Abī Duwād and his followers; and when he recited, “We have therefore entrusted it to a people who do not disbelieve in it” (Qur’an 6:89), he pointed toward Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and those with him.

[Then the year 242 AH began]

In that year:
• Severe earthquakes struck many regions. One of the worst was in the city of Qūmis (1); numerous houses collapsed and roughly 45,096 (2) people perished. Earthquakes of an alarming magnitude were also felt in Yemen, Khurasan, Fars, Syria, and other lands.
• The Byzantines raided the districts of al-Jazīrah, plundered a great deal of property, and carried off about ten thousand of the women and children as captives. We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.
• The pilgrimage was led that year by ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Imām ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, the deputy of Mecca.

[Among the notable deaths that year]
• al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, the judge of Madīnat al-Manṣūr (3).
• Abū Ḥassān al-Ziyādī (4), judge of the eastern district; his name was al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ḥammād ibn Ḥassān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd al-Baghdādī. He heard hadith from al-Walīd ibn Muslim, Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarāḥ, al-Wāqidī, and many others.
From him narrated Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā, ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Farghānī—the ḥāfiẓ known as Ṭufak—and a number of others.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir included his biography in his Tārīkh (6), stating: “He was not a descendant of Ziyād ibn Abīh; rather, one of his forefathers married a slave-woman who belonged to Ziyād, and so he came to be called al-Ziyādī.”