And in this month (1) letters were read aloud from the pulpits announcing the victories won by the Muslims in Byzantine territory. In the same year news arrived that the land of Wasit had split open, forming fissures (2) in the earth at (3) seventeen separate spots—the largest measuring one thousand cubits in length and the smallest two hundred—and that one thousand three hundred of the principal villages had been submerged.
That year the pilgrimage was led by Ishaq ibn Abd al-Malik al-Hashimi.
Among the notable figures who died that year were Muhammad ibn Ahmad (4) ibn Hammad ibn Saʿad (5), Abu Bishr al-Dulabi (6), a client of the Ansar, also known as al-Warraq. He was one of the leading preservers of hadith, with fine compilations on history and other subjects (7), and he narrated from a great many teachers. Ibn Yunus said, “He was considered weak (8), and he died while on his way to the pilgrimage, between Mecca and Medina at al-Arj, in Dhu al-Qaʿda (9).”
Abu Jaʿfar Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (10)—Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid ibn Kathir ibn Ghalib, the Imām Abu Jaʿfar al-Tabari.
(1) In al-Muntaẓim, between the two occurrences of ḥāṣiratayn (vol. 6, p. 167).
(2) i.e., “cracks.” al-Lisān (root f-l-ʿ).
(3) In the Ṭāʾ edition, between the two occurrences of the letter ṭāʾ.
(4) al-Ansāb (vol. 5, pp. 371–372); al-Lubāb (vol. 1, p. 431); al-Muntaẓim (vol. 6, p. 169); Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 4, pp. 352–353); Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (vol. 2, pp. 759–760); Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (vol. 14, pp. 309–311); al-Mughni fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (vol. 2, p. 550).
(5) In the Ṭāʾ edition it reads Abū Saʿīd, which is a corruption.
(6) al-Samʿānī remarks: “The correct nisba uses a dāl with a fatḥa (dallāb), but people pronounce it with a ḍamma (dullāb)… I suspect he traced some of his ancestors to the profession of wheelwrights, originally from Rayy, so he may have been from the village of Dallāb.” al-Ansāb (vol. 5, pp. 369–371).
(7) His book al-Kunā wa-al-Asmāʾ was printed in two volumes by the Press of the Encyclopaedia Council in Hyderabad in 1322 AH; it is a well-known, widely circulated work.
(8) In the Ṭāʾ edition it reads yuṣʿaq; in al-Ansāb (vol. 5, p. 371) it reads yuṣannaf; both are corrupt. The correct reading is found in the Ḥāʾ and Bāʾ editions.
(9) In al-Ansāb, al-Lubāb, and Wafayāt al-Aʿyān it states he died in 320 AH, which is incorrect.
(10) Tārīkh Baghdād (vol. 2, pp. 162–169); Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ (al-Shīrāzī, p. 93); al-Ansāb (vol. 8, pp. 205–207); al-Lubāb (vol. 2, p. 81); al-Muntaẓim (vol. 6, pp. 170–172); Maʿjam al-Adabāʾ (pp. 18, 40, 94); Inbāh al-Ruwāḥ (vol. 3, pp. 89–90); Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 4, pp. 191–192); Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (vol. 14, pp. 267–282); Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (vol. 2, pp. 710–716); Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (vol. 3, pp. 498–499); Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya (al-Subkī, vol. 3, pp. 120–128); Ṭabaqāt al-Mufassirīn (al-Dāwūdī, vol. 2, pp. 106–114).