twenty more of them, giving each of them three hundred lashes; to send them on to Samarra in iron fetters; to expel every Christian from the city; to demolish its great church—the one adjoining the congregational mosque—and incorporate the site into the mosque itself. The Caliph also granted him fifty thousand dirhams and bestowed handsome gifts upon the commanders who had helped him. The governor carried out everything the Caliph had ordered with regard to the people of Homs.
In this same year a man in Baghdad named ʿĪsā ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĀṣim (1) was subjected to a harsh and merciless beating—reportedly a thousand lashes—until he died. This took place after seventeen men testified before the judge of the Eastern Quarter, Abū Ḥassān al-Ziyādī, that he cursed (2) Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿĀʾishah, and Ḥafṣah, may Allah be pleased with them all. His case was referred to the Caliph, who wrote to Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn, the deputy of Baghdad, instructing him to inflict in public the prescribed penalty for reviling, to whip the man until he died, to cast his body into the Tigris, and not to perform the funeral prayer over him, so that the godless and the obstinate might take heed. The order was carried out—may Allah disgrace and curse him. Anyone who does such a thing is deemed an unbeliever if he slanders ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers, by unanimous agreement; as for slandering any of the other Mothers of the Believers (3), there are two opinions, and the sound view is that he is likewise an unbeliever, for they are the wives of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Ibn Jarīr (4) said: In this year the stars shot across the sky over Baghdad and scattered, on the night of Thursday, the first night of Jumādā al-Ākhirah.
He also said (5): That same year, in the month of Āb, the people experienced extremely heavy rainfall (6).
He said (7): In this year a great many beasts of burden and cattle died.
And he added (8): During this year the Byzantines raided ʿAyn Zarbah (9), capturing the Jats who were living there along with their women, children, and livestock.