—an especially sound mastery of hadith (1)—and, in the subsidiary questions of law, he inclined to the Ẓāhirī school. He died in Baghdad in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir (2); may Allah have mercy on him (3).

[Then came the year five hundred and twenty-five]

Among the events that occurred during it:

Dubays lost his way in the desert; some Bedouin chieftains in the Syrian lands captured him and carried him to the ruler of Damascus, Būrī ibn Ṭughtikīn, who sold him to Zankī ibn Āq-Sunqur, lord of Mosul, for fifty thousand dinars. Once in Zankī’s custody, Dubays (4) was certain he would be put to death because of the hostility between them, but Zankī honored him, lavished great sums of money upon him, advanced him, and treated him respectfully. Later, when envoys of the caliph came demanding him, Zankī sent him with them; upon reaching Mosul he was confined in the citadel.

That year also witnessed a clash between the two brothers Maḥmūd and Masʿūd: they faced one another in battle, then made peace.

In the same year the king Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Malikshāh ibn Alp Arslān (5) died. His son Dāʾūd (6) was placed on the throne, with his father’s vizier, the atabeg, acting as guardian; the khuṭbah was delivered for him in most regions (7).

[Among those who died this year from the notable figures]

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (8) ibn ʿAbd al-Qāhir (9), Abū Naṣr al-Ṭawāsī: he heard hadith and studied jurisprudence under Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī. He was a gracious shaykh upon whose face shone a light.

Ibn al-Jawzī (10) recited to me:

—from the Ṭawīl metre—
“In every circumstance, make prudence your provision,
Sending it forth before the blows of fate and time (11).”