The professor Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī (1)—Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿĀmir ibn ʿĀbid (2) al-Nīsābūrī, the ḥāfiẓ, preacher, and Qurʾānic exegete—arrived in Damascus on his way to the ḥajj. While there he transmitted ḥadith and delivered admonitions to the people. Ibn ʿAsākir gives him a lengthy [great] biography and cites a number of fine sayings and poems, among them the following:
If I attain not your riches and your gifts,
nor look to you for favor or beneficence,
and you are servants of the One of whom I too am a servant,
then why should I weary a body born free?
Ibn ʿAsākir (3) also relates from Imām al-Ḥaramayn that he said: “While in Mecca I was wavering among the legal schools. I then saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saying, ‘Rely on Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī.’”

Then came the year 450 AH.

Among its events:

The turmoil stirred up by the wretch al-Basāsīrī—Arslān the Turk, may Allah disgrace him. Ibrāhīm Yanāl, brother of King Ṭughril Beg, abandoned Mosul, the province his brother had appointed him over, and withdrew to the region of al-Jabal. His brother summoned him, bestowed robes of honor upon him, and set his affairs in order. Meanwhile al-Basāsīrī, accompanied by Quraysh ibn Badrān, emir of the Bedouin, rode to Mosul, seized it, and razed its citadel. King Ṭughril Beg hurried from Baghdad to Mosul, recovered it, and al-Basāsīrī and Quraysh fled in fear. He pursued them to Nisibin. There Ibrāhīm deserted him, rebelled, and fled to Hamadhān at al-Basāsīrī’s instigation. The king followed after his brother, leaving forces behind him; those troops scattered, and only a few rejoined him. His wife, the khātūn, and his vizier al-Kundurī returned to Baghdad. News soon reached the city that the brother had gained the upper hand and that Ṭughril Beg was besieged in Hamadhān. The people were alarmed, Baghdad fell into confusion, and rumors spread that al-Basāsīrī intended to march on the capital and had already neared al-Anbār. This strengthened the resolve of the vizier al-Kundurī to remain in Baghdad. The khātūn sought to seize him, so he crossed to the western bank, whereupon his house was plundered and the bridge between the two sides was cut. The khātūn mounted with the bulk of the army and went to Hamadhān to support her husband, while al-Kundurī, accompanied by Anūshīrwān ibn Tughmān and his mother—the aforementioned khātūn—and what remained of the army, set out toward the lands of