my son in Rayy commands thirty thousand; Muhammad ibn Ashʿath in the West forty thousand; and ʿIsa in the Hijaz six thousand. If I come out of this alive, I will never again be without thirty thousand horsemen.

Soon after, ʿIsa arrived to him, strengthened and victorious, and al-Mansur dispatched him to wage war on Ibrahim.

Salm ibn Qutaybah al-Bahili then came from Rayy and began corresponding with the people of Basra, whereupon the tribe of Bahilah joined him. Khazim ibn Khuzaymah marched toward Ahwaz, while al-Mansur remained, like a frightened camel, until fortune turned in his favor and Ibrahim was killed.

For two full months thereafter he never once lay down in a bed.

Hajjaj ibn Muslim relates: “I visited him during those days when word had just reached him of breaches in Basra, Fars, Wasit, and al-Madaʾin. He was sitting with his head lowered, reciting:

I offered myself to the spears as a living shield;
Such deeds befit a leader indeed.

This, while a hundred thousand swords lay hidden around him in Kufa, awaiting but a single shout. Yet I found him like a hawk—alert, nimble, and with sleeves rolled up for action.

The father of ʿAli ibn al-Madini said: “We went out with Ibrahim and encamped at Bakhamra (1). One night we made the rounds and Ibrahim heard the sound of tambourines and singing. He said, ‘I can place no hope in the victory of an army where this is going on.’”

Dawud ibn Jaʿfar ibn Sulayman reported that Ibrahim’s muster rolls were counted at one hundred thousand fighting men. It was also said they were only ten thousand—and that is more accurate. ʿIsa ibn Musa, for his part, had fifteen thousand.

Ibrahim was urged to storm Kufa; had he done so, al-Mansur would have been finished. He replied, “Rather…"