, treating him generously and putting his mind at ease. His absence from Baghdad had lasted eleven (1) months, and the caliphate became firmly established for al-Mustarshid without any rival.

[In this same year] (2) Baghdad was struck by a severe rise in prices: the rain stopped, foodstuffs vanished, and the problem of the ʿayyārīn (bandit gangs) in the city worsened; they plundered houses (3) openly in broad daylight. The shurṭa (4) were unable either to curb the violence or even to denounce it (5).

That year the pilgrimage was led by Naẓar the khādim (chamberlain).

[Among the notable figures who died this year] were the Imām (6), the Caliph al-Mustazhir (7) bi-llāh, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad (8), as has already been noted earlier in this year.

[Urjuwān the Armenian] (9): After him his grandmother on his father’s side, Urjuwān the Armenian—known as Qurrat al-ʿAyn—passed away. She was famed for her abundant piety, good works, and almsgiving. She performed the pilgrimage three times, lived to see the caliphate of her son al-Muqtadī bi-Amr Allāh, the caliphate of her son al-Mustazhir, and the caliphate of her grandson al-Mustarshid, and she even witnessed the birth of al-Mustarshid’s son. She died this year; may Allah Most High have mercy upon her.

Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Faḍl, Abū al-Faḍl al-Anṣārī (10): He transmitted hadith and was proverbial for his mastery of the school of Abū Ḥanīfah. He studied jurisprudence under ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad (11) al-Ḥalwāʾī (12), and he could repeat the lesson (13) wherever he was asked, without consulting books or reviewing the material, and sometimes