The year had not yet ended before the people went out to perform the ṣalāt al-istisqāʾ, the prayer for rain, because the downpour had been delayed beyond its appointed time (1).
In Shaʿbān a robe of honor was bestowed upon Mūnis the Eunuch, and he was ordered to proceed to Tarsus to wage war against the Byzantines.
That same year al-Muqtadir decreed that no Jew or Christian was to be employed in the government bureaus; they were confined to their homes and were instructed (2) to wear honey-colored clothing with patches fixed to their backs so that they might be recognized.
That year the pilgrimage was led by al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Hāshimī. Many of the pilgrims turned back because of the scarcity of water along the route—indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.
Among the notables who died this year were:
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Zakariyā ibn Abī ʿAṭṭāb (3), Abū Bakr al-Baghdādī, the ḥāfiẓ, known as “Brother of Maymūn.” He transmitted ḥadīth from Naṣr ibn ʿAlī al-Jahḍamī and others, and al-Ṭabarānī narrated from him. He would not deliver formal dictation; one could only hear him during scholarly discussions (4). He died in Shawwāl of this year (5).
Abū Bakr al-Athram (6), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hāniʾ, Abū Bakr al-Ṭāʾī al-Athram, a disciple of Imām Aḥmad. He heard ḥadīth from ʿAffān, Abū al-Walīd al-Qanʿabī, Abū Nuʿaym, and many others. He was a ḥāfiẓ, truthful, and possessed an extraordinary memory for debate. Ibn Maʿīn used to say, “One of his parents must have been a jinn, because of the speed of his comprehension, retention, and acuity.” He authored works on hidden defects in ḥadīth and on the abrogating and abrogated reports, and was an ocean of knowledge.
Khalaf ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĪsā (7), Abū Muḥammad al-ʿUkbarī (8). He studied ḥadīth and was a man of wit. He owned thirty rings and thirty walking sticks; each day of the month he would wear one ring and carry one staff, then begin the cycle anew the following month. In his house there hung a whip, and when asked about it he would say, “So that the household may fear me.”
Ibn al-Muʿtazz, the poet who was once proclaimed caliph (9): ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz-bi-llāh Muḥammad ibn al-Mutawakkil ʿalā llāh.