Among the notable deaths was Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Mihrān al-ʿUkbarī (1).
He had heard ḥadith from Hilāl al-Ḥaffār, Ibn Razqawayh, al-Ḥammāmī (2) and others. A man of learning and a gifted poet, he composed, for example:
I lengthen my thoughts on the people
who pressed on ahead of us long ago,
and on those whom they have left behind.
They are the living ones—living in memory after death,
whereas we, through our obscurity, are the dead.
He died in Ramadan of this year at the age of ninety (5). May Allah, exalted is He, show him mercy.
Another who passed away was Hayyāj ibn ʿUbayd (6) al-Ḥiṭṭīnī, the Syrian (7).
He studied ḥadith and, for the asceticism, jurisprudential insight, and tireless worship of his time, had no equal. He remained in Mecca for a period, issuing fatwas to its people. Each day he would perform ʿumra three times on foot, and from the day he settled in Mecca he never wore sandals. He would visit the grave of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—with the Meccans, walking barefoot, and he would do the same when visiting the grave of Ibn ʿAbbās in al-Ṭāʾif. He hoarded nothing and wore only a single shirt. During one of the sectarian disturbances stirred up by the Rāfiḍa (Shiite agitators), an emir of Mecca struck him; he languished for a few days and then died—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—at a little over eighty years of age.
[Then the year 473 AH began.]
In that year:
• Tukish, brother of the sultan Malik Shāh, took control of part of Khurāsān.
• Public preachers were allowed to resume their gatherings; they had been banned since the turmoil caused by Ibn al-Qushayrī.