Al-Baghawī, al-Bāghandī, Ibn Ṣāʿid, and many others transmitted from him; al-Dāraquṭnī (1) selected ḥadith from his narration, and leading scholars heard from him. He was reliable, devout, quick-witted, and possessed of dignity, and he copied many of the major works with his own hand. He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir when he was almost ninety years old—raḥimahu Allah (may Allah have mercy on him).

[Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAskarī]

(2) ʿAl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿīd, Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAskarī, was one of the foremost authorities on language, adab, grammar, and linguistic rarities. He wrote a number of useful works in these fields, among them al-Taṣḥīf (3) and others. The vizier al-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād desired to meet him, so he travelled to ʿAskar Mukram in pursuit of him until they met, [whereupon he honoured him and corresponded with him in verse] (4). He died in this same year at the age of ninety, as Ibn Khallikān recorded (5), though Ibn al-Jawzī includes him among those who died in 387 AH, as will be mentioned, if Allah Most High wills (6).

[Then began the year 383 AH]

In this year al-Qādir bi-Llah ordered the reconstruction and adornment of the Ḥarbiyyah Mosque and decreed that it be treated like the other congregational mosques with respect to the Friday khuṭbah and the like. Before issuing the order he consulted the scholars regarding its permissibility, and they issued a fatwa permitting it.

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī said:
“I witnessed the Friday prayer in Baghdad being held in the City Mosque, the Ruṣāfah Mosque, the Palace Mosque, the Barathā Mosque, the Mosque of the District of Umm Jaʿfar, and the Ḥarbiyyah Mosque.
He added: ‘This arrangement remained in place until the year 451 AH, when it was discontinued in the Barathā Mosque’ (7).”

In Jumādā al-Ūlā the bridge that Bahāʾ al-Dawlah had built at the Landing of the Cotton-Dealers was completed; he himself crossed over it after it had been decorated and publicly celebrated.