That year, Waṣīf the chamberlain arrived with a detachment of some five hundred Kurds in shackles; they had been wreaking havoc on the highways and cutting them off. The caliph therefore granted Waṣīf seventy-five thousand dinars and bestowed a robe of honor upon him.

During that same year, Khāqān the chamberlain returned from the lands of Byzantium after concluding a truce and prisoner exchange. A number of prominent frontier commanders came with him. al-Wāthiq ordered them to be tested on the doctrines that the Qur’an is created and that Allah will not be seen in the Hereafter. All complied except four, whereupon al-Wāthiq commanded that their heads be struck off unless they answered as the others had done. He also ordered that the Muslim captives whose ransom was being arranged be questioned on the same two issues: whoever affirmed that the Qur’an is created and that Allah will not be seen in the Hereafter would be ransomed, while whoever refused would be left in the hands of the unbelievers. This is a bald, hideous, blind, and deaf innovation (1)—one with no basis in the Book, the Sunnah, or sound reason [nor in any explicit report] (2). On the contrary, the Book, the Sunnah, and sound reason all stand against it, as is demonstrated elsewhere. Allah alone is the One whose help is sought.

The prisoner exchange took place at a river called al-Lāmis near Salūqiyyah, close to Ṭarsūs. For every Muslim man or woman held by the Byzantines—or any dhimmī man or woman under Muslim protection—a Byzantine captive who remained an unbeliever and was in Muslim hands was exchanged. Two bridges were erected across the river: when the Byzantines sent a captive across their bridge and the person reached the Muslim side, he or she pronounced the takbīr, and the Muslims also proclaimed the takbīr. The Muslims would then send a Byzantine captive across their bridge; upon reaching his own people he uttered words resembling the takbīr as well. They continued in this manner for four days, exchanging soul for soul. A group of captives still remained with Khāqān, and he released them to the Byzantines so that the favor would be his.

Ibn Jarīr (3) said: In this same year al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn, the brother of Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn, died in Ṭabaristān during Ramaḍān.

That year, al-Khaṭṭāb ibn Wajh al-Fils died.

That year, Abū ʿAbdullāh Ibn al-Aʿrābī (4), the noted transmitter, passed away on Wednesday, the thirteenth of Shaʿbān, at the age of eighty.

That year, Umm Abīhā bint Mūsā, the sister of ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā, also died (5).