- Yaʿqūb ibn Dāwūd ibn Ṭahmān al-Fārisī *
The great vizier, known for his asceticism and humility; Abū Yaʿqūb ibn Dāwūd ibn Ṭahmān al-Fārisī, the chancery secretary.
His father served as a scribe for the governor of Khurasan, the emir Naṣr ibn Sayyār. After Zayd ibn ʿAlī was killed, his son Yaḥyā ibn Zayd rose in Khurasan, and Dāwūd secretly supported him with advice. When Yaḥyā was slain and Abū Muslim, leader of the ʿAbbāsid daʿwah, appeared, Abū Muslim sought to avenge Yaḥyā and pursued his killers. Dāwūd, placing his trust in Abū Muslim, approached him; Abū Muslim first demanded money from him, then granted him safe-conduct. Dāwūd’s children were educated in belles-lettres, and when their father died they openly espoused Zaydī doctrine, attached themselves to the descendants of al-Ḥasan, and rode away in their company.
Yaʿqūb ibn Dāwūd then journeyed through various regions. Later his brother ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd became secretary to Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who rebelled in Baṣrah. When Ibrāhīm was killed the brothers went into hiding for a time, until al-Manṣūr captured the two of them and cast them into prison. When al-Mahdī succeeded to the caliphate, he pardoned them. Sharing their cell in the underground prison (al-Muṭbiq) was Isḥāq ibn al-Faḍl al-Hāshimī, to whom they attached themselves.
Al-Mahdī continued to look for ʿĪsā ibn Zayd ibn ʿAlī and for al-Ḥasan ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan. He was told that Yaʿqūb knew their whereabouts, so Yaʿqūb was brought before him wrapped in a cloak and a cotton turban. The caliph sounded him out and found him to be among the noblest of men. He questioned him about ʿĪsā, and it was said that Yaʿqūb promised to mediate between the caliph and ʿĪsā.
Al-Mahdī therefore honored him, fixed his gaze admiringly upon him, and singled him out for favor. Yaʿqūb rose higher and higher until he was appointed vizier; the caliph entrusted the reins of government to him, and he wielded genuine power. He filled key posts with Zaydīs, to the point that Bashshār ibn Burd declaimed:
“Sons of Umayyah, awake! Your sleep has gone on too long;
The caliph, indeed, is Yaʿqūb ibn Dāwūd.”