In this year: a mighty flood descended upon Ghaznah, destroying vast stretches of farmland and many trees.

During Ramaḍān of the same year, Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd ibn Subuktikīn gave in charity one million dirhams and instituted generous stipends for the jurists and scholars of his dominions, following the custom of his father before him. He captured numerous towns; his territories spread far and wide, his prestige grew, his foundations were strengthened, and his troops and allies multiplied.

In this year a large company of Kurds slipped into Baghdad and, under cover of night, stole the horses of the Turks. The populace therefore barricaded themselves and fortified their quarters, yet the Kurds still carried off the horses—even those of the sultan himself.

In this year the Baghdad bridge by al-Dabbās over the Nahr ʿĪsā collapsed.

In this year strife broke out between the Turks quartered at Bāb al-Baṣrah and the Hāshimites. The latter raised Qurʼāns aloft, while the Turks showered them with arrows, and a great melee ensued. Thereafter the two sides reached a settlement and peace was restored.

In this year gangs of ʿamalāt (ruffians) became numerous in Baghdad; houses were seized openly, and the ʿayyār hoodlums and Kurdish thieves increased in number.

In this year the ḥajj was again interrupted for the people of Iraq and Khurāsān because of the unrest in the land. Only a small detachment of Iraqis, travelling on Bedouin camels and braving great danger, managed to perform the pilgrimage—Allah knows best.

Those who died among the notables in this year:

Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ahmad, Abū al-Ḥasan the preacher—known as Ibn al-Rān (1)—a man of charismatic gifts and spiritual exercises. He was from al-Jazīrah but settled in Damascus, where he preached to the people in the southern extension of the Ziyādah Mosque, the place where the storytellers sat; so reports the ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir. He composed books on exhortation and related many anecdotes. He said:

“I heard Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Samarkandī say: I heard Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abī al-Ṣaqr say: I heard Abū al-Ḥasan Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rānī recite these verses:

What use have I for pleasures
while my mind is busy with sins?
Eid is only for the one
who has won a share of the Beloved.
People awoke to comfort,
to sweet basil and fragrance,
Whereas I awoke to lamentation,
to sorrow and to weeping.
They rejoiced when the new moon
of their month appeared at sunset,
But my own crescent is hidden
behind the veils of the unseen.”