In this year: a tremendous earthquake struck the city of Tabriz. Its citadel, ramparts, markets, and houses were levelled—even most of the palatial quarters of the governor’s residence. Fifty thousand people died beneath the rubble, and the townsfolk donned coarse sackcloth in mourning for their grievous calamity.
In the same year: Sultan Tughril Beg seized most of the eastern territories, including Khwarazm, Dihistan (1), Tabas, Rayy, the region of Jibal, Kirman with its districts, and Qazvin. The Friday sermon (khuṭbah) was proclaimed in his name throughout all those lands; his authority became immense and his fame spread far and wide.
In this year: Thimal ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Mirdās took possession of Aleppo, wresting it from the Fatimid army, whereupon the Egyptians dispatched forces to oppose him.
No one—from Iraq or elsewhere—performed the pilgrimage this year, nor in the years immediately preceding it.
[Among the notable figures who died this year]
• Abū Dharr al-Harawī (2) ʿAbd (3) ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, the ḥadith master and Mālikī jurist. He heard a vast amount of material, travelled through many regions, then went to Mecca and settled there. He married among the Arabs and resided in the Sarawāt mountains, performing the Hajj every year, remaining in Mecca during the season, and teaching the people. From him the Maghrebis learned the school of Mālik and the creed of Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī through Qāḍī Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī. He would say that he had taken the school of Mālik from al-Bāqillānī. He was trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ, and precise. He died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of this year.
• Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar (4), Abū al-Fath al-Shaybānī, the perfumer, known as Quṭayṭ. He travelled to distant lands, collected much learning, and was a pleasant shaykh who followed the Sufi path. He used to say: “When I was born I was named Quṭayṭ, after the names common among the Bedouin; later some of my family named me Muḥammad.”
[Then came the year 435 AH]
In it: the jawālī (poll taxes) were returned to the deputies of the caliph.