and from Syria every year eight thousand thousand dirhams,(1) and that the Friday sermon (khuṭbah) be proclaimed on the pulpits of all his lands in the names of Muʿizz al-Dawlah himself and of his two brothers, ʿImad al-Dawlah and Rukn al-Dawlah. Nasir al-Dawlah consented.

Muʿizz al-Dawlah then returned to Baghdad, dispatched a formidable army to his brother Rukn al-Dawlah, and secured for him from the caliph an investiture for Khurasan.

In that same year Sayf al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān, the ruler of Aleppo, penetrated Byzantine territory. A large host of Byzantines met him; a fierce battle ensued, and Sayf al-Dawlah was routed. The Byzantines seized Marʿash and dealt the people of Tarsus a severe blow. We belong to Allah, and to Him we return.

Ibn al-Jawzi relates: In Ramadan of this year(2) the Tigris rose to twenty-one cubits and a third; the estates and houses along its banks were flooded, the eastern quarter was on the verge of inundation, and the people made ready to flee from it.(3)

Among the notable deaths of the year were:

ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ḥamduwayh,(4) son of Nuʿaym ibn al-Ḥakam, Abu Muhammad al-Bayyiʿ—the father of the scholar al-Ḥakim Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Naysaburi.(5) He served as muezzin for thirty-three years, took part in twenty-two military expeditions, spent one hundred thousand on scholars, observed the night vigil, and was lavish in charity. He met ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad and Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjaj, transmitted from Ibn Khuzaymah and others, and died at the age of ninety-three.

Qudāmah the celebrated secretary,(6) namely Qudāmah ibn Jaʿfar ibn Qudāmah, Abu al-Faraj al-Kātib. He authored al-Kharāj wa-Ṣināʿat al-Kitābah (Land Tax and the Craft of Secretaryship),(7) a model work followed by scholars of that field, and he consulted Thaʿlab on various matters.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar,(8) Abu ʿAlī, the preacher and admonisher of Naysabur.