In that same year Manṣūr ibn Quratikin, the commander of the Khurasānian armies on behalf of the Sāmānid amir Nuḥ, passed away after an illness; some maintained that his death resulted from drinking wine continuously for several days. Once he was gone, command of the troops was entrusted to Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Muhtāj.

Al-Zajjājī, author of al-Jumal (1): he is Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, the grammarian—Baghdadi by origin, later a Damascene—who composed al-Jumal (2) in grammar, a work of great utility and benefit. He wrote it in Mecca and, after every chapter, would circumambulate the Kaʿbah, beseeching Allah to make it useful. He first studied the discipline under Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Yazīdī, Abū Bakr ibn Durayd, and Ibn al-Anbārī.

He died in Rajab of 337 AH; other reports give 339 AH, and still others 340 AH—the last placing his death in Damascus, while another opinion says it occurred in Tiberias (3). Al-Jumal has been the subject of many commentaries, the finest and most comprehensive of which is that of Ibn ʿAsfūr.

Then came the year 341 AH.

In that year the Byzantines captured Sarūj (4), slaughtered its inhabitants, and razed its mosques.

Ibn al-Athīr relates: In the same year Yūsuf ibn Wajīh, ruler of ʿUmān, advanced on Basra, but al-Muhallabī barred his way, as mentioned earlier (5). He also records that Muʿizz al-Dawlah, displeased with his vizier, flogged him one hundred and fifty strokes with a scourge, yet kept him in office, merely placing him under restriction (6).

That year Egyptians and Iraqis quarreled in Mecca: the Friday sermon was first delivered for the ruler of Egypt, but when the Iraqis prevailed it was pronounced for Rukn al-Dawlah ibn Būyah (7).

Among those who died that year was al-Manṣūr the Fāṭimid (8): Abū Ṭāhir Ismāʿīl, son of al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh Abū [al-]Qāsim [Muḥammad] ibn