That year the pilgrims were led by a Turkmen amir—his name was Alīran—acting under the authority of Sultan Muḥammad ibn Malikshāh.

Among the notable people who died that same year were:

• Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Muẓaffar (1), Abū al-Muẓaffar al-Khawāfī, the Shāfiʿī jurist. Ibn Khallikān said: “He was the most clear-sighted scholar of his time. He studied under Imām al-Ḥaramayn and became the most distinguished of his pupils. He was appointed judge in Ṭūs and its environs and was famous among the scholars for the excellence of his debate and his ability to silence opponents.” He added: “Al-Khawāfī—with the khāʾ and wāw pronounced openly—is a nisba to Khawāf, a district of Nīshāpūr. May Allah have mercy on him.”

• Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad al-Sarrāj (2), Abū Muḥammad al-Qārī of Baghdad. He was born in 416 AH (3). He mastered the Qur’an in its various modes of recitation and heard a large number of prophetic hadiths from both male and female teachers in widely scattered lands. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb compiled several fascicles from his auditions. He was reliable, quick-witted, refined, and a gifted poet. He versified the books al-Mubtadaʾ (4), al-Tanbīh (5), al-Khirāqī (6), and other works, and he authored Maṣāriʿ al-ʿUshshāq and more besides. A ḥāfiẓ who outshone his peers among the gifted men of his age, he was heard by al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Silafī, who used to boast of having met him.

Some of his poetry says:

Say to those who, in ignorance,
now scoff at the inkwells
and the hands that bear them—
hands ringed with bracelets:

Were it not for inkwells and pens,
for scrolls and ledgers,
and for those who safeguard the law
of the Messenger from the noblest clan,

and for transmitters of his hadith—
solid forebear from solid heir—
you would see the monstrous hosts
of error, one legion after another,
all prattling in their ignorance;
but Allah is the Helper of the oppressed.