-derived and entirely un-Islamic title of ('King of Kings') into his coinage even in Iraq. Under Adud al-Dawla's successors Adud al-Dawla died on 26 March 983 at the age of 49, leaving behind a large but unconsolidated empire, and an unregulated succession. Initially, the Buyid commanders gave the oath of allegiance to Adud al-Dawla's second son, Marzuban, under the name of Samsam al-Dawla. Al-Ta'i' recognized the succession, investing Samsam al-Dawla with the title of Shams al-Milla. Adud al-Dawla's oldest son, Shirdil, known as Sharaf al-Dawla, refused to accept this and seized Fars, thus limiting Samsam al-Dawla to Iraq, but even there the latter faced challengers: Upper Mesopotamia was lost to the Kurd Badh, while two younger sons of Adud al-Dawla held Khuzistan and Basra. In the eastern territories of the Buyid empire, at the same time, their uncle Fakhr al-Dawla laid claim to Adud al-Dawla's succession, claiming the tile of for himself. The Buyid quarrels offered opportunities for al-Ta'i': the officials ousted by Adud al-Dawla were reinstated, and the danger of Iraq's permanent relegation to a province ruled from elsewhere was ended for now, as it once again became a separate political unit under one of the Buyid emirs. Samsam al-Dawla reverted, at least formally, to making all appointments 'on the command of the Commander of the Faithful', and the disunity of the Buyids would allow the caliph to play a political role as arbiter between the quarreling emirs. In , he granted a subsidy to the Samanids towards the protection of the frontiers of Islam, and mediated a peace agreement between Samsam al-Dawla and Sharaf al-Dawla, after the latter occupied Khuzistan and Basra. In the