Then the year 490 AH began.
Events of this year:
• The Khwarazmian dynasty came into being. After the murder of his uncle Arslan Arghun ibn Alp Arslan, Sultan Barkiyaruq became sovereign over Khurasan. He later handed the province to his brother Aḥmad, known as Malik Sanjar, appointing the amir Qamaj as his atabeg and [Abu al-Fath] ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Tughrāʾī as vizier, while placing over Khurasan the amir Ḥabashī ibn al-Tuntāq (1). He entrusted the city of Khwarazm to a young man called Muḥammad ibn Anushtekin, whose father had been among the Mamluk retainers of the Seljuq amirs. Reared in learning, virtue and fine conduct, Muḥammad was granted the title Khwarazm-Shah when he received the governorship, thereby becoming the first of that line of kings. He ruled well and dealt kindly with the people. When he died, his son [Atsizjari] succeeded him in Khwarazm, adhering to his father’s way and manifesting justice. Sultan Sanjar held him in high esteem, the people loved him, and his standing rose.
• King Riḍwān ibn Tāj al-Dawlah Tutush had the Friday sermon proclaimed for the Fatimid caliph al-Mustaʿlī.
• In Shawwāl a Bāṭinī was executed at the Nubian Gate after two upright witnesses—one of them Ibn ʿAqīl—testified that he had invited them to his creed. As he was being put to death he kept saying, “Will you kill me while I say, ‘There is no god but Allah’?” Ibn ʿAqīl replied, “Allah Most High says: ‘So when they saw Our might, they said, “We believe in Allah alone …”’ (Qur’an 40:84 and what follows).”
• In Ramaḍān, Bursuq—one of the greatest amirs and the first to hold the office of military prefect (shihna) of Baghdad—was killed.
• That year Khumārtakīn al-Jastānī led the people in the ḥajj.
• On the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ the house of Bahāʾ al-Dawlah Abū Naṣr ibn Jalāl al-Dawlah Abī Ṭāhir ibn Būwayh was raided for offences proved against him before the qāḍī. His blood was shed, his house demolished, and on its site two mosques were built, one for the Ḥanafīs and another for the Shāfiʿīs. The [Sultan] Malikshāh had previously granted him al-Madāʾin, Dayr ʿAqūl and other estates.
Deaths in this year:
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Zakarīyyā ibn Dīnār (2), Abū Yaʿlā al-ʿAbdī al-Baṣrī, known as Ibn al-Ṣawwāf. Born in 400 AH, he studied ḥadīth. He was an ascetic Sufi, a jurist and teacher, dignified, calm, [and devout], and a scholar competent in ten disciplines. He died in Ramaḍān of this year at the age of ninety—may Allah Most High have mercy upon him.