The dragon-wind over Baghdad, 378

In Sha'ban 378 AH a wind likened to a dragon struck Baghdad, one of the great whirlwinds of Iraq recorded in the history books. ¹

It came at the time of the afternoon prayer on a Thursday, five days before the end of Sha'ban. The Tigris receded as if bewitched, its bed laid bare and its ground showing where the wind passed over it. It demolished part of the congregational mosque, killed a number of people, and sank many large laden ships. It lifted a downstream boat carrying animals and several vessels and cast them onto the land of Jawkha, where they were seen days later. ¹

That year was one of general hardship: prices rose, food was scarce, and death appeared in Muharram. Then the people of Basra were struck by intense heat and a hot south wind, so that people collapsed in the streets and could not gather on the roads. ¹