Ibn al-Jawzi said:

Fresh dates became so abundant that year in Baghdad that eight ratls were sold for a single ḥabbah, and people processed them into dried dates and shipped them to Basra (1).

Al-Muqtadir dismissed his vizier al-Khāqānī after (2) one year, six months, and two days, and appointed in his place Abū al-‘Abbās (3) Aḥmad ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Khaṣīb (4) al-Khaṣībī, thanks to a sum he paid through the wife of al-Muḥsin (5) ibn al-Furāt—an amount that reached seven hundred thousand dinars. Accordingly (6) al-Khaṣībī confirmed ‘Alī ibn ‘Īsā as supervisor over Egypt and al-Shām, while he himself resided in Mecca, travelling to those regions from time to time to carry out what was required and then returning to Mecca—may Allah honor it.

[Mention of the notable persons who died in that year]

‘Alī ibn ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd (7) ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sulaymān, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ghaḍā’irī. He heard hadith from al-Qawārīrī and ‘Abbās al-‘Anbarī, and he was among the devout and trustworthy.

He said: “One day I came to Sarī al-Saqaṭī, knocked on his door, and he came out, placed his hand on the two doorposts (8) and said, ‘O Allah, occupy with Yourself whoever occupies me away from You.’”

He continued: “The blessing of that supplication reached me, so I performed the pilgrimage on foot from Aleppo to Mecca for forty years, going and returning (9).”

Abū al-‘Abbās al-Sarrāj the ḥāfiẓ (10) Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Mihrān ibn ‘Abd Allāh, the mawla of Thaqīf—Abū al-‘Abbās al-Sarrāj—was one of the reliable leading authorities in hadith. He was born in 218 AH.