He then marched on to Qinnasrīn and the ʿAwāṣim, taking possession of them by virtue of a letter from Hārūn ibn Khumārawayh that granted him permission and confirmed their mutual settlement (1).
In the same year, Ibn al-Ikhshīd led the people of Tarsus in a raid against Byzantine territory; God granted victory at his hands—and to Allah belongs all praise.
Among the notable figures who died this year was Ibrāhīm ibn Isḥāq (2) ibn Bashīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Daysam, Abū Isḥāq al-Harbī, one of the foremost imams in jurisprudence, ḥadith, and other disciplines. He was an ascetic worshipper (3) who had trained under Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and narrated extensively from him.
Al-Dāraqutnī said: “Ibrāhīm al-Harbī was an imam, a prolific author, knowledgeable in everything, outstanding in every science, and trustworthy. In his renunciation, knowledge, and piety he was compared to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
Ibrāhīm al-Harbī himself said: “The wise of every nation agree that whoever does not go along with al-qadar (divine decree) will never enjoy his life” (4).
He would also say: “The real man is the one who confines his grief to himself and does not inflict it upon his family. I have suffered from migraine for forty-five years without ever telling anyone; and for ten years I have seen with only one eye, yet I have never spoken of it.” He related that for more than seventy years of his life he never asked his household for lunch or dinner; if they brought him something he ate it, otherwise he went hungry until the following night.
He further recounted that in one Ramaḍān he spent on himself and his dependents only one dirham and four and a half dawāniq (small coins); “We knew nothing of elaborate dishes—merely roasted eggplant, a bunch of radishes, and the like.”
On one occasion the Commander of the Faithful al-Muʿtaḍid sent him ten thousand dirhams, but he refused to accept them and returned them. The messenger came back and said, “The Caliph instructs you to distribute them among the needy neighbors you know.” He replied, “This is wealth we did not collect, and we shall not be questioned about collecting it; therefore we will not be questioned about distributing it. Tell the Commander of the Faithful: either leave us alone or we shall depart from his city.”
When death approached him, one of his companions entered to visit him, and his daughter rose up to complain to the visitor about the hardship they were enduring,