Another narrator relates: Sulaymān ibn Kathīr, Mālik ibn al-Haytham, Lāhiz, and Qaḥṭabah ibn Shabīb set out from Khurāsān to perform the pilgrimage in the year 124 AH. When they reached Kūfa they visited ʿĀṣim ibn Yūnus al-ʿIjlī, who was then in prison, and he was the first to summon them to support the descendants of al-ʿAbbās. Sharing the cell with him were ʿĪsā ibn Maʿqil al-ʿIjlī and his brother, whom ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar, the governor of Iraq, had jailed together with a number of Khalid al-Qasrī’s former officials—so runs this version of the report.

The narrator continues: Abu Muslim was in attendance upon the two brothers, and they detected promising signs in him. They asked, “Where did this young man come from?” The answer was, “He is a boy of ours, one of the saddlers.”

Whenever Abu Muslim heard ʿĪsā and Idrīs discussing this cause, he would weep. Observing this, they invited him to join them—that is, to champion the Prophet’s Household, peace and blessings be upon him—and he accepted.

Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Razquwayh said: Muẓaffar ibn Yaḥyā informed us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Marthadī narrated to us; Abū Isḥāq al-Ṭalḥī narrated to us; and Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn Fahm, a descendant of Abu Muslim the leader of the daʿwa, told me:

“The given name of Abu Muslim was Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān ibn Yasār, a descendant of Buzurjmihr. His teknonym was Abū Isḥāq. He was born in Iṣfahān and reared in Kūfa. His father had appointed ʿĪsā al-Sarrāj as his guardian, so ʿĪsā brought him to Kūfa when he was seven years old. When Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī resolved to dispatch him to Khurāsān, he said, ‘Change your name, for our enterprise will not come to fruition until you do so, as I have found recorded in the books.’

“I replied, ‘I have renamed myself ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muslim.’

“After that I assumed the teknonym Abu Muslim and set out on my mission, wearing a small forelock and riding a donkey. He said to me, ‘Take some money for your expenses.’

“Then ʿĪsā al-Sarrāj died, and Abu Muslim proceeded with his task; he was nineteen years old at the time.

“Ibrāhīm the Imām married him to the daughter of Abū al-Najm ʿImrān al-Ṭāʾī, who was in Khurāsān, and he consummated the marriage with her.”

Ibn Durayd said: Abū Ḥātim narrated to us, from Abū ʿUbayda, who said: “A man from …”