Then the year 245 AH began.
During it, al-Mutawakkil ordered the construction of the town of al-Mahūza and the digging of a canal for it. It is said that he spent two million dinars on building the town and on erecting within it the caliphal palace known as “The Pearl.”
That same year many earthquakes struck various lands. In Antioch, 1,500 houses collapsed and more than ninety towers of its city wall crumbled. Frightening sounds were heard from the skylights of the houses, so the inhabitants rushed out in panic. The nearby mountain called al-Aqraʿ slid down and sank into the sea; the sea grew turbulent, a foul, dark black smoke rose from it, and a river a farsakh away vanished completely—no one knows where it went. This account is reported by Imām Abū Jaʿfar ibn Jarīr (1).
He adds (2) that in Tinnīs a continuous, prolonged cry was heard, from which many people died.
He further states (3) that in the same year earthquakes shook al-Sinn (4), al-Raqqa, Ḥarrān, Raʾs al-ʿAyn, Ḥimṣ, Damascus, al-Ruhā, Tarsus, al-Maṣṣīṣa, Adana, and the coastal towns of Syria. Latakia quaked so violently that no house remained standing and only a few of its inhabitants survived, while Jableh was completely destroyed along with its people.
In this year as well the spring known as Mushāsh—the main water source of Mecca—dried up, so that a waterskin of water in Mecca cost one dirham (5), until al-Mutawakkil dispatched funds and spent lavishly on its restoration.
He also notes (6) that in this year died Isḥāq ibn Abī Isrāʾīl (7), Suwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh the judge (8), and Hilāl al-Raʾy (9).
(1) Tarikh al-Tabari, vol. 9, pp. 212–213.
(2) Tarikh al-Tabari, vol. 9, p. 213: “And it is said that the people of Tinnis heard a rumbling sound.”
(3) Tarikh al-Tabari, vol. 9, p. 213.
(4) In al-Tabari: Bals is a locality in al-Sham between Aleppo and Raqqa. Sin, by contrast, names several places, among them a fortress in al-Jazira near Samosata known as Sin ibn ’Utayr. (Yaqut)
(5) In Tarikh al-Tabari: “eighty dirhams,” which Umm al-Mutawakkil then provided and expended.
(6) Tarikh al-Tabari, vol. 9, p. 213.
(7) One of the foremost muḥaddithūn, he studied under Hammad ibn Zayd and his peers. Scholars refrained from transmitting from him because he advocated the waqf (cessation) position on the Qur’an, declaring: “The Qur’an is the speech of Allah and is subject to stopping.” He died in Baghdad at the age of ninety-five. (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’, vol. 11, p. 476; al-‘Ibar, vol. 1, p. 444)
(8) Suwār ibn ’Abd Allāh ibn Suwār ibn Qudāma, Abū ’Abd Allāh al-Tamīmī al-’Anbarī al-Baṣrī, qāḍī of al-Ruṣāfa in Baghdad, descended from a family of judges and scholars (his grandfather was qāḍī of Basra). He was also a leading poet, eloquent and articulate. (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’, vol. 11, p. 543; al-‘Ibar, vol. 1, p. 444)
(9) In the printed editions, al-Tabari and Ibn al-Athir corrupt the name to “al-Rāzī,” whereas he is Hilāl ibn Yahyā ibn Muslim al-Baṣrī. A distinguished Ḥanafi jurist from Basra, nicknamed al-Ra’ī (the Opinionated) for his extensive learning and frequent use of qiyās (analogical reasoning). He authored several works. (al-Jawāhir al-Muḍiyya fī Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanafiyya, vol. 2, p. 207; al-A‘lam, vol. 8, p. 92)