al-Dawlah, who therefore appointed him governor of Baghdad. There he confiscated large sums of money from the Jews, after which he fled to al-Baṭīḥah and stayed there for two years. He then returned to Baghdad, and Bahāʾ al-Dawlah made him vizier. He was a bold man, victorious in battle; later, however, the ruler punished him and had him executed in the present year, at the age of forty-nine.

Then came the year 395 AH.

In that year Muhadhdhib al-Dawlah returned to al-Baṭīḥah, and Ibn Wāṣil offered no resistance. It was settled that he should pay Bahāʾ al-Dawlah fifty thousand dinars each year.

That same year a severe famine and devastating mortality struck the lands of Ifriqiyyah: bakeries and bathhouses fell silent, multitudes perished from the plague, and others died from the crushing dearth. To Allah belongs the command before and after, and He alone is asked and hoped for to grant a good outcome (1).

During that year the pilgrims on the road were afflicted by extreme thirst, and many of them died. The Friday khutbah remained in Egyptian hands, as mentioned earlier.

Among the notable deaths of the year were:

Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar (2) – Abū Naṣr al-Bukhārī, known as al-Malāḥimī, one of the foremost ḥadīth masters. He came to Baghdad and narrated there from Maḥmūd ibn Isḥāq on the authority of al-Bukhārī, and he transmitted from al-Haytham ibn Kulayb and others. Al-Dāraqutnī reported from him. A distinguished scholar of ḥadīth, he died in Bukhara in Shaʿbān of this year, having passed the age of eighty.

Muḥammad ibn Abī Ismāʿīl (3) ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Qāsim – Abū al-Ḥasan al-ʿAlawī. Born in Hamadhān and reared in Baghdad, he studied ḥadīth with Jaʿfar al-Khuldī and others, heard ḥadīth in Nīshāpūr from al-Aṣamm and others, and pursued Shāfiʿī jurisprudence under Abū ʿAlī ibn Abī Hurayrah (4). He later went to Syria, kept company with the Sufis until he became one of their leading figures, and performed the pilgrimage several times on his own. He died in Muḥarram of this year (5).