Al-Khatīb said: “He received ḥadith from al-Quṭayʿī and others; he was a righteous, trustworthy, devout shaykh whose doctrinal stance was sound.”
• Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Abī al-Faraj b. Fasanjis (1), the vizier, Abū al-Faraj, nicknamed Dhū al-Saʿādāt (“Master of Blessings”). He served as vizier to Abū Kālijār in both Fars and Baghdad. A man of great dignity, he composed elegant poetry and official prose. One of his fine qualities is illustrated by a petition sent to him concerning a man who had died, leaving an eight-month-old son and nearly one hundred thousand dinars. The petitioner asked whether the vizier would be willing to borrow some of the cash “until the child comes of age.” The vizier wrote on the back of the paper: “The deceased—may Allah mercy him; the orphaned child—may Allah restore him; the money—may Allah make it grow; the petitioner—may Allah curse him. We have no need of orphans’ wealth.” He was arrested and then killed in Ramadan of this year at the age of fifty-one.
• Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm (2) b. Ghaylān b. ʿAbd Allah b. Ghaylān b. Ḥakīm b. Ghaylān, Abū Ṭālib the cloth-merchant. He narrated from many scholars and was the last person to relate from Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī. Reliable, truthful, devout, and righteous, he remained strong-spirited despite his advanced age. He owned one thousand dinars; each day he would pour them into his lap, turn them over, and then return them to their place. Al-Dāraqutnī compiled for him the collection entitled al-Ajzāʾ al-Ghaylāniyyāt (3)—which we ourselves have heard. He died on Monday, the sixth of Shawwāl this year, aged ninety-four, though some say he reached one hundred and five; Allah knows best.
• The ruler Abū Kālijār (4), whose given name was Marzubān b. Sulṭān al-Dawlah b. Bahāʾ al-Dawlah b. ʿAḍud al-Dawlah, also died this year at the age of a little over forty. He had governed Iraq for nearly four years. A fortress of his was plundered that contained more than one million dinars. His son, the king al-Raḥīm Abū Naṣr, assumed authority after him, as mentioned earlier among the events.
Then the year 441 AH began. On the tenth of Muḥarram a directive was issued to the inhabitants of al-Karkh forbidding them to practice the innovation of public mourning; fierce clashes ensued between them and the people of Bāb al-Baṣrah, leading to countless injuries and deaths.