and Muhammad ibn Aslam al-Tusi (1), and Muhammad ibn Rumḥ (2), and Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmmar al-Mawsili, one of the leading authorities on jarḥ wa-taʿdīl (narrator criticism and commendation) (3), as well as the judge Yaḥyā ibn Aktham (4).
[Then the year 243 AH began.]
In the month of Dhu al-Qaʿdah of that year, al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allah set out from Iraq, heading for Damascus with the intention of making it his permanent residence and the center of his rulership. ʿId al-Aḍḥā overtook him while he was in the town of Balad, so he offered the sacrifice there. The people of Iraq were grieved by this, and Yazid ibn Muhammad al-Muhallabi (5) composed the following verses:
I fear that Syria will gloat over Iraq
when the Imam resolves to depart;
If you should leave Iraq and all its folk,
the lovely bride may suffer divorce.
That year the pilgrimage was led by ʿAbd al-Ṣamad—already mentioned in the previous entry—who was serving as the deputy governor of Mecca.
[Among the notable figures who died during the year]
Ibn Jarir states:
“In it there died Ibrahim ibn al-ʿAbbās (6), the overseer of the Bureau of State Lands (7).”
I add: He is Ibrahim ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Muhammad ibn Ṣūl Takīn.
(1) Abu al-Hasan, author of al-Musnad and al-Arba’in (The Forty), was compared in his time to Ibn al-Mubarak. He transmitted from the “Imam of Imams,” Ibn Khuzayma, a muhaddith whose reliability is well attested. References: Siyar A‘lām al-Nubala’, vol. 12, p. 195; Al-‘Ibar, vol. 1, p. 437.
(2) Abu ‘Abd Allāh al-Tujījī, their mawla, known as al-Misri, was a steadfast ḥāfiẓ. An-Nasā’ī remarked, “He did not err in a single hadith.” He was famed for his extreme precision and memory, and he never travelled. References: Siyar A‘lām al-Nubala’, vol. 11, p. 498; Al-‘Ibar, vol. 1, p. 438.
(3) Abu Ja‘far, author of al-Tārīkh and ‘Ilal al-Hadīth, was a reliable, decisive ḥāfiẓ and the principal muhaddith of Mosul. References: Siyar A‘lām al-Nubala’, vol. 11, p. 469; Al-‘Ibar, vol. 1, p. 438.
(4) Yaḥyā ibn Aktham ibn Muḥammad ibn Qaṭan, known as Abu Muḥammad al-Marwazī al-Baghdādī, served as Chief Justice and was one of the eminentes jurisconsults. al-Ma’mūn appointed him qāḍī of Baghdad and relied on him so fully that no ministerial decision was issued without his review. al-Mutawakkil later elevated him to the rank of Ahmad ibn Abī Du‘ād, then turned against him. References: Siyar A‘lām al-Nubala’, vol. 12, p. 5; Al-‘Ibar, vol. 1, p. 439.
(5) al-Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī, vol. 9, p. 209; Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 7, p. 83.
(6) al-Aghānī, vol. 10, pp. 43–68; Tārīkh Baghdād, vol. 6, p. 117; Mu‘jam al-Adabā’, vol. 1, pp. 164–198; Wafayāt al-A‘yān, vol. 1, p. 44.
(7) Up to the phrase: “al-‘Abbās does not appear in Bā or Ẓā.”