One of the brethren saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in a dream, with Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) standing beside him. The Prophet was saying, “Are there not among my community the learned scribes? Are there not among my community the monks? Are there not among my community the dwellers of hermitages?” While they were thus engaged Ibn Samʿūn entered, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Jesus, “Do you have in your community anyone like this man?” Jesus remained silent—may Allah have mercy on them.

Ibn Samʿūn was born in the year 300 AH and died on Thursday, the fourteenth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah of this year; he was buried in his own house. Ibn al-Jawzi said: “After some years (1) he was exhumed and transferred to the Cemetery of Ahmad, and his shroud had not decayed—may Allah Most High have mercy on him.”

The last of the Samanid kings was Nuh ibn Mansur (2) ibn Nuh ibn Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Ismaʿil, Abu al-Qasim al-Samanī, ruler of Khurasan, Ghazna, and Transoxiana. He ascended the throne at the age of thirteen (3) and remained in power for twenty-one years and nine months [he died in Rajab of this year, after which his son Abu al-Harith Mansur succeeded him and reigned for one year and nine months] (4). His intimate courtiers then seized him, set his brother ʿAbd al-Malik on the throne, and Mahmud ibn Subuktigin marched against them and wrested the kingdom from their hands. The Samanids had held sovereignty for one hundred and two years and some months; in this year their dominion vanished—for to Allah belong dissolution and confirmation.

Abu al-Tayyib Sahl ibn Muhammad (5) ibn Sulayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Saʿluki, the Shafiʿi jurist, was the leading scholar of Nishapur and the shaykh of that region; five hundred inkwells would attend his lessons. He passed away in this year, according to the most widely accepted account (6).