whereupon Marwan’s men managed to take Badr prisoner, and Marwan had him slaughtered before his very eyes with deliberate cruelty. A few days later Marwan himself died, his followers scattered—may Allah disgrace them.

In that same year the people of Sijistan rebelled against their emir, Khalaf ibn Ahmad. The cause was that he had performed the pilgrimage in 353 AH, leaving Ṭahir ibn al-Ḥusayn as his deputy. Ṭahir coveted the throne, won the townspeople over to his side, and when Khalaf returned from the ḥajj he refused to hand the city back and rose against him. Khalaf therefore travelled to Bukhara and sought the help of the amir Manṣur ibn Nūḥ al-Samanid, who sent an army with him. They wrested the city from Ṭahir and restored it to Khalaf ibn Ahmad—Khalaf was himself a man of learning and a patron of scholars. Ṭahir withdrew, gathered forces, returned, besieged Khalaf, and retook the city. Khalaf again went to Amir Manṣur al-Samanid; Manṣur dispatched troops with him a second time, they recovered the city, and handed it back to him. Once Khalaf felt secure and firmly established, he withheld the gifts, presents, and revenues he had previously forwarded to Amir Manṣur in Bukhara. Manṣur therefore sent an army against him. Khalaf fortified himself in a citadel called the Fortress of Ark. The army besieged him there for nine years (1) without gaining the upper hand, thanks to the strength of the fortress, the difficulty of its approaches, the depth of its moat, and the height of its walls. What befell him thereafter will be mentioned in its proper place.

That same year a contingent of Turks advanced against the land of the Khazars. The Khazars sought help from the people of Khwarazm, who replied, “If you embrace Islam, we will aid you.” All of them accepted Islam except their king. The Khwarazmians fought at their side against the Turks and drove them off; afterwards the king himself embraced Islam. To Allah belong all praise and favor.

[Among the notable deaths of this year]

The famed poet al-Mutanabbī (2),
Ahmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Juʿfī, universally known as al-Mutanabbī.

His father was known as ʿIddān the water-carrier, for he used to draw water for the people of Kufa on his camel, though he was already an old man. Regarding the name ʿIddān (3), Ibn Mākulā and al-Khaṭīb say it is pronounced with a kasra on the ʿayn followed by a yāʾ with two dots beneath it; others hold that the ʿayn carries a fatḥa rather than a kasra (4). Allah knows best.

Al-Mutanabbī was born in Kufa in 306 AH (5). He grew up amid the Bedouin of Syria, pursued the cultivation of letters, and so surpassed his contemporaries