A gossamer curtain leading to the Chosen Prophet, and a clear text that lifts every doubt.
O scholar whose rank all other scholars have unanimously acknowledged as the loftiest of degrees!
You outstripped the imams with what you gathered and, to their chagrin, carried off the prize (1).
You eliminated weak transmitters and all who were suspected of lying,
And you displayed—through the beauty of its arrangement and chapter-headings—a marvel among marvels.
Thus your Lord granted you what you desired and bestowed upon you an abundant share of His gifts.
[Then the year 257 AH began]
In that year the caliph al-Muʿtamid ʿalā Allah appointed Yaʿqūb ibn al-Layth over Balkh, Tukhāristān, and the adjoining regions of Kirmān, Sijistān, Sind, and elsewhere.
In Ṣafar al-Muʿtamid invested his brother Abū Aḥmad with authority over Kūfah, the Meccan route, the Two Holy Sanctuaries, and Yemen. In Ramaḍān he added to him the deputyship of Baghdad, the Sawād, Wāsiṭ, the districts along the Tigris, Basra, Ahwāz, and Fārs, permitting him to appoint deputies as he wished.
Events of the year:
Saʿīd the chamberlain engaged the leader of the Zanj on the lands of Basra, routed him, freed many women and children from his grasp, recovered vast sums of wealth, and subjected the Zanj to the utmost humiliation and disgrace.
The Zanj then launched a night attack against Saʿīd and his army, killing a great many of them; it is said that Saʿīd ibn Ṣāliḥ was also slain (2).
Afterward that same rebel—falsely claiming Alid descent—met Manṣūr ibn Jaʿfar al-Khayyāṭ with a large force and defeated him.
Ibn Jarīr (3) said: In this year a strangler was captured (4) in Baghdad at a place called Birkat Zulzul; he had murdered numerous women (5). He was brought before al-Muʿtamid, who ordered that he be given two thousand lashes and four hundred blows with an arzun (6). When he did not die, the executioners struck his testicles with the wooden clubs used for beating carpets until he expired. His corpse was then returned to Baghdad, crucified there, and finally burned.
On the night of the fourteenth (of Shawwāl) (7) of this same year, the moon was eclipsed and most of it was obscured.