known as Ghulām ‘Irq. ‘Irq was one of the Sultan’s attendants, responsible for the postal service; he brought the jurist with him to Egypt (1), where the latter remained until his death—may Allah have mercy on him.

Bidʿa, the slave-girl of ʿUrayb (2) the songstress. Someone who desired her offered her mistress one-hundred-and-twenty thousand dinars for her. The mistress put the offer to Bidʿa, but she disliked parting from her, so on that very day her mistress set her free (3). Bidʿa lived on until this year (4), leaving behind in ready cash and real estate a fortune greater than that of any man.

The judge Abū Zurʿa Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Shāfiʿī (5), who served first as qāḍī of Egypt and then of Damascus. He was the first to deliver legal judgments according to the Shāfiʿī school in Syria and to promote it there (6). A trustworthy, upright man among the foremost of judges, he was originally from the People of the Book—a Jew (7). We have given his full biography in “Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah.”

Then came the year 303 [AH].

In that year al-Muqtadir Billāh endowed large sums of money and several estates to the Two Sacred Sanctuaries. He summoned the judges and notable figures and had them bear witness to this act of endowment.

That same year a group of captive Bedouin—those who had attacked the pilgrims—was brought to Baghdad. The populace could not restrain themselves: they fell upon the prisoners and killed them. Some of the townspeople were then arrested and punished for overstepping the prerogatives of the Sultan.