being killed; I saw the angels fighting alongside my followers. I am most surely granted victory over the people—the angels fight with me, steady (1) my troops, and support me in my wars. (2)"

When the ʿAlids who had been in Basra came over to him, he thereupon claimed descent from Yaḥyā ibn Zayd, a falsehood agreed upon by all, for Yaḥyā ibn Zayd left no offspring save a single daughter who died while still nursing (3). May Allah disgrace this accursed man—how brazen are his lies, his wickedness, and his treachery.

At the beginning of Dhu al-Qaʿdah the caliph dispatched from Sāmarrāʾ a large force under the command of the amir Muḥammad, known as al-Muwallad, to fight the leader of the Zanj. On the march he arrested Saʿīd (4) ibn Aḥmad al-Bāhlī, who had seized the marshlands of al-Baṭāʾiḥ and made the roads unsafe.

In the same year, Muḥammad ibn Wāṣil disobeyed the central authority in the land of Fārs and took control of it.

Also in this year, a Byzantine named Basil the Saqlabī attacked the emperor of Byzantium, Michael ibn Theophilos, killed him, and seized the Byzantine throne. Michael (5) had ruled over the Byzantines for twenty-four years.

The pilgrimage that year was led by al-Faḍl ibn Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī.

Among the notable figures who died this year was al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah ibn Yazīd (6), renowned for the well-known transmitted booklet that bears his name. He had lived past one hundred by ten years—some said by seven—and he had ten children, whom he named after the ten (7) Companions, may Allah be pleased with them. He was declared reliable by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and others, and he used to visit Imām Aḥmad frequently. Born in 150 AH, he died this year at the age of one hundred and seven.