and children in every quarter of the city. When the situation became intolerable, Sultan Bahāʾ al-Dawlah ordered their arrest and pursued them relentlessly; they slipped away from him, and the people were finally spared their wickedness (1).
In Dhu al-Qaʿdah al-Sharīf Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥusayn ibn Mūsā al-Musawī (2) was deposed from the office of naqīb of the descendants of Abū Ṭālib, as were his two sons who had been designated his successors.
In the same year the Iraqi pilgrimage caravan turned back midway after the time for Hajj had elapsed. Al-ʿUsayfir the Bedouin, who had undertaken their protection, intercepted them on the road and claimed that the dinars paid to him from the caliphal treasury were merely silver dirhams coated with gold. He demanded replacements from the pilgrims and threatened to bar their passage if they refused. They resisted and argued with him, so he detained them until the remaining time was insufficient for them to reach the Hajj. Consequently they returned home and none of them performed the pilgrimage. The same happened to the Syrian and Yemeni caravans; only the people of Egypt and the Maghrib managed to complete the Hajj that year.
On the Day of ʿArafah al-Sharīf Abū al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Tamām al-Zaynabī was invested with the office of naqīb of the ʿAbbāsids. His warrant of appointment was read before the caliph in the presence of the judges and notables, and the day was a memorable one.
[Among the notable people who died this year was] Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Hilāl (3) ibn Zahrūn ibn Ḥabbūn, the Ḥarrānī Sabian scribe, author of treatises and state letters for the caliph and for Muʿizz al-Dawlah (4) ibn Būyah. He remained a Sabian until his death, yet he used to fast Ramadan and recite the Quran— which he had memorized well (5)—and he would cite verses from it in his correspondence. Many strove to persuade him to embrace Islam, but he never did. He also composed vigorous and accomplished poetry.
He died in Shawwāl of this year, having passed the age of seventy. Al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (6) elegized him, saying, “I have mourned only his virtues.” (7)