and Bakkār ibn Qutaybah al-Miṣrī (1), who died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of this year.

Al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd al-ʿAlawī (2), the ruler of Ṭabaristān, passed away in Rajab of this same year; his tenure lasted nineteen years, eight months, and six days. Authority then passed (3) to his brother Muḥammad ibn Zayd (4).

Al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd was generous, open-handed, and widely praised. He was versed in fiqh and in the Arabic language. A poet once addressed him in the course of an ode, saying:

“Allah is One, and Ibn Zayd is unique.”

Al-Ḥasan retorted, “May al-ithlib (5) fill your mouth! Could you not have said, ‘Allah is One, and Ibn Zayd is a servant’?” He then stepped down from his couch, prostrated himself to Allah, pressed his cheek to the ground, and gave that poet nothing.

Another poet praised him and opened his poem (6) with:

“Say not ‘one glad tiding,’ but ‘two—
the dignity of the summoner and the festival day.’”

Al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd observed, “Had you begun with the second hemistich it would have been better, and still farther from starting your verse with the word ‘lā’ (‘no’).” The poet replied, “There is no word on earth more exalted than the proclamation: lā ilāha illā Allah.” Al-Ḥasan said, “You are right,” and ordered that he be granted a noble reward.

…and al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAffān al-ʿĀmirī (7);

and Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī (8) al-Aṣbahānī, later al-Baghdādī, the Ẓāhirī jurist—Imām of the People of the Ẓāhir—who narrated ḥadīth from Abū Thawr (9) Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid, Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, ʿAbd Allah ibn Maslama al-Qaʿnabī, Musaddad ibn Musarhad (10), and several others.