—where he remained for (1) months. He was then seized by dysentery (2) and died there. She ordered her servant to perform the funeral prayer over him, which he did; the house filled with men wearing white garments. She buried him in her home and later stipulated that she herself be buried beside him. He was ninety-six years old when he died—may Allah have mercy on him (3).

Yusuf ibn Yaʿqub ibn Ishaq ibn al-Bahlul (4), Abu Bakr al-Azraq—so called because his eyes were blue—was a Tanukhi scribe. He heard hadith from his grandfather, from al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, from al-Hasan (5) ibn ʿArafah, and from others. He lived austerely yet gave lavishly in charity; it is said that he donated one hundred thousand dinars. He constantly enjoined what is right and forbade what is wrong. Al-Daraqutni and other hadith masters transmitted from him, and he was regarded as reliable and upright. He died in Dhu al-Hijjah of this same year at the age of ninety-two.

Then the year 330 AH began (6). Ibn al-Jawzi writes: In Muharram of that year a comet appeared with its head toward the west and its tail toward the east. It was extraordinarily large, its tail spread wide, and it remained visible for thirteen days before it faded away (7). He also says: In mid-Rabiʿ al-Awwal the price of a kur (a large measure) of wheat reached two hundred and ten dinars and that of barley one hundred and twenty; later the kur of wheat rose to three hundred and sixteen dinars. The poor resorted to eating carrion, the inflation endured, and deaths multiplied,