In that same year:

Numerous gifts arrived from the provinces—Egypt, Khurasan, and others. Among them were five hundred thousand dinars that came from Egypt, taken out of a hoard that had been discovered there without any of the alleged “magical barriers” so often claimed by many ignoramuses among the sons of Adam—mere ploy, deception, and trickery meant to devour the wealth of the common folk ⦗1⦘ and the gullible rabble of little intellect or discernment. Found in this treasure was a human rib measuring fourteen ⦗2⦘ hand-spans in length and one hand-span in breadth; it was said to have belonged to the people of ʿĀd, and Allah knows best.

Among Egypt’s tribute was also a he-goat that had an udder from which milk could be drawn. Another item was a carpet sent by Ibn Abī al-Sāj ⦗3⦘, seventy cubits long and sixty cubits wide, woven over ten years and of priceless worth. In addition, Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad al-Sāmānī dispatched from Khurasan a great many luxurious presents.

That year the pilgrims were led by al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Hāshimī al-ʿAbbāsī, who had long served as Amīr al-Ḥajj.

Among the notable deaths that year were:

• Aḥmad ibn Naṣr ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū ʿAmr al-Khaffāf ⦗4⦘, a ḥāfiẓ. He could discuss one hundred thousand hadiths from memory and had studied under Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh and his contemporaries. He fasted frequently, maintaining an unbroken fast for a little over thirty years, and was exceedingly charitable. A beggar once asked him for help, so he gave him two dirhams. The man praised Allah, whereupon he raised it to five; when the man praised Allah again, he made it ten, and he continued increasing the amount until it reached one hundred. The beggar then said, “May Allah grant you lasting protection!” Aḥmad replied, “By Allah, had you kept on praising Him, I would have gone on increasing it even to ten thousand dirhams.”

• Buhlūl ibn Isḥāq ibn Buhlūl ⦗5⦘—son of Ḥassān ibn Sinān—Abū Muḥammad al-Tanūkhī. He heard hadith from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī, and others. A number of scholars narrated from him, the last of them being Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī ⦗6⦘ al-Jurjānī, the ḥāfiẓ. He was reliable, precise, eloquent, and fluent in his sermons. He died this year at the age of ninety-five—may Allah have mercy on him. Āmīn.

• al-Ḥusayn ⦗7⦘ ibn ʿAbd Allah Aḥmad, Abū ʿAlī al-Khirāqī ⦗8⦘, author of the Mukhtaṣar on jurisprudence according to the school of the Imām