As I was on my way to the ruler’s palace, I suddenly caught sight of that very old clerk riding a feeble mount. When he noticed me he tried to dismount; his thigh showed, for he wore no trousers, only boots without them. The moment I saw him the dream returned vividly to my mind, so I had him summoned at once, granted him one thousand dinars and a set of clothes, fixed for him a stipend of two hundred dinars each month, and promised him further kindness in the future as well (1).
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (2) ibn Ibrāhīm Ṭabāṭabā ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī (3) ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Ḥasanid al-Rassī sharif—one of the noble clans—Abū al-Qāsim, the Egyptian, the poet. He was the naqīb of the Ṭālibids in Egypt. Among his poetry are the following lines:
She said to a fleeting phantom that visited me and passed on:
“By Allah, describe him—omit nothing and add nothing!”
He answered, “I saw him: had he been dying of thirst
And you had cried, ‘Stay! Do not return for water,’ he would not have turned back.”
She said, “You have spoken true; fidelity in love is his habit—
How cooling to my burning heart were the words she spoke!”
Ibn Khallikān says: He died on the night of Tuesday, with five days remaining of Shaʿbān in this very year (4).
[Then came the year 346 AH]
In it a riot broke out between the people of Karkh and the Sunnis over matters of abuse, and many on both sides were killed.
In the same year the sea retreated eighty cubits—some say fathoms—so that mountains and islands appeared which had never been seen before.
That year also saw frequent earthquakes in Iraq, Rayy, Jibal, Qumm and the surrounding regions, continuing for about forty days: they would subside and then return. Many buildings collapsed, numerous water sources dried up, and a great number of people perished. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we return.
In that year Muʿizz al-Dawlah ibn Būyah prepared to fight Nāṣir al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān, who was in Mosul. Nāṣir al-Dawlah corresponded with him and undertook to pay him sums of money every year, [so Muʿizz al-Dawlah left him alone] (5). Later, however, he withheld the very payments he had pledged, whereupon Muʿizz al-Dawlah marched against him in the following year, as will be mentioned.