with every magistrate save you?”

The judge answered, “I do not accept your testimony. I once saw you bathing in the public bath completely naked, with no covering over your private parts; for that reason I must reject it.”

He passed away—may Allah have mercy on him—on Tuesday (1), the 10th of Shaʿbān of this year, at the age of eighty-eight, and was buried near Ibn Surayj (2).

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥumaydī (3)—Muḥammad ibn Abī Naṣr Futūḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Futūḥ ibn Ḥumayd, known as al-Ḥumaydī, the Andalusian—came from an island called Mayūrqa (4), close to al-Andalus. He travelled to Baghdad, where he studied hadith. A prodigious memorizer, devout, skillful, chaste, and above reproach, he is the author of The Concordance of the Two Ṣaḥīḥs and other works; he also copied the writings of Ibn Ḥazm and al-Khaṭīb (5). He died on the night of Tuesday, in the middle of Dhu al-Ḥijjah, having surpassed seventy years of age, and his grave lies near that of Bishr al-Ḥāfī.

Hibat Allāh, son of Shaykh Abū al-Wafāʾ ibn ʿAqīl, had memorized the Quran, studied jurisprudence, and displayed notable brilliance. He then fell ill, and his father spent large sums on his treatment, but to no avail. One day the son said to him, “Father, you have resorted to many medicines and supplications, yet Allah has a decree concerning me; so leave me to Allah’s choice for me.” I realized that he had not been guided to say these words except that he had been chosen for special favor (6). May Allah have mercy on him.

Then came the year 489 AH. Ibn al-Jawzī says in al-Muntaẓam (7): In this year some ignorant astrologers declared that a flood—almost like the Flood of Noah—would occur. The rumor spread among the common folk and they became afraid, so the caliph al-Mustazhir summoned the astrologer Ibn ʿAyshūn (8) and asked him about the matter (9). He replied, “The Flood of Noah occurred when the ascendants gathered in the sign of Pisces …”