the work entitled al-Sunnah, a collection of reports on the divine attributes in accordance with the way of the Salaf. He was a distinguished and eminent ḥāfiẓ. After Ṣāliḥ, the son of Imām Aḥmad, he was appointed chief judge of Isfahan. He travelled far and wide in pursuit of hadith and kept the company of Abū Turāb al-Nakhshabī and other Sufi shaykhs.

On one occasion a striking karāmah befell him. While travelling with two of the leading righteous men, they halted upon a stretch of white sand. Abū Bakr began to sift the sand through his fingers and said, “O Allah, provide us with khabīs (1) the color of this.” No sooner had he spoken than a Bedouin appeared carrying a bowl of khabīs whose whiteness matched that of the sand, and they ate from it (2) — may Allah have mercy on him.

He used to say: “I do not wish an innovator, a backbiter, a curser, a foul-mouthed or obscene person, nor anyone who departs from al-Shāfiʿī and the people of hadith, to attend my gathering (3).”

He died this same year in Isfahan. Someone saw him [in a dream] (4) after his death while he was standing in prayer. When he finished, the man asked, “What did your Lord do with you?” He replied, “My Lord keeps me company — exalted is He.”

Then the year 288 AH began.

Several calamities befell the people that year:

• The Byzantines advanced against the region of al-Raqqah with large forces by land and sea; they slew many and carried off about fifteen thousand of the inhabitants as captives.

• A severe plague struck Azerbaijan, so that no one remained able to bury the dead; the corpses were left in the roads unshrouded.

• A violent wind battered Ardabīl from after ʿAṣr until a third of the night had passed, followed by a fierce earthquake that lasted for days. Houses and dwellings collapsed; others were swallowed up. The number of those who perished beneath the rubble reached one hundred and fifty thousand (5). Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.