The magnitude is unknown, but the death toll was reported to be very large.

[3][4][5] At about midnight on 28 December 893, the night after a lunar eclipse, Dvin, then the capital of Armenia, was devastated by an earthquake.

[5] This event was recorded by contemporary Armenian and Arabic chroniclers, including Ibn al-Jawzi.

However, the Arabic name for the city is Dabil, and this led the 14th-century writer Ibn Kathir to place the earthquake in Ardabil in Azerbaijan.

Further writers also placed the earthquake in Ardabil, and added some details, such as waters drying up, while changing others, such as making the eclipse preceding the earthquake solar instead of lunar.