and Muḥammad ibn Ḥammād ibn Bakr ibn Ḥammād, Abū Bakr al-Muqriʾ (1), a disciple of Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār, who passed away in Baghdad during Rabīʿ al-Awwal; and Muḥammad ibn ʿAzīz al-Aylī (2); and Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī, Ḥaykān (3); and Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb (4), the narrator of the Musnad of Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī from him.

[Then the year 268 AH came to an end.]

During its month of Muḥarram, Jaʿfar ibn Ibrāhīm—known as al-Sajjān and counted among the foremost and most trusted commanders of the Zanj leader—sought amnesty. Al-Muwaffaq rejoiced at his defection, invested him with robes of honor, and appointed him to command. Jaʿfar mounted with his samariyya (picked guards) and halted opposite the royal citadel, where he proclaimed to the people the falsehood and depravity of the Zanj leader, declaring that both he and his followers were deluded. As a result, many of the rebels sought safe-conduct, and hostilities against the Zanj subsided until Rabīʿ al-Ākhir.

At that point al-Muwaffaq ordered his troops to besiege the city wall, instructing them that once they had breached it they were not to enter the town until he gave the word. They pierced the wall, opening a breach, but in their haste they rushed inside. The Zanj engaged them, the Muslims routed them, and advanced to the center of the city. Then the Zanj converged from every side, and ambush parties emerged from hiding places unknown to the attackers. They slew a great number of Muslims, stripped them of their arms, and the rest fled. Abū Aḥmad reproached them for this rash disobedience (5) and ordered stipends to be paid to the families of those who had been killed—an act that won the people’s wholehearted approval.