—in the year 271 AH; in that year al-Muʿtaḍid, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn al-Muwaffaq, had him bled while his father was still alive (1). A fierce battle then took place on the plain of al-Ramla—some say in Upper Egypt—where Khumārawayh was routed, fleeing on a donkey (2). His troops turned back upon al-Muʿtaḍid, who likewise took to flight, as we have already mentioned. Later al-Muʿtaḍid married Khumārawayh’s daughter and the two were reconciled.

When Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that same year arrived, a group of eunuch servants set upon Khumārawayh and slit his throat as he lay in bed, because he had suspected them of misconduct with his concubines. He died at thirty-two years of age. Leadership then passed to his son Hārūn ibn Khumārawayh, the last of the Tulunids.

Ibn al-Athīr (3) also lists among those who died this year:
• ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Khālid, Abū Saʿīd al-Dārimī, the Shāfiʿī jurist, who studied jurisprudence under al-Buwayṭī, the companion of al-Shāfiʿī (4);
• al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyib (5) ibn Mūsā ibn Zuhayr ibn Yazīd ibn Kaysān ibn Bādhān, king of Yemen—Bādhān (6) had embraced Islam during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him—Abū Muḥammad al-Shaʿrānī (7), a man of letters, jurist, devout worshipper, ḥāfiẓ, and wide-ranging traveller. He was a disciple of Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, from whom he transmitted valuable material on narrator criticism and other matters; he likewise studied with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, recited the Qur’an to Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār, and learned Arabic from Ibn al-Aʿrābī. He was trustworthy and held in high esteem.
• [Abū al-ʿAynāʾ] (8) Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn Khallād, Abū al-ʿAynāʾ al-Baṣrī, the blind poet, accomplished littérateur, eloquent linguist, and pupil of al-Aṣmaʿī. His kunyah was Abū ʿAbd Allāh, but he was nicknamed Abū al-ʿAynāʾ because, when asked for the diminutive of the word ʿaynāʾ (9), he replied ʿuyayyināʾ. He possessed extensive knowledge of literature, anecdotes, and humorous tales, though he transmitted only a little hadith.