Ibn al-Jawzī (1) reports: On Friday, the twelfth of Shaʿbān, a band of ʿAbd al-Ṣamad’s partisans burst in upon Abū ʿAlī [ibn al-Walid], the Muʿtazilite lecturer. They reviled and insulted him for refusing to pray in the congregational mosque and for teaching that doctrine; they humiliated him and shaved him. The Muʿtazila were cursed in the Manṣūr Mosque, and Abū Saʿd ibn Abī ʿImāma (2) sat publicly cursing the Muʿtazila—may Allah disfigure them.
In Shawwāl news arrived that the sultan had attacked a vast city containing 700,000 houses and 1,000 churches [and monasteries]. He slew great numbers of its people and took 500,000 captives.
In Dhū al-Qaʿda a severe plague broke out in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. The prices of the medicines used for treatment soared; the drug shīrkhushk (3) disappeared, tamarind became scarce, the heat intensified during the months of Tishrīn, and the air was corrupted.
During that same month a robe of honor was bestowed upon Abū ’l-Ghanāʾim al-Muʿammar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-ʿAlawī in the Bayt al-Nūba for his appointment to the naqābah of the Ṭālibids and [the governorship of] the ḥajj and the maẓālim court. He was granted the honorific “al-Ṭāhir Dhū ’l-Manāqib,” his diploma was read aloud in the royal procession, and he led the pilgrims that year.
Among the notable deaths of the year was the eminent imam, ḥāfiẓ, and scholar Abū Muḥammad (4) ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ibn Ghālib ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Khalaf ibn Maʿdān (5) ibn Sufyān ibn Yazīd, client of Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb al-Umawī.
His forefather Yazīd was a Persian who embraced Islam, and the above-mentioned Khalaf was the first of the family to enter the Maghrib. Their home city was Córdoba, and it was there that Ibn Ḥazm was born on the last day of Ramadan in 384 AH. He memorized the Quran, devoted himself to the beneficial religious sciences, excelled in them, outshone the scholars of his age, and authored many famous and useful works. It is said that his writings filled 400 volumes, amounting to nearly 80,000 folios.