When ʿAḍud al-Dawla came to power he resolved to put him to death and had him jailed; later, in 371 AH, he set him free, whereupon Ibn Hilāl composed for him the book al-Tājī fī Akhbār Banī Būyah (The Tājī on the History of the Būyids).
He died in 384 AH at the age of seventy-one. Some allege that he was actually killed, for ʿAḍud al-Dawla had ordered him to write al-Tārīkh al-Tājī. A man once entered upon him and asked, “What are you working on?” He replied, “Fictions I patch together and fabrications I adorn.” ʿAḍud al-Dawla took offense, expelled him, and before long he died. Al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (1) composed an elegy for him; when reproached for that, he said, “I only eulogized his learning” (2)—a rather weak excuse.
He had an extensive command of adab (belles-lettres).
His son al-Muḥassin (3) likewise died in unbelief; he was dignified and a man of letters.
After him came his grandson al-Ṣadr al-Awhad Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin (4), the Ṣābian who embraced Islam. He lived a long life and was still alive in 448 AH.
386 – al-Tanūkhī, Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad*
The judge and eminent scholar, Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Fahm