In charge of his police force were Mūnis al-Wāthiqī, followed by Sawsan, his freedman and chamberlain. As for the judiciary of Baghdad, it was first held by Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Qāḍī, then by his son Muḥammad, then by Abū Khāzim ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, and after Abū Khāzim by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Shawārib.

232 – Thābit ibn Qurrah the Sabean—the wretched Harrānian, the foremost philosopher of his age.
He began as a money-changer, kept the company of Ibn Shākir, and possessed a blazing intellect. He mastered the ancient sciences and became al-Muʿtaḍid’s court astrologer, sitting with the caliph while the vizier remained standing. In this way he gained various kinds of rank and wealth.

Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah said, “In his time no one equalled him in medicine or in any branch of philosophy.” (1)

His writings are outstanding, and al-Muʿtaḍid granted him large estates. Among his pupils was ʿĪsā ibn Asīd, the well-known Christian.

I say: he was astonishing in mathematics—there the discussion ends with him. His son Ibrāhīm was the leading physician of his day, as was his grandson Thābit ibn Sinān, the physician and author of the famous Chronicle.

They all died upon their misguidance, and their Sabean descendants remain. Thābit ibn Qurrah was the source of the renewed Sabean leadership in Iraq, so take note of the matter.