with them. He had previously been a resident of Baghdad, as we mentioned earlier. Ibn Ḥamdān thereupon set off in pursuit of the Byzantines, entered their territory, killed a great many of them, took prisoners (1), and carried off abundant spoils as well.

Ibn al-Athīr relates: In that same year, during Shawwāl, a tremendous flood (2) descended upon Tikrīt; it rose in the marketplaces fourteen spans high and, as a result, four hundred houses were submerged together with a multitude known only to Allah—Muslims and Christians were buried side by side, no one able to tell one from another (3).

He continues: In that year a wind tinged with redness swept over Mosul and then turned black, so that a man could not see his companion even in broad daylight (4). People thought the Day of Resurrection had arrived, but it cleared when Allah sent a rain upon them (5).

Among the notable deaths in that year were:

– al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (6), Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Antākī, judge of the Syrian frontier towns, known as Ibn al-Ṣābūnī. He was trustworthy and distinguished; he came to Baghdad and taught ḥadīth there.

– ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥarb ibn ʿĪsā (7), Abū ʿUbayd ibn Ḥarbawayh, who served as a judge in Egypt for a very long time. He was reliable, learned, and eminent—one of the finest and most equitable of judges—and followed the jurisprudential school of Abū Thawr (8). We have already discussed him in “Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah” with material that is sufficient and satisfactory. He asked to be relieved of his judgeship and was dismissed in 311 AH. He then returned to Baghdad, where he remained until he died there this year in the month of Ṣafar. Abū Saʿīd al-Isṭakhrī led the funeral prayer over him, and he was buried in his own house.

Al-Dāraquṭnī said: Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī transmitted from him in the “Ṣaḥīḥ,” though he (Abū ʿUbayd) may have died twenty years before him. He (al-Dāraquṭnī) also spoke of his dignity and merit (9). May Allah have mercy on him.