• Masrūr al-Khādim (1), one of the foremost amirs;
• Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Yūsuf, Abū Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī, author of several excellent compilations; he passed away in the month of Ramaḍān of this very year, according to Ibn al-Athīr (2) and our own teacher al-Dhahabī (3);
• and Hilāl ibn al-ʿAlāʾ (4), the well-known hadith scholar—part of his transmission (5)(6) has come down to us.
[Then the year 281 AH began]
In that year: Muslim forces entered the territories of Byzantium, took booty, and returned safely—praise be to Allah.
In that year: the recession of the water tables in the provinces of Rayy and Ṭabaristān became complete; prices soared, the people suffered extreme hardship and drought, so much so that they began to consume one another—a man would even eat his own daughter (7). Truly, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.
In that year: al-Muʿtaḍid besieged the fortress of Mardin, which was held by Ḥamdān ibn Ḥamdūn. He captured it by force, seized what it contained, and then ordered it to be demolished, so it was razed.
During this same year, Qaṭr al-Nadā, daughter of Khumārawayh, the ruler of Egypt, arrived in Baghdad in magnificent splendour, bringing with her an extraordinary dowry. It was said that the trousseau included one hundred mortars of gold, and, apart from every other item, she carried one hundred thousand dinars with which to purchase in Iraq whatever she might need of things unobtainable in Egypt (8).
In that year: al-Muʿtaḍid set out for the region of al-Jabal, appointing his son ʿAlī al-Muktafī as deputy over Rayy, Qazwīn, Zanjān, Qum, Hamadhān, and Dīnawar, and placing Aḥmad ibn al-Aṣbaʿ in charge of his correspondence. He also made ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Dulaf deputy of Iṣfahān, Nahāwand, and al-Karaj, after which he returned to Baghdad.