And in that year: a female mule conceived and gave birth to a foal.
That same year al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj ⦗1⦘ was crucified alive for four days—two days on the eastern side of the city and two on the western. This occurred in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of that year.
Al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Hāshimī al-ʿAbbāsī led the pilgrimage; may Allah reward him and accept it from him.
Among the notable figures who died that year were:
• al-Aḥwaṣ ibn al-Mufaḍḍal ⦗2⦘—son of Ghassān ibn al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Khālid ibn Ghalāb, Abū Umayyah al-Ghalābī—who served as judge in Basra and elsewhere. He transmitted al-Tārīkh on the authority of his father. Ibn al-Furāt once hid with him; when Ibn al-Furāt was restored to the vizierate he appointed al-Aḥwaṣ as qāḍī of Basra, Ahwāz, and Wāsiṭ. Al-Aḥwaṣ was chaste and above reproach, but after Ibn al-Furāt’s downfall the deputy governor of Basra arrested him and jailed him, keeping him there until he died.
Ibn al-Jawzī ⦗3⦘ remarks: “We know of no other judge who died in prison besides him.”
• ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir ⦗4⦘—son of al-Ḥusayn ibn Muṣʿab, Abū Aḥmad al-Khuzaʿī—held the governorship of Baghdad. He related hadith from al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, and al-Sūlī and al-Ṭabarānī narrated from him. He was a cultured and virtuous man and a poet. Among his verses ⦗5⦘:
True estrangement between lovers of passion
Is letters that scorch the tear-filled eyes of longing;
While in closeness—may its span never cease—
Are visits that soothe the burning thirst of desire.
It so happened that one of his slave-girls, much cherished by him, fell ill and craved some ice. The only supply was with a single merchant. His steward bargained for a pound, but the man refused to sell for less than five thousand dirhams a pound, knowing the circumstances. The steward returned to consult him, and he said, “Woe to you! Buy it ⦗6⦘, whatever the price may be.” The steward went back, whereupon the ice-seller declared, “I will not sell it for less than ten thousand dirhams.” So he bought it for ten thousand. Later the girl again desired ice, and