the Barmakids; his chief judge was the Qadi Abu Yūsuf; his court poet, Marwān ibn Abī Ḥafṣa; his boon companion, al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad, the paternal uncle of his father; his chamberlain, al-Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ—the haughtiest of men; his singer, Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī; and his wife, Zubayda.

It is related that Hārūn gave Ibn ʿUyaynah one hundred thousand dirhams, and on one occasion presented Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh with six thousand dinars.

His virtues were many, yet there are also well-known reports about his fondness for amusement, pleasure, and song—may Allah pardon him.

Ibn Ḥazm said: “I believe he used to drink nabīdh over which there is a juristic dispute (1), not wine whose prohibition is unanimously agreed upon.” He added: “Later he began to do so openly and in a shameful manner.”

I remark: he performed the pilgrimage more than once; he achieved notable conquests and took part in celebrated campaigns, among them the capture of the city of Heraclea (2). He died while campaigning in Khurāsān, and his grave is in the city of Ṭūs. He lived forty-five years, and his son Ṣāliḥ led the funeral prayer for him.

He died on the third of Jumāda al-Ākhira in the year 193 AH.

Yahyā ibn Khālid served as his vizier for a period, and he treated the ʿAlawīs kindly. He performed the pilgrimage in 173 AH, removed Jaʿfar ibn al-Ashʿath from Khurāsān and appointed the latter’s son al-ʿAbbās ibn Jaʿfar in his stead, and made the pilgrimage again the following year. He invested his young son al-Amīn with the succession, an act that became the most disgraceful weakness ever to befall Islam. He satisfied the commanders with vast sums of money, and events began to stir