“His days of warfare and his days of generosity were so alike
that no one could tell which of the two deserved the higher praise.” (1)

The Caliph therefore ordered that Marwān receive one hundred and thirty thousand.

It is also said that he once told Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī, “If you can move me, name your reward.” Ibrāhīm sang, delighted him, and the Caliph gave him seven hundred thousand dirhams.

He used to drink intoxicants; in him were oppression as well as gallantry and high-spirited playfulness. At times he would mount a sleek donkey. He was brave, articulate, eloquent, cultured, imposing, and possessed of tremendous power.

Ibn Ḥazm said: “The cause of his death was that he pushed a drinking companion of his over a ledge onto the stumps of reeds that had been cut. The companion clung to him, they fell together, and a reed pierced his backside; that was what killed him, and they both perished.”

I say: He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of the year 170 AH, at the age of twenty-three. His caliphate lasted one year and one month, after which al-Rashīd assumed the throne.

Al-Mahdī had resolved to place al-Rashīd first in the line of succession and to defer al-Hādī, (2) but when the decree reached al-Hādī he refused. He was summoned, yet he did not come, so al-Mahdī prepared to set out for Jurjān.