should serve as the boundary: everything beyond it on the Egyptian side (1) was to remain with al-Ikhshīd, who would remit to him each year one hundred and forty thousand dinars; while everything beyond al-Ramla toward Damascus (2) was to belong to Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq.

Among those who died in this year was Jaʿfar al-Murtaʿish (3)—Abū Muḥammad, one of the elders of the Sufis, so described by al-Khaṭīb (4). Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: his name was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, Abū Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī (5). He had once possessed great wealth, but renounced it. He associated with al-Junayd, Abū Ḥafṣ, and Abū ʿUthmān, and settled in Baghdad until he became the leading shaykh of the Sufis.

People used to say: “The marvels of Baghdad are three: the allusions of al-Shiblī, the subtle remarks of al-Murtaʿish, and the anecdotes of Jaʿfar al-Khawwāṣ.” I heard Abū al-Faraj the Goldsmith (6) relate that al-Murtaʿish said: “Whoever imagines that his own deeds will save him from the Fire or grant him divine approval has assigned worth to himself and to his actions; but whoever relies on Allah’s favor, Allah will raise him to the highest stations of His good pleasure.” (7)

Al-Murtaʿish was told, “So-and-so walks upon water!” He replied, “To oppose one’s own caprice is greater than walking on water.” (8)

When death approached him in the Shūnīziyya Mosque (9), they calculated his debts and found them to be seventeen dirhams. He said, “Sell these few rags of mine and settle them; I hope Allah will provide a shroud for me. I have asked Allah for three things: that I die poor, that my death be in this mosque—for here I kept company with certain brethren—and that He place near me someone familiar and beloved to me.” Then he closed his eyes and died. (10)

Abū Saʿīd al-Istakhrī (11)—al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yazīd ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Faḍl ibn Yasār, Abū Saʿīd al-Istakhrī—was one of the foremost Shāfiʿī authorities.