The Shawwal Earthquake of 450

On the eighteenth of Shawwal 450 AH, between sunset and the night prayer, a great earthquake struck Baghdad and lasted a long hour. People were seized by great fear, many houses collapsed, and reports arrived that it had reached Hamadhan, Wasit, 'Ana and Tikrit. ²

Ibn al-Jawzi notes among the signs of its force that millstones which were turning came to a halt. This earthquake came one month before the caliph al-Qa'im was driven out of his house, when al-Basasiri closed in on Baghdad; the tremor was a warning of the political upheaval that followed. In the same year, on Tuesday, the sixteenth of Muharram, hailstones of great size fell; much of the grain was destroyed, one hailstone was weighed at thirty-three dirhams, and the Tigris rose fifteen cubits. ¹