In this same year there died: Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥasan al-Jannābī, the ruler of Hajar and the foremost leader of the Qarmaṭians. Six men from his own clan then assumed authority (1); they were called al-Sādah (the “Lords”), and they administered affairs after him in complete accord, without any disagreement (2), their situation remaining entirely stable (3).

In this year, too, al-Ḥasan (4) ibn Aḥmad (5) ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Jannābī—better known as Abū Muḥammad al-Qarmaṭī—passed away.

Ibn ʿAsākir relates that Abū Saʿīd’s personal name was al-Ḥasan (6) ibn Bahrām (7); others say it was al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf ibn Kūdzkār, and it is also said that the family was of Persian origin. He further notes that this Abū Muḥammad was nicknamed al-Aʿṣam (“the Palsied”) and that he was born in al-Aḥsāʾ in 278 AH.

He overpowered Damascus and greater Syria in 357 AH, returned to al-Aḥsāʾ a year later, then marched back to Damascus in 360 AH, where he routed the army of Jaʿfar ibn Falaḥ—the first man to govern Syria on behalf of the Fāṭimid al-Muʿizz—and killed him. He then advanced on Egypt and besieged it at the beginning of Rabīʿ al-Awwal 361 AH, maintaining the siege for several months. Before departing he had appointed Ẓālim ibn Murahūb al-ʿUqaylī (8) as his deputy in Damascus. He subsequently returned to al-Aḥsāʾ, then moved on to al-Ramla, where he died in the present year, having reached nearly ninety years of age, all the while outwardly professing obedience to the caliph ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ṭāʾiʿ ibn al-Muṭīʿ.

The ḥāfiẓ [Ibn ʿAsākir] (9) has preserved a number of fine, elegant poems composed by him; among them is the piece he sent to Jaʿfar ibn Falaḥ before the battle between them (10):