Aḥmad ibn Harb; ʿUtayq ibn Muḥammad al-Harashī ⦗1⦘; Aḥmad ibn al-Azhar al-Naysābūrī; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Juwaybārī ⦗2⦘; and Muḥammad ibn Tamīm al-Fāriyābī—the last two being notorious liars and fabricators—together with others.

Narrating from him were: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān, ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Qayrāṭī, and Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Naysābūrī.

Al-Ḥākim relates that Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir ibn ʿAbd Allah had him imprisoned, and that his confinement lasted so long that, whenever he prepared to attend the Friday prayer ⦗3⦘, the jailer would prevent him. He would then say, “O Allah, You know that the obstruction is not from me.”

Another authority states that he resided in Jerusalem for four years, giving sermons beside the column ⦗4⦘ next to the shrine ⦗5⦘ of Jesus (peace be upon him). A large crowd used to gather around him, but when it became clear that he asserted, “Faith is but a statement,” the townspeople abandoned him. The governor expelled him to the Valley of Zughar, where he died; his body was later brought back to Jerusalem. His death occurred in Ṣafar of this same year.

Al-Ḥākim adds: He died in Jerusalem at night and was buried at the Jericho Gate, near the graves of the prophets (peace be upon them). In Jerusalem he had nearly twenty thousand followers.

[Then came the year 256 AH]

On the morning of Monday, the twelfth of Muḥarram, Mūsā ibn Bugha the Elder arrived at Sāmarrāʾ. He entered the city at the head of a vast army that he had drawn up with a right wing, a left wing, a center, and two flanks. He proceeded ⦗6⦘ to the caliphal palace, where al-Muhtadī ⦗7⦘ was sitting before the common people, redressing grievances. They requested permission ⦗8⦘ to enter, but the authorization was delayed for some time and he kept them waiting, so they thought to themselves that the caliph had summoned them only to deceive them and hand them over to Ṣāliḥ ibn Wāṣif. They therefore burst in on him unannounced and began speaking in their own tongue ⦗9⦘