—a cramped cell measuring three cubits by two (1). He stayed there for three days, after which he was moved to a larger room; an allowance was granted him and a servant assigned. He remained confined there until the night of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr. While the people were occupied with the festival, a rope was lowered to him through a small opening that let in the light, and he escaped. No one knew how he had gone, nor to what part of the earth he had fled (2).

On Sunday, the eleventh night of Jumādā al-Awwal, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm entered Baghdad, returning from combat against the Khurramiyyah. He brought with him prisoners from among them, and in that campaign he had killed one hundred thousand of their fighting men (3). All praise and favor belong to Allah.

In the same year al-Muʿtaṣim dispatched ʿUjayf at the head of a large army to fight the Zutt who had ravaged the lands of Basra, blocked the roads, and plundered the harvests. He fought them for nine months, subdued them, suppressed their mischief, and utterly destroyed their power. Their commander was a man called Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān, accompanied by another named Samlaq, the mastermind and devil among them. Allah delivered the Muslims from them and from their evil (4).

Among the notable deaths in this year were:
• Sulaymān ibn Dāwud al-Hāshimī (5), the teacher of Imām Aḥmad;
• ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr al-Humaydī (6), author of the Musnad (7) and a disciple of al-Shāfiʿī;
• ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh (8);
• Abū Nuʿaym al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn, the teacher of al-Bukhārī (9).