Iblīs in a dream, and he appeared (1) naked. I said, “Do you not feel ashamed before the people?” He replied, “Do you call these people? I toy with them just as children play with a ball! The only real people are a group in the Shunīzī Mosque; they have worn out my heart [and exhausted my body] (2). Whenever I try to approach them they point to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and I almost burn!” [He said] (3): “When I awoke I put on my clothes and made for the Shunīzī Mosque. There I found three men sitting with their heads tucked inside their patched cloaks. One of them lifted his head from within his garment and said, ‘O Abū al-Qāsim, do you accept everything that is said to you?’ They were Abū Bakr al-Zaqāq (4), Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Nūrī, and Abū Ḥamzah (5).”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAllūyah ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Jurjānī, the Shāfiʿī jurist and disciple of al-Muzanī, is mentioned by Ibn al-Athīr (6).

Then came the year 291. In it a tremendous and terrifying battle was fought between the Qarmaṭians and the Caliph’s army; the Qarmaṭians were routed utterly, and their leader al-Ḥusayn ibn Zakrawayh—self-styled Commander of the Faithful, nicknamed Dhū al-Shāmah, who, as noted, had assumed the name Aḥmad and the kunyah Abū al-ʿAbbās—had rallied around him multitudes of Bedouins and others, and his power had become very great. When he was taken prisoner he was brought, together with many of the chiefs of his followers, before the Caliph. He was led into Baghdad on an elephant so that the populace might see him. The Caliph ordered a high platform to be built; the Qarmaṭian was seated upon it, and his companions were brought forward. He watched as their necks were struck one by one before him, a wooden gag having been forced cross-wise into his mouth and tied behind his head. He was then taken down, given two hundred lashes, his hands and feet were severed, he was cauterized, and then burned. His head was mounted on a pole and paraded through the districts of Baghdad, and that occurred in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal (7).

In the same year the Turks advanced against Transoxiana in massive hosts, but the Muslims scattered them, killing vast multitudes [beyond reckoning] (8) and taking captives without number. “And Allah turned back those who disbelieved, in their rage; they obtained no good” (al-Aḥzāb 33:25).