In this year:
The caliph al-Muktafī bi-Allāh rode out from Baghdad toward Sāmarrāʾ intending to take up residence there, but the vizier al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh dissuaded him and brought him back to Baghdad.

In this year:
Yaḥyā ibn Zakrawayh ibn Mahruwayh was killed at the gate of Damascus. He was struck down by the Egyptian forces when a man from the Maghreb pierced him with a fire-tipped spear, setting him ablaze. This occurred after he had slain great numbers of the city’s troops—men serving under Ṭughj ibn Juff, its deputy governor. Allah then bestowed His favor upon the people by his death, and the Muslims rejoiced greatly.

After him his brother al-Ḥusayn assumed command of the Qarmatians. He took the name Aḥmad, the kunya Abū al-ʿAbbās, and the title “Commander of the Faithful,” and the Qarmatians obeyed him. He besieged Damascus, whose people ransomed themselves with money. Next he marched on Ḥimṣ, captured it, and had the Friday sermon delivered there in his name. From there he advanced to Ḥamāh and Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān, subdued their inhabitants, and plundered their property and women. He slaughtered livestock and even the schoolboys, and permitted his men to violate the women; a single woman might be raped by many men, and when she later gave birth each one of them would congratulate himself on the child.

The people of Syria wrote to the caliph complaining of the atrocities of this accursed man. Al-Muktafī therefore mustered large armies, spent immense sums for the war against him, and in Ramaḍān rode out, encamping at al-Raqqa and dispatching troops in every direction to engage the Qarmaṭī.

The Qarmaṭī used to write to his followers in these words:
“From the servant of Allah Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, the Mahdī, the one made victorious by Allah, the helper of the religion of Allah, the upholder of Allah’s command, the judge by Allah’s decree, the caller to the Book of Allah, the defender of Allah’s sanctuary, the one chosen from the progeny of the Messenger of Allah.”

He claimed to descend from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib through Fāṭimah—a lying, slanderous claim in that regard (1); may Allah disgrace him, for he was among the fiercest enemies of Quraysh and, after them, of Banū Hāshim. He entered Salamiyyah (2) and left not a single member of Banū Hāshim alive: he killed them and their children and violated their women.

Also in this year:
Abū al-ʿAshāʾir Aḥmad ibn Naṣr was appointed to the frontier fortress of Ṭarsūs in place of Muẓaffar ibn Ḥājj after the garrison had lodged complaints against the latter.

Al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAbbāsī (3) led the people in the ḥajj.

Among the notable deaths this year was ʿAbd Allāh ibn the Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (4)—Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shaybānī. He was an imām, a ḥāfiẓ, reliable, firmly established, and prolific in transmitting from his father and from others.