In this year:
Two young men (1) gathered in Baghdad to drink (2). One of them struck the other with a knife, killing him, and then fled. He was caught and executed, and a slip of paper was found on him containing two lines of verse that he had composed; he had ordered that it be placed (3) inside his shroud. They read—
(from the wāfir metre) (4)
I have come to the Generous One (5) with no provision,
no deed to carry with me save a sound heart;
And ill-founded is the thought that provisions (6) should be reckoned
when one’s arrival is at the Generous Lord.
Among the notable figures who passed away this year (7) was the jurist [scholar] Abū Manṣūr (8) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Nuʿmānī (9) al-Nīlī, nicknamed “Judge Shurayḥ” for his keen intelligence, virtue, outstanding ability (10), sound judgment, and impeccable character.
He first held the judgeship of his hometown (then, when he came to Baghdad, he was nominated for senior posts but refused them; Prince Tāshtekīn compelled him by oath to work for him in the chancery). He served there for twenty years. Afterwards the vizier Ibn Mahdī denounced him to the caliph (11), who imprisoned him in Tāshtekīn’s residence until he died (12) in that very year. Shortly thereafter the same slanderous vizier was himself confined there [and died in it], and this is indeed one of the strangest of occurrences (13).
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, son of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir (14).
(1) In the margin of the printed edition: “One of them is Abu al-Qasim Ahmad ibn al-Muqriʾ, head of the caliph’s chancery. He was courting the son of Prince Asbah—a handsome youth—and killed him with a knife. The caliph then handed him over to Ibn Asbah’s sons, who executed him.” al-Nujum al-Zahirah (vol. 6, p. 192).
(2) In the printed edition: ‘ala al-khamr (‘on wine’).
(3) In the printed edition: an tajʿal (‘to make’).
(4) The two verses appear in al-Nujum al-Zahirah (vol. 6, p. 193) and al-Kamil of Ibn al-Athir (vol. 9, p. 209).
(5) In al-Nujum al-Zahirah: qaddamat ‘ala al-ilah (‘she advanced before the deity’).
(6) In both the printed edition and al-Kamil: an taʿtad (‘to observe the ‘iddah’).
(7) In the printed edition: wa fīhā tuwuffiya min al-aʿyān (‘among its notables he died’).
(8) The biography of al-Nayli appears in al-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Nuqqalāʾ (vol. 2, p. 103), Dhayl al-Rawdatayn (p. 58), and Tarīkh al-Islām (vol. 13, p. 77).
(9) In the printed edition: al-Nu‘mān, a corruption for Bashar.
(10) In the printed edition: wa biru‘ātih; a scribal error.
(11) In the printed edition: al-Mahdī, which is untenable; the correct reading is Bashar.
(12) In the printed edition: māta (‘he died’).
(13) In the printed edition: “wa hādhā mimmā naḥnu fīhi min qawlīhi: kamā tudīn tudān” (“And this is part of what we have here from his statement: ‘As you judge, so you will be judged.’”).
(14) The biography of ‘Abd al-Razzāq al-Jīlānī is found in al-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Nuqqalāʾ (vol. 2, p. 116), Dhayl al-Rawdatayn (p. 58), Tarīkh al-Islām (vol. 13, p. 78), Tadhkirat al-Huffāz (p. 1385), Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalaʾ (vol. 21, p. 426), al-‘Ibar (vol. 5, p. 6), Dhayl Tabaqāt al-Hanābila (vol. 2, pp. 40–41), al-Nujum al-Zahirah (vol. 6, p. 192), and Shudhurat al-Dhahab (vol. 7, p. 18).