In the same year a detachment from the Khurasan army—some ten-odd thousand men—arrived, openly declaring that they meant to campaign against the Byzantines. Rukn al-Dawlah ibn Būyah received them with honour and felt secure in their presence; but they suddenly marched against him, hoping to seize Daylam while he was off guard. Rukn al-Dawlah met them in battle and defeated them—for aggression brings its perpetrator low—and most of them took to flight.

That year Muʿizz al-Dawlah left Baghdad for Wāsiṭ to fight ʿImrān ibn Shāhīn. The affair became critical and his name resounded throughout those regions. Muʿizz al-Dawlah’s sickness then grew worse, so he appointed a deputy to prosecute the war and returned to Baghdad. His death occurred in the following year, as we shall mention, if Allah Most High wills.

During the same year the cause of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dāʿī gained strength in the land of Daylam. He displayed ascetic devotion, donned woollen garments, and dispatched letters to every quarter—even to Baghdad—calling the people to jihad.

That year also witnessed the completion of a prisoner exchange between Sayf al-Dawlah and the Byzantines. He ransomed many captives, among them his cousin Abū Firās ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥamdān and the judge Abū al-Haytham ibn Ḥiṣn. This took place in Rajab.

In Jumādā al-Ākhirah a proclamation was made abolishing the ḥashrī inheritances (1) and ordering that such estates be restored to the nearest relatives.

In the same year Muʿizz al-Dawlah ibn Būyah began building a bīmāristān (hospital) and endowed it with substantial waqf properties.

That year the Banū Sulaym blocked the highways used by pilgrims coming from Syria, Egypt and the Maghrib. They captured twenty thousand fully-laden camels bearing wealth and goods beyond all reckoning. One of the victims, Ibn al-Khuwātimī, the judge of Tarsus, lost one hundred and twenty thousand dinars in cash, for he had intended to move from Syria to Iraq after the pilgrimage—and many others were in the same plight. Once the camels were taken, the raiders left the pilgrims exposed in the cold countryside with nothing. Few escaped; many perished. To Allah we belong and to Him we return.

That year the pilgrimage was led on behalf of the people by the noble Abū Aḥmad, naqīb of the Ṭālibids in Iraq.

[Among the notable figures who died this year]

al-Ḥusayn (3) ibn Dāwūd (4) ibn ʿAlī [ibn ʿĪsā] (5) Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the ʿAlid Hasanid.