Likewise, Qasim ibn Zakariyya ibn Yahya al-Muṭarriz, the Qur’an reciter (1), was counted among the most reliable, firmly established authorities. He received hadith from Abu Kurayb and Suwayd ibn Sa‘id, and those who narrated from him included al-Khuldi and Ibn al-Ji‘abi (2). He died in Baghdad in this same year.

[Then the year 306 AH began]

On the first day of Muharram, the opening of the new year, the maristan (hospital) built by the Lady, the mother of al-Muqtadir, was inaugurated. The physician Sinan ibn Thabit took charge there, and physicians, servants, and overseers were appointed; its monthly expenditure was six hundred dinars. It was Sinan ibn Thabit who had advised the Caliph to build a maristan; the Caliph accepted the counsel, the building was completed, and it was called “the Muqtadiri.”

That same year reports reached Baghdad from the commanders of the summer expeditions about the fortresses that Allah had enabled them to seize in Byzantine territory.

During that year the common people rioted and spread the rumor that al-Muqtadir Billah had died. The Caliph mounted with the regiments and rode as far as al-Thurayya, then returned through Bab al-‘Ammah and stood there for a long time so the populace could see him. He next rode to al-Shammāsiyya and descended to the Caliphal residence on the Tigris, whereupon the unrest subsided.

In the same year al-Muqtadir entrusted Hamid ibn al-‘Abbas with the vizierate, invested him with robes of honor, and he left the court followed by four hundred personal pages. [He remained in office only a few days] (3) before his inability [to manage affairs] (3) became evident, so ‘Ali ibn ‘Isa was brought in and appointed alongside him to execute business and supervise the administration. Abu ‘Ali ibn Muqla was also among those drafting documents in the presence of the vizier Hamid ibn al-‘Abbas. Before long the entire post devolved upon ‘Ali ibn ‘Isa, who assumed exclusive charge of the vizierate the following year.

That year the Lady, mother of al-Muqtadir, ordered one of her stewardesses, known as Mithl, to sit every Friday in the mausoleum she had built in al-Rusafa and to examine grievances brought to her in written petitions; judges and jurists attended her session.

The pilgrimage that year was led by al-Fadl ibn ‘Abd al-Malik al-Hashimi.