He frequently engaged in tadlīs (concealed transmission) from shaykhs he had never met, and he died in this same year at the age of one hundred and seven; may Allah pardon him.

Muḥammad ibn Muẓaffar ibn ʿUbayd,1 known as Abū al-Najāʾ al-Farḍī, the blind Mālikī jurist. He authored a work on jurisprudence according to the school of Mālik and produced other treatises on the laws of inheritance that were rarely equalled. He was a cultured, intelligent, virtuous, and skilful scholar—may Allah have mercy on him.

Then came the year 338 AH.

In its Rabīʿ al-Awwal a [fitnah]2 broke out between the Shiʿah and the Sunnis, and al-Karkh was plundered.

In Jumādā al-Ākhirah the judge Abū al-Ṣāʾib ʿUtbah ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Hamadhānī assumed the office of Chief Judge.

During the same year a man called ʿImrān ibn Shāhīn—who had incurred certain penalties—fled from the authorities to the marshlands (al-Baṭāʾiḥ). He lived on whatever fish and birds he could catch, and a company of fishermen and highwaymen gathered around him until his power grew. Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Barīdī appointed him to collect revenue from part of that region, but Muʿizz al-Dawlah ibn Būyah sent an army against him under his vizier Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṣaymarī. The vizier was defeated, yet a pressing matter diverted him from pursuing the campaign—namely, the death of ʿImād al-Dawlah ibn Būyah.3

ʿImād al-Dawlah—Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Būyah—was the eldest of Būyah’s sons and the first of them to attain sovereign power. Intelligent, resolute, and of commendable conduct, he was a leader in his own right. His emergence dates back to 322 AH, as we have already noted.4 In the present year illness overwhelmed him and pain assailed him incessantly; he sensed that death was near. Neither his kingship nor the abundance of wealth and men—Daylamites and Turks alike—could secure his release. As he had no male offspring,5 he sent to his brother Rukn al-Dawlah, requesting that he dispatch his son ʿAḍud al-Dawlah to him, so that he might