—and the next, O Judge?” he asked. “Yes,” came the reply.
He left a slim collection of poetry that has few equals and is exceedingly hard to come by. Al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil coveted it but could not obtain a copy. He died in this very year. Among his verses, composed in Wādī Buzāʿa (1), are the following:
A valley sheltered us from the blazing heat,
itself protected by layers of luxuriant growth;
We camped beneath its branches, which bent over us
as wet nurses bend over a newly weaned child;
It slaked our thirst with crystal water—
sweeter to a convivial drinker than choice wine;
It keeps watch on the sun wherever it meets her—
screening her face while allowing the breeze to pass;
Its pebbles startle adorned maidens,
who instinctively reach for their well-ordered necklaces.
Ibn Khallikān (2), may Allah Most High show him mercy, said: “These lines are peerless in both their meaning and their genre.”
[Then came the year 438 AH]
The year opened amid a severe plague among the beasts; so many animals died that Baghdad became fetid. Ibn al-Jawzī (3) relates: “Some people even called physicians for their mounts, giving them barley-water to drink and perfuming them.”
Among the events of the year:
• Sultan Ṭughril Beg besieged Isfahan. Its inhabitants made peace with him, agreeing to pay a sum of money and to have the Friday sermon delivered in his name; he accepted.
• Muhalhal seized Qarmīsīn and Daynawar.
• Leadership over the Banū Khafāja passed to a man called Rajab ibn Abī Manīʿ ibn Thimāl after the death of Badrān ibn Sulṭān ibn Thimāl. These Bedouins are the ones who most often bar the pilgrims from the Sacred House—may Allah not reward them with good. May He disgrace them when the witnesses arise, on the Day when the wrongdoers’ excuse will avail them nothing. For them is al-qaʿnah, and for them is an evil abode.
Among the notables who died this year:
The shaykh Abū Muḥammad (4) ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Anṭaʾ ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyawah—known as Shaykh Abū Muḥammad al-Juwaynī, the leading Shāfiʿī jurist of his time.