The Massacre of the Hajj Caravan by Fulayta ibn al-Qarri

In 403 AH a Bedouin named Fulayta ibn al-Qura, of his tribe Banu Khafaja, attacked the pilgrim caravan with 600 men ¹.

He broke open the wells and threw colocynth into the reservoirs of al-Barmaki and al-Rayyan and their valleys. When the caravan reached the pass he held it back and would not let it cross unless paid 50,000 dinars. The pilgrims grew afraid, weak and thirsty, and he attacked them. They had no means of resisting, and they surrendered ¹.

He took the camels with their loads and drove them off, and the caravan died of thirst. It is said that 15,000 people perished. Fakhr al-Dawla sent the vizier Ali ibn Mazyad, who caught up with them near Basra. He defeated them, killed many, and captured the father of Fulayta and fourteen men. The captives were left to die of thirst on the bank of the Tigris, in sight of the water but without being given any ¹.