and Ibn Nājiya (1).

Then came the year 302 [AH].

In that year a letter arrived from Bishr (2) the chamberlain stating that he had inflicted a severe defeat upon the Byzantines and had taken one-hundred-and-fifty baṭrīqs (3) prisoner; the Muslims were delighted by this news.

During the same year the caliph al-Muqtadir had five of his sons circumcised, an event that cost him six-hundred-thousand dinars, including five-thousand dinars scattered as largesse and one-hundred-thousand dirhams. Along with his sons—indeed, before them—he also circumcised a number of orphan boys and treated them generously (4); this was a praiseworthy act—may Allah have mercy on him.

That year the caliph confiscated from Abū ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ (5) sixteen million dinars, not counting his precious vessels and garments.

In the same year al-Muqtadir sent his children to the maktab (elementary school), and it was a day long remembered.

Also that year the vizier (6) built the bīmāristān in the Ḥarbiyya quarter of Baghdad, spending enormous sums on it; may Allah reward him well.

The pilgrimage that year was led by al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (7).

Bedouin marauders and a band of Qarmaṭians waylaid the pilgrims on their return journey (8), killing many and seizing more than two-hundred free women. Surely we belong to Allah and to Him we return.

Among the notable deaths that year was Bishr ibn Naṣr ibn Manṣūr (9), Abū al-Qāsim, the Shāfiʿī jurist from Egypt (10), known as Ghulām.