In Ṣafar of that same year a prisoner exchange was arranged between the Muslims and the Byzantines, and some four (1) thousand Muslim captives were ransomed.
In Shaʿbān of that year Baghdad was deluged with a tremendous downpour that lasted for roughly twenty-one days.
In the land of Balkh there fell a rain that was nothing but fresh, flowing blood (2).
That year the people’s pilgrimage was led by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Zaynabī. Among the notable pilgrims was Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir, who was placed in charge of the entire caravan.
[Among the eminent figures who died that year]
• Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī (3)
• al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Marwazī (4)
• Abū ʿUmar ad-Dūrī (5), one of the celebrated Qur’an reciters
• Muḥammad ibn Muṣaffā al-Ḥimṣī (6)
• Diʿbil ibn ʿAlī (7)—son of Razīn ibn Sulaymān al-Khuzaʿī, their client—a licentious poet, eloquent in panegyric yet even sharper in satire.
He recounted:
“One day he was present with Sahl ibn Hārūn the secretary, a notorious miser. Lunch was ordered, and there appeared a rooster in a dish—so tough that no knife could cut it and no tooth could chew it. Its head, however, was missing. He said to the cook, ‘Woe to you! What have you done with it?’
“The cook replied, ‘I assumed you would not eat it, so I threw it away.’
“He retorted, ‘Shame on you! By Allah, I already fault those who throw away the two legs—how much more the head, which contains the four senses, from which it crows, whose excellence is renowned. Its eyes give rise to proverbs; its comb is sought for blessing; and its skull is the most friable of bones. If you yourself had no desire to eat it…’”