In that same year a turmoil broke out in al-Andalus. The cause was that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān the Umayyad, ruler of al-Andalus and surnamed al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh, put his vizier Aḥmad to death. Aḥmad’s brother, Umayya ibn Isḥāq—who was then governor of the city of Shantarín (1)—took offense, defected and entered the lands of the Christians. He met their king Radmir, disclosed to him the Muslims’ weak points, and marched with him at the head of a large force of al-Jalāliqa (Galicians). ʿAbd al-Raḥmān came out to confront them, dealt them a crushing blow, and killed great numbers among the al-Jalāliqa. The Franks then rallied and attacked the Muslims, killing nearly as many of them as had fallen on their own side. The Muslims soon resumed their raids into Galician territory, however, killing throngs beyond counting. Umayya ibn Isḥāq later repented of his deed and sought a guarantee of safety from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. The caliph granted him safe-conduct, and when he arrived, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān kissed him and treated him with honor.
Among those who died during this year were:
al-Ḥasan ibn al-Qāsim ibn Jaʿfar (2) ibn Duḥaym (3), Abū ʿAlī al-Dimashqī. A descendant of hadith scholars, he was himself an akhbārī (historian) who left compilations in that field. He transmitted hadith from al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Bayrūtī and others. He died in Egypt in Muḥarram of this year, having passed the age of eighty.
al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Qāsim (4) ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Khālid ibn Bishr, Abū ʿAlī al-Kawkabī the scribe, a collector of historical and literary reports. He narrated from Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythama, Abū al-ʿAynāʾ, and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā; al-Dāraquṭnī and others narrated from him.
ʿUthmān ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (5) ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Abū ʿAmr al-Balawī, the Maghribī al-Ashajj, also known as Abū al-Dunyā (6). He arrived in Baghdad sometime after 300 AH, claiming that he had been born at the very beginning of Abū Bakr’s caliphate in the Maghrib and that he and his father had visited ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. On their journey they were stricken with severe thirst, so he went off to look for water for his father and saw