—a cataclysmic convulsion that demolished countless dwellings and claimed the lives of nearly twenty thousand people.
That same year a virulent plague swept through Baghdad, Sāmarrā, Wāsiṭ, and other regions, and the people of Baghdad were struck by an illness known as al-quffaʿ (1). Surely we belong to Allah and to Him we return.
On Thursday, with seven days of Ramadan elapsed, a man (2) was seized at the Bāb al-ʿĀmma gate in Sāmarrā; it was reported that he reviled the early generations (al-salaf). He was flogged one thousand and fifty lashes until he died.
On Friday, the eighth of the month, the commander Yārjūkh passed away. The caliph’s brother Abū ʿĪsā led the funeral prayer, and Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtamid ʿalā Allah was in attendance.
That year also witnessed a massive engagement between Mūsā ibn Bughā and the forces of al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd in Khurāsān; Mūsā ibn Bughā routed them with a crushing defeat.
In the same year another battle took place between Masrūr al-Balkhī and Musāwir the Khārijite; Masrūr overpowered him and captured a large number of his followers.
The pilgrimage that year was led on behalf of the people by al-Faḍl ibn Isḥāq, mentioned earlier.
Among the notable figures who died that year were:
Ahmad ibn Budayl (3),
Ahmad ibn Ḥafṣ (4),
and Ahmad ibn Sanān al-Qaṭṭān (5).