—robes of Byzantine silk (1). He and Sultan Masʿud then boarded a boat on that canal, and the Sultan was delighted, for he had spent (2) seventy thousand dinars on its construction.
In the same year, Kamal al-Din b. Ṭalḥah (3), the master of the treasury, performed Hajj. After his return he embraced an ascetic life, relinquished his post, and stayed in his home.
That year, with the Caliph’s permission, the Friday congregational prayer was inaugurated at the Abbasid Mosque, and the pilgrims were led by Naẓar al-Khādim (4).
Among the notable figures who died this year were:
• Ismaʿil b. Aḥmad b. ʿUmar b. Abī al-Ashʿath, Abū al-Qāsim b. Abī Bakr al-Samarqandī (5), later of Damascus and then Baghdad. He had heard a vast amount of ḥadīth, studied under a number of teachers no one else shared, and his transmissions were sound. At the Manṣūr Mosque he dictated many sessions—close to three hundred in all. His death occurred this year (6) at over eighty years of age; may Allah have mercy on him.
• Yahya b. ʿAli b. Muḥammad b. ʿAli, Abū Muḥammad bin (7) al-Ṭarrāḥ (8) al-Mudīr (9): born in 459 (10) AH, he heard and transmitted a large body of ḥadīth. He was a venerable, dignified, and devout shaykh, handsome in appearance (11). He passed away in Ramadan of the year (12).
(1) In the printed edition (ṭ), it reads “ʿalā ḥabbāb ṣabbāgh al-ḥarīr al-rūmī.”
(2) In the printed edition (ṭ), it reads “ṣarf al-sulṭān.”
(3) In both the base manuscript (b) and the printed edition (ṭ), it reads “Kamāl al-Dīn Ṭalḥah.” The report appears in al-Muntaẓam, vol. 10, p. 102.
(4) Found only in the ʾā manuscript.
(5) His biography is in al-Muntaẓam, vol. 10, pp. 98–99, and Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 11, pp. 650–652.
(6) In the printed edition (ṭ), it reads “tūfī” (he died).
(7) The preposition min appears in the printed edition and is required for the sense.
(8) His biography is in al-Muntaẓam, vol. 10, pp. 101–102; Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 11, pp. 666–667; al-ʿIbar, vol. 4, p. 99; and Mirʾāt al-Jinān, vol. 3, p. 267.
(9) In the printed edition (ṭ), “al-mudabbir” is misspelled with a single bāʾ, an error. The Banu al-Ṭarrāḥ are well known, yet in al-Muštabiḥāt it appears with an appended yāʾ (“Bashār”). Al-Samʿānī states that he was the director of the chief judge Abū al-Qāsim al-Zaynabī (Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 11, p. 667). The mudabbir is the official responsible for keeping the records (Bashār).
(10) In both the ʾā and ṭ editions, it reads “wa-ʿishrīn,” which is entirely unfounded and unattested. The correct reading is the one in Ibn al-Jawzī’s al-Muntaẓam (vol. 10, p. 101). Al-Dhahabī notes that he was born before 460 AH, citing the supplement to Tārīkh Baghdād by Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī (Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 11, p. 667).
(11) Not present in the ʾā manuscript.
(12) In the ʾā manuscript it reads: “His death occurred in Ramadan of this year at the age of one hundred and seven years. May Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him. Amen.” I have no doubt that…