In this same year:

A series of powerful earthquakes struck Syria and other regions, demolishing countless buildings; among the damage were ninety towers from the wall of Antioch. Great numbers perished beneath the ruins. The leader of the pilgrimage that year was Khumārtakīn.

Among the notable figures who died in that year were:

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAllak (1), Abū Ṭāhir. Born in Isfahan, he studied fiqh in Samarqand and was in fact the reason that city was opened to Sultan Malikshāh. One of the foremost Shāfiʿī authorities, he had amassed a large body of hadith. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Mandah said, “In our time we have seen no jurist more just or more learned than he.” ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was eloquent of speech, highly dignified, and abundantly blessed. He died in Baghdad; princes and viziers walked in his funeral procession, while Niẓām al-Mulk rode on horseback, pleading the frailty of old age. He was buried next to Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī; it was a memorable day, and Sultan Malikshāh himself came to the tomb. [Ibn ʿAqil said: “I sat early at the mourning ceremony beside Niẓām al-Mulk while the princes stood before him; I dared to do so thanks to knowledge,” a report transmitted by Ibn al-Jawzī] (2).

Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī (3), Abū Naṣr al-Marwazī. An authority on Qurʾānic readings, he wrote books on the subject and travelled widely for it. On one journey he fell into the sea; while the waves lifted and dropped him he saw that the sun had passed its zenith, so he intended wuḍūʾ, immersed himself, surfaced, found a plank, climbed onto it, and prayed upon it. Allah saved him through the blessing of that prayer—through his obedience to the command and his earnest application of it. He lived many more years and died this year at a little over ninety. May Allah have mercy on him.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn (4), Abū Bakr al-Nāṣiḥī—the Ḥanafī jurist, debater, theologian, and Muʿtazilī. He was made judge in Nishapur but was removed for misconduct, contentious speech, and acceptance of bribes; later he held the judgeship of Rayy. He had also collected hadith and was regarded as one of the leading scholars. He died in the month of Rajab.