He transmitted hadith from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and reported anecdotes from Bishr al-Ḥāfī. Among those who narrated from him was Abū ʿAmr ibn al-Sammāk.

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Wahb (1), the vizier of al-Muʿtaḍid, stood high in the caliph’s favor. Al-Muʿtaḍid was sorely grieved by his death and distressed over whom he might appoint after him, so he conferred the vizierate upon the deceased’s son, al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, as a way of redressing his loss.

Abū al-Qāsim ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Bashshār, known as al-Anmāṭī, was among the leading Shāfiʿīs; we have mentioned him in their biographical layers (2).

Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Mūsā ibn ʿĪsā, Abū Mūsā al-Hāshimī, served as the people’s imam for the ḥajj. He both heard and transmitted hadith, and he died in Egypt in Ramaḍān of this year (3).

[Then came the year 289 AH]

In that year the Qarmaṭīs ravaged the Sawād of Kufa. One of the provincial officials captured a group of them and dispatched their leader to al-Muʿtaḍid. He was known as Abū al-Fawāris (4). In the caliph’s presence he reviled al-ʿAbbās, whereupon the caliph ordered that his molars be torn out, his hands dislocated, then his hands and feet cut off, after which he was killed and crucified in Baghdad. His case became widely known.

That same year the Qarmaṭīs advanced upon Damascus with a mighty host. The city’s deputy, Ṭughj ibn Juff, acting on behalf of Hārūn ibn Khumārawayh, engaged them in battle, but they defeated him repeatedly and the situation grew dire. All this occurred through the diplomacy of Yaḥyā ibn Zakruwayh ibn Mahruwayh, who claimed among the Qarmaṭīs that he was Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—a false claim. He alleged that a hundred thousand people had rallied to his cause and that his camel was divinely directed: wherever it turned, victory would be granted over the inhabitants of that region. His propaganda took root among them; they dubbed him “the Shaykh,” and a faction of Banū al-Aṣbagh followed him, becoming known as the Fāṭimids.

The caliph dispatched a large army against them, but they routed it. They then passed by al-Ruṣāfah and burned its congregational mosque; they did not come upon a single village without plundering it, and they continued in that manner until they reached Damascus. The city’s deputy fought them, but they defeated him time after time, killed great numbers of its inhabitants, and carried off vast amounts of its wealth (5). To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.