Al-Khaṭīb said:

Ibrāhīm ibn Makhlad related to us; he said: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī al-Khaṭabī ⦗1⦘ related to us in his History, saying:

A man known as al-Hallāj, whose given name was al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr, rose to prominence. He had been held in the Sultan’s prison after an informer denounced him during the first vizierate of ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā. Various kinds of heresy were attributed to him, together with fraudulent devices for leading people astray—acts resembling sleight-of-hand and sorcery—and the claim of prophethood. ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā exposed him when he arrested him and reported the matter to the Sultan—namely al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh ⦗2⦘. Al-Hallāj did not admit to the charges, so the Sultan punished him and had him crucified alive for several consecutive days in the square by the bridge: each morning he was hoisted up while a crier announced the accusations against him, then he was taken down and returned to prison. He remained incarcerated for many years, being moved from one prison to another ⦗3⦘, until he was eventually confined in the royal residence itself. There he enticed a group of the Sultan’s pages, deceived them, and won them over with various stratagems until they began to shield him, fend off others on his behalf, and provide him with comforts ⦗4⦘.

He then corresponded with a number of secretaries and others in Baghdad and elsewhere, and they responded to him. Matters escalated to the point that it was reported he claimed lordship. A number of his followers were denounced to the Sultan, who arrested them; some were found carrying his writings that confirmed the allegations, and some confessed to them outright. His affair became widely known, and people spoke openly of putting him to death. The Commander of the Faithful therefore ordered that he be delivered to Ḥāmid ibn al-ʿAbbās and instructed that he be examined in the presence of the judges ⦗5⦘ and confronted with his companions. Long proceedings followed. When the Sultan became certain of the case and fully understood what had been reported about him ⦗6⦘, he ordered that al-Hallāj be executed and his body burned.

Accordingly, he was brought before the police tribunal on the western side of Baghdad on Tuesday, the twenty-third (seven days remaining) of Dhū al-Qaʿda in the year 309 AH ⦗7⦘. He was flogged with about one thousand lashes; his hands and feet were severed; his head was struck off; his corpse was burned; his head was displayed to the public on the parapet of the new bridge, and his hands and feet were hung beside it ⦗8⦘.

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sulamī said:

I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad the preacher relate that Abū al-Qāsim al-Rāzī said that Abū Bakr ibn Mumshād ⦗9⦘ said: “A man once came to us in Dīnawur carrying a satchel that he never set aside.”