and written on the slip were the words: “Indeed, Allah holds the heavens and the earth lest they should vanish” (Fāṭir 41). “In the name of Allah, the One who holds the heavens and the earth—hold it fast.”
[Then came the year 394 AH]
In that year Bahāʾ al-Dawlah appointed the Sharīf Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad ibn Mūsā al-Mūsawī to the posts of Chief Judge, superintendent of the Ḥajj, overseer of grievances, and naqīb of the Prophet’s descendants. He was given the honorific al-Ṭāhir al-Awḥad, Dhū al-Manāqib, and the patent of appointment was issued for him in Shiraz (1). When the document reached Baghdad, however, the Caliph al-Qādir billah did not authorize him to assume the chief judgeship, so his case remained in abeyance.
In the same year Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Wāṣil seized the marshlands of al-Baṭīḥah and expelled Muzahhib al-Dawlah. The commander-in-chief marched against him to retake them, but Ibn Wāṣil routed him and plundered his goods and stores; among the spoils taken from the treasury tent were thirty thousand dinars and fifty thousand dirhams.
That year as well the Iraqi caravan set out [for the Ḥijāz] (2) in a great host and with much display. They were intercepted by al-ʿUṣayfir, the Bedouin emir, who meant to plunder them. The pilgrims therefore sent to him two gifted young Qurʾān-reciters who were with them—Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Raffāʾ and Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Daḥājī—both renowned for their mastery, to negotiate a sum he might take from the pilgrims and then let them proceed to the ḥajj. When the two sat before him they together recited ten passages in awe-inspiring, enthralling (2) and natural voices that amazed and greatly delighted him.
He asked them, “How is your livelihood in Baghdad?”
They replied, “Very good—people continually honour us and send us gold, silver, and gifts.”
He said, “Has anyone there ever given either of you one thousand (3) thousand dinars in a single day?”
They answered, “No; not even a single thousand dinars in one day.”
He said, “Well, I will give you a thousand thousand dinars [right now I am also releasing the entire caravan for your sake; were it not for you, I would not have settled for only a million dinars from them] (4).” He then set the pilgrims free; he harmed none of them, and the people went on their way safe and grateful to those two reciters.
When the pilgrims halted at ʿArafāt, the two men recited in mighty voices from the Mount of Mercy, and the whole assembly burst into [tears] (4) at their recitation. They said to the Iraqis, “You ought not to have travelled with both of these men on a single journey, for they might both have been lost. You should have taken only one of them, so that if one were killed the other would be spared.”