In this same year Jamila bint Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan performed the Hajj in magnificent splendour, so much so (1) that her pilgrimage became proverbial. She had four hundred canopied litters prepared, and no one could tell in which of them she was riding. When she reached the venerated Kaʿbah she scattered over it ten thousand gold dinars (2), clothed every resident of the two Haram precincts, and expended vast sums on both the outward and return journeys.

The leader of the Iraqi pilgrims was the noble Sharif Abu Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Abi al-Husayn Muhammad (3) ibn Abd Allah (4) al-Alawi. He continued to command the caravan until the year 380 AH, and in this year the Friday sermon in the two Sanctuaries was delivered in the name of the Fatimids, the rulers of Egypt, rather than the Abbasids.

[Among the notable figures who died this year] Ismaʿil (5) ibn Nujayd (6) ibn Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Salim—Abu Amr al-Sulami. He had kept company with al-Junayd and others, transmitted hadith, and was deemed reliable. Among his fine sayings is: “If a person’s very presence does not refine you, he is no person of refinement.”

On one occasion his shaykh Abu Uthman (7) found himself in need and appealed to his disciples. Ibn Nujayd brought him a purse containing two thousand dirhams; he accepted it and praised him before the others. Ibn Nujayd (8) then said, “Master, the money I have just given you belongs to my mother, and she is unwilling for me to part with it, so I ask that you return it to her.” He handed the dirhams back, but later that night Ibn Nujayd returned with the same sum and said, “I would like you to use it for your own needs without anyone’s knowledge.” Abu Uthman would thereafter remark, “What I fear (9) is the aspiration of Abu Amr ibn Nujayd.” May Allah Most High have mercy on them all.