Wajīh ibn Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, Abū Bakr al-Shaḥḥāmī (1), the brother of Zāhir, had heard a great many hadiths and possessed sound knowledge of them. He was an elderly man of pleasant countenance, quick to tears, frequent in remembrance of Allah, accurate (2) in transmission, and truthful in speech (3). He died in Baghdad in this very year—may Allah have mercy on him and be well pleased with him. Āmīn. (4)

Then the year 542 AH began, and in it:
• The Franks seized several fortresses in al-Andalus.
• Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd (5) ibn Zankī captured a number of strongholds from (6) the Franks along the coasts and elsewhere (7).
• During the Friday sermon al-Mustanjid Billah was proclaimed heir-apparent after his father al-Muqtafi.
• ʿAwn al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Hubayrah was appointed to direct the Dīwān al-Zimām, and Zaʿīm al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Jaʿfar was made ṣadr of the flourishing treasury.
• A severe famine struck Ifrīqiyah; most of the population perished, houses stood empty, and fortresses were deserted.
• Sayf al-Dīn Ghāzī married the daughter of the ruler of Mardin, Ḥusām al-Dīn Tamurtāsh ibn Artuq, after besieging him and concluding peace on that condition. Two years later she was brought to him in Mosul while he was gravely ill and near death, so he never consummated the marriage. After him (8) his brother Quṭb al-Dīn Mawdūd (9) took charge of Mosul and married her.

Ibn al-Jawzī (10) relates: “In the month of Ṣafar a man saw in a dream someone saying (11), ‘Whoever visits the grave of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal will be forgiven.’ (12) Consequently, no one—high or low—failed to visit it.”