and put bitter colocynth into them, so that nearly fifteen thousand of the pilgrims died of thirst. They captured the rest, forced them to herd their livestock in the most wretched circumstances, and seized all the loads and pack-camels they possessed.
When the vizier Fakhr al-Mulk had these men brought before him, he threw them into prison and denied them water. He then had them crucified facing the Tigris: they could see the river’s clear water yet reach none of it, and they perished of thirst—a fitting recompense. Fakhr al-Mulk acted well in this, following the ḥadīth narrated by Anas regarding the shepherds in the Prophet’s time ﷺ, a report found in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections (1). He subsequently sent for the pilgrims who were still being held in the territory of Banū Khafājah; they were brought back, even though their wives had remarried and their property had been divided, and they were restored to their families and their wealth.
Ibn al-Jawzī (2) relates: In Ramaḍān a star shot across the sky from east to west; its brilliance outshone the moon, it broke into pieces, and it remained visible for a long hour.
He also says: In Shawwāl the wife of one of the Christian leaders (3) died. Women mourners came out openly with crosses held aloft. A member of the Hāshimites objected, whereupon a servant of that Christian struck him on the head with a mace and wounded him. The Muslims rose up, the Christians fled and sought refuge in a nearby church, and the common people stormed it, plundering everything inside and the surrounding Christian houses. They pursued the Christians through the city and attacked the houses of al-Nāṣih and Ibn Abī Isrāʾīl, whose retainers fought back. The disturbance spread through Baghdad: Muslims lifted copies of the Quran in the marketplaces, Friday prayer was suspended on some days, and they appealed to the caliph. He ordered Ibn Abī Isrāʾīl to be brought in, but he refused, so the caliph resolved to leave Baghdad. The turmoil intensified and many Christian homes were looted. Eventually Ibn Abī Isrāʾīl was produced; he offered large sums of money, was pardoned, and the unrest subsided.
In Dhū al-Qaʿdah a letter reached the caliph from Maḥmūd ibn Subuktikīn, stating that an envoy had arrived from al-Ḥākim, the ruler of Egypt, carrying a letter inviting him to submit to his authority. Maḥmūd spat on the letter, ordered it to be torn up, and addressed the envoy with the harshest words.
Also in this year Abū Naṣr ibn Marwān the Kurd was invested with the governorship of Āmid (4), Mayyāfāriqīn (5), and Diyār Bakr (6); a collar and two bracelets were bestowed upon him and he received the title Naṣīr al-Dawlah.