The plague in Fars and three comets

In 299 word came from Fars of a plague in which seven thousand died; three comets appeared in Ramadan and Dhu'l-Qa'da — in Leo, in the east, and in Scorpio — staying some days before fading. That year al-Muqtadir's wrath fell on 'Ali b. al-Furat: imprisoned, everything of his, his family's and his associates' seized, their houses looted; and four loads of money arrived from Egypt with a tale of an ancient hoard containing a human rib fourteen spans long, said to be of the people of 'Ad ¹.