and Hunnād ibn al-Sarī (1).

Then the year 244 AH began.

In Ṣafar of that year the caliph al-Mutawakkil entered Damascus in the full splendor of the caliphate, and the occasion was widely celebrated. He resolved to reside there, ordered the government bureaus to be transferred to the city, and commanded that palaces be built along the road to Dariyyā. Before long, however, he found the climate disagreeable: its air was cold and damp, its water heavy compared with that of Iraq. In summer he noticed that the wind began to blow after midday and continued, fierce and dusty, until about one-third of the night had passed; he also observed an abundance of fleas. When winter set in, he experienced extraordinary rain and snowfall; prices soared while he was there, and supplies were cut off because of the severe winter and snow, so he grew weary of the place.

He therefore dispatched Bugha to the Byzantine frontier, and at the end of the year he returned to Sāmarrāʾ after a stay in Damascus of two months and ten days. Allah knows best.

In this same year al-Mutawakkil was brought the spear that used to be carried before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the day of ʿId and on other occasions. It had belonged to the Negus, who had presented it to al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām; al-Zubayr then gave it to the Prophet ﷺ (2). When it came into al-Mutawakkil’s possession he rejoiced greatly and ordered the chief of police to carry it before him just as it had been carried before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Also in this year al-Mutawakkil became angry with the physician Bakhtīshūʿ (3), exiled him, and confiscated his property.

The pilgrimage that year was led by the aforementioned ʿAbd al-Ṣamad.

In the same year the day of ʿId al-Aḍḥā coincided with the Jews’ Feast of Unleavened Bread (4) and with the Christians’ Palm Sunday—an occurrence truly astonishing and rare (5).