It was also reported that al-Manṣūr said to him, “I notice that your two sons have grown uneasy around me, yet I would very much like them close by.” He replied, “I have no knowledge of them; they have slipped from my control.”

It was further alleged that the two brothers resolved to assassinate al-Manṣūr in Mecca and that a senior commander colluded with them. Al-Manṣūr uncovered the plot, fortified himself, and the commander fled. He then deceived Ziyād, placed him under arrest, appointed Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Qaṣrī governor of Medina, and advanced him more than one hundred thousand dinars to assist him. When he proved incapable, al-Manṣūr removed him and installed Riyāḥ ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ḥayyān al-Murrī in his stead, and al-Qaṣrī was tortured.

Riyāḥ was informed that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh was hiding in the Radwā ravine, in the region of Yanbuʿ. He dispatched ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Juhanī against him, who raided the place by night. Muḥammad fled, carrying a small son, but the child slipped from his mother’s arms down the mountainside and was torn to pieces.

Over this his father lamented:
“His cloak in tatters, wracked with pain,
Sharp shards of flint rip through again.
Fear drove him wandering, laid him low—
So fares the man who shuns war’s glow.
Death would have brought him rest at last;
Death is a fate all slaves must pass.”

Riyāḥ then kept pursuing the descendants of Ḥasan and arrested them. He seized Ḥasan and Ibrāhīm, the two sons of Ḥasan—Muḥammad’s uncles—together with Ḥasan ibn Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan; Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan and his brother ʿAbd Allāh; Muḥammad, Ismāʿīl, and Isḥāq, the sons of the aforementioned Ibrāhīm; and ʿAbbās ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan with his brother ʿAlī the Devout. He put them all in irons.

From the pulpit Riyāḥ reviled the two sons of Ḥasan. The congregation exclaimed, “Glory be to Allāh!” and were outraged by his words. Riyāḥ retorted, “May Allāh smear humiliation on your faces! I shall certainly write to your caliph exposing your treachery.” They retorted, “We will not listen to you, son of the flogged woman!” (1)

They rushed at him, hurling gravel. He climbed down, burst into Marwān’s house, and barred the door behind him. The people surrounded the building, stoned him, and heaped insults upon him. Then they drew back and took the family of Ḥasan away in chains.