In that same year: the emperor of Byzantium sent out ten crosses, each cross accompanied by ten thousand men. They raided the frontier districts, killed many people, and carried off a number of children as captives.

In that same year: the deputy of Tarsus pushed into Byzantine territory and conquered the city of Antioch—an immense coastal city that they regard as the equal of Constantinople. He freed from among the Muslims five thousand prisoners (1), seized sixty Byzantine vessels, and captured an extraordinarily large amount of booty, so that every one of the raiders received a thousand dinars as his share.

The man who led the people in the pilgrimage that year was al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.

Among the notable figures who died in that year was Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Zayd ibn Sayyār (2), Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Shaybānī, their client, nicknamed Thaʿlab, the foremost Kufan scholar of grammar and lexicography. He was born in 200 AH. He studied under Muḥammad ibn Ziyād ibn al-Aʿrābī, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, al-Qawārīrī, and others; and he was in turn heard by Ibn al-Anbārī, Ibn ʿArafah, and Abū ʿUmar (3) al-Zāhid.

He was reliable, a definitive authority, devout and upright, famed for truthfulness and prodigious memory. It is related that he heard one hundred thousand hadiths from al-Qawārīrī. He died on Saturday, with thirteen days remaining of Jumādā al-Ūlā of this year, at the age of ninety-one.

Ibn Khallikān (4) said: The cause of his death was that he left the congregational mosque with a book in his hand, reading it. Being extremely hard of hearing, he was struck by a horse that hurled him into a pit; his brain was shaken and he died the following day.

He also said (5): He is the author of the book al-Faṣīḥ—small in size yet of great value—and he also composed the book