their king Constantine, and they installed his mother as ruler. (1)

In 183 AH the Khazars erupted in revolt. The daughter of their king had been wedded to al-Faḍl al-Barmakī, but she died in Bardhaʿa; it was said that she had been secretly murdered. (2) Enraged, the Khagan emerged from the Gate of Gates, struck at the Muslim lands, and carried off more than one hundred thousand captives—an ordeal for Islam the like of which had never been heard. Harun’s armies then advanced, drove back the Khazars, and sealed the Armenian Gate at Darband.

In 185 AH Ahmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Zayd ibn ʿAlī, an Alid, appeared in ʿAbadan and the region of Basra, received the oath of allegiance, but soon proved powerless, fled, and remained in hiding for more than sixty years.

About the same time Abu al-Khaṣīb rebelled in Khurasan and gained a firm foothold. ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn Māhān marched out to fight him; they met at Nasā, Abu al-Khaṣīb was killed, and his forces were scattered. (3)

In 186 AH al-Rashid performed the Hajj with his two sons, al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn, and lavished wealth upon the inhabitants of the Two Sanctuaries.

In 187 AH al-Rashid executed Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī and imprisoned his father and kinsmen, even though they had reached a rank beyond which there was none higher. (4)

That same year the truce with the Byzantines collapsed; they placed Nicephorus on the throne, and it is said that he was a descendant of Jafnah.