পৃষ্ঠা 88: প্রথম অধ্যায়: দূরবর্তী আলামতসমূহ যা ইতিমধ্যে প্রকাশ পেয়ে অতিক্রান্ত হয়েছে

Mention of the extreme famine that occurred in Egypt and the people eating carrion.

Mention of the time when the Qarmatians emerged in Kufa.

Mention of the Zanj entering Basra and its devastation.

During the days of al-Mu'tamid, in the year two hundred and sixty-six (266 AH), the Zanj entered Basra and its surrounding territories, laying waste to them, putting people to the sword, and taking captives. They were of the Khawarij whom the Commander of the Faithful 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) had fought and killed. That was immediately followed by a devastating plague, resulting in the death of countless souls. Following that were cataclysmic rumbles and earthquakes, wherein thousands of people died beneath the rubble, and the war against the Zanj continued until the year two hundred and seventy (270 AH).

Al-Suli said: 'Verily, one million five hundred thousand human beings from among the Muslims were killed, and three hundred thousand were slain in Basra in a single day. He possessed a pulpit in his town upon which he would ascend and revile 'Uthman, 'Ali, Mu'awiyah, Talhah, al-Zubayr, and 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with them). An 'Alawi woman would be auctioned off in his army for merely two or three dirhams, and a single man among them would possess ten 'Alawi women, utilizing them for service and taking them as concubines. This accursed leader of the Zanj was killed in the year seventy; his name was Bihbud. He used to claim that he had been sent as a messenger to creation but had rejected the message, and that he was privy to the unseen. In his time, an extreme inflation and famine struck the Hijaz and Iraq, such that a kurr of wheat in Baghdad reached one hundred and fifty dinars. A kurr equals six donkey or mule loads, or twelve wasqs.'

During his days, a breach occurred in the River 'Isa, and the waters surged into al-Karkh, demolishing seven thousand homes.

In his time, the Qarmatians emerged in Kufa. They were a sect of heretics (Mulhidun), of the Batiniyyah, who claimed that there is no obligatory bath (ghusl) from major ritual impurity (janabah), that wine is lawful, that fasting is only two days in the entire year, and they added to their call to prayer (adhan): 'Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah is the Messenger of Allah.' They also claimed that Hajj and the Qiblah are toward Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), alongside other abominations.

In the year five hundred and ninety-six (596 AH), an extreme famine struck Egypt to such an extent that people ate carrion and human flesh. The eating of human beings became widespread and notorious, and they escalated to digging up graves and eating the dead. Deaths from starvation multiplied greatly, such that a pedestrian would neither place his foot nor cast his gaze except upon a corpse or someone on the verge of death.