Then the year 283 AH began.
In Muḥarram of that year the caliph al-Muʿtaḍid set out from Baghdad for the region of Mosul to fight Hārūn al-Shārī the Kharijite. He captured him, routed his followers, and dispatched news of the victory to Baghdad. When he returned, the caliph ordered that Hārūn the Kharijite be crucified; he was a Ṣufrī (1). As he was raised upon the cross he proclaimed, “Judgment belongs only to Allah, even though the polytheists may detest it.”
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥamdān ibn Ḥamdūn had fought the Kharijites with great ferocity in this campaign, so the caliph released his father, Ḥamdān ibn Ḥamdūn, from his shackles—he had earlier imprisoned him after seizing the fortress of Mardin from him and demolishing it. The caliph freed him, invested both father and son with robes of honor, and dealt kindly with them.
That same year al-Muʿtaḍid sent instructions to all the provinces that whatever remained after the portions of dhawū al-furūḍ (the fixed-share heirs) in an estate, when there were no agnates, should be given to the dhawū al-arḥām (the cognate relatives). This followed a legal opinion issued by the judge Abū Ḥāzim, who wrote in his fatwa: “This is the consensus of the Companions, save for Zayd ibn Thābit, who alone ruled that in such a case the residue reverts to the public treasury.” ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Shawārib concurred with Abū Ḥāzim, whereas the judge Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb delivered a fatwa adopting Zayd’s view. Al-Muʿtaḍid ignored him and enacted Abū Ḥāzim’s ruling (2). Even so, he appointed Judge Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb to the judiciary of the eastern quarter, clothed him in an illustrious robe of honor, and likewise entrusted Abū Ḥāzim with the judicature of many districts and Ibn Abī al-Shawārib with others, bestowing splendid robes upon them both.
In this year a prisoner exchange took place between the Muslims and the Byzantines, through which 2,504 Muslims were freed—praise and bounty belong to Allah.
During the same year the Ṣaqāliba (Slavs) besieged the Byzantines and rescued 2,504 Muslim captives from their hands—praise and bounty belong to Allah.
Later that year the Ṣaqāliba laid siege to the Byzantines in Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor therefore sought aid from the Muslim prisoners he held, supplied them with abundant weapons, and they sallied forth with him and routed the Ṣaqāliba. Afterwards, fearing what the Muslims might do, he dispersed them throughout his realms.
In that year ʿAmr ibn al-Layth left Nīshāpūr on certain business, putting Rāfiʿ ibn Harthama in charge. Rāfiʿ had the name of Muḥammad ibn Zayd al-Muṭṭalibī and of his descendants proclaimed from the pulpits (3). When ʿAmr returned he besieged him in the city, harried him until he drove him out, and killed him at its gate.