On one occasion, while he was preaching to the people (1), the two sons of Abū Bakr al-Shāshī stood up before him and said, “If you are speaking according to the Ashʿarī school, then proceed; otherwise keep silent.” He retorted, “May neither of you enjoy your youth!”—and both of them died still young (2), never reaching middle age.

• In this same year (3) the Commander of the Armies, Naẓar (4) the eunuch, led the pilgrimage; the caravan suffered extreme thirst on the journey.

Among the notable figures who passed away this year were:

• Ṣāʿid ibn Manṣūr ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ṣāʿid, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ, the preacher of Nīshāpūr (5). He had heard a large body of hadiths, succeeded his father as Friday preacher, and engaged in teaching and exhortation. Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī (6)(7) spoke highly of him, and he also held the judgeship of Khwārazm.

• Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Balāsāghūnī (8), the Turk (9), a Ḥanafī also known as al-Lāmishī (10). Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted a hadith from him and noted that he was appointed judge of Jerusalem, but complaints were raised and he was removed. He was then made judge of Damascus. Excessively zealous for the school of Abū Ḥanīfah, he was the one who arranged for the imamate to be conducted by two imams at once, until Allah removed that practice with the ascendancy of King Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. He had resolved to install a Ḥanafī imam in the Great Mosque, but the people of Damascus refused and would not pray behind him; instead they all prayed together in the Dār al-Khayl, south of the mosque, on the site of the later Amīnīyah Madrasa and its environs, bounded by the four thoroughfares. He used to say, “If I held authority, I would levy the jizyah on the Shāfiʿīs (11),” and he likewise despised the adherents of Mālik. His conduct in the judiciary, it is added, was not commendable.