In this year, Yaʿqūb b. Layth arrived with a large military force. He entered the city of Wāsiṭ by force. The caliph al-Muʿtamid himself set out from Sāmarrāʾ to fight him. While he was at a place between Baghdad and Wāsiṭ, his brother Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaq came to his aid. Under Abū Aḥmad's command was a great army. The commander of the right wing of this army was Mūsā, son of the great Bugha, and the commander of the left wing was Masrūr al-Balakhī. The two sides fought for days in the month of Rajab of this year. A great battle took place between them. Then Yaʿqūb and his men were defeated. This defeat occurred during the Christians' festival of Shaʿnayn (Palm Sunday). Many men were killed in this battle. Abū Aḥmad took as spoils from the possessions of Yaʿqūb b. Layth a large amount of gold, silver, musk, and riding animals. It is reported that the caliph and his army saw banners in the army of Yaʿqūb b. Layth that bore two crosses.
After this, al-Muʿtamid returned to al-Madāʾin. He reinstated Muḥammad b. Ṭāhir as governor of Baghdad and ordered that 500,000 dirhams be given to him.
In this year, Yaʿqūb b. Layth invaded the land of Fars, and Ibn Wāṣil, who was the governor there, fled.
In this year, many battles took place between the leader of the Zanj and the caliphal army.
In this year, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Abīʾl-Shawārib was appointed to the office of judge (qāḍī).
The judgeship of both banks of Baghdad was given to Qāḍī Ismāʿīl b. Isḥāq.
In this year, Faḍl b. Isḥāq al-ʿAbbāsī led the people in the ḥajj.
Ibn Jarīr said: In this year, a fight broke out in Mecca between the tailors and the bead sellers. The two sides clashed on the day of Tarwiya or the day before it, and about seventeen people were killed. The people feared that, because of this fight, they would not be able to perform the ḥajj. Then the two sides agreed to suspend the fight until after the ḥajj, to resume it afterwards.
In this year, among the notable figures, Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAlī b. Yaʿqūb b. Manṣūr (in the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir), ʿUmar b. Shabba al-Numayrī, Muḥammad b. ʿĀṣim, and Yaʿqūb b. Shayba, the owner of the famous Musnad filled with well-known hadiths, passed away. Allah knows best the truth.