and even al-Amin’s treasuries were emptied; he sold off furnishings and spent the proceeds on the fighting, yet his fortunes only sank lower. The beauties of Baghdad were ruined, a number of men sought amnesty with Tahir, and the siege—with all its misery—dragged on for fifteen months (1).

The cause of the so-called Sufyani in Syria swelled alarmingly. Maslama the Umayyad then pounced on him, chained him, and seized control; but he had scarcely swallowed his spit when Ibn Bayhas al-Kilabi laid siege to them for a time, set scaling ladders against the wall, and captured Damascus. The Sufyani and Maslama fled, dressed as women, to al-Mizzah.

Al-Amin was abandoned by Khuzayma ibn Khazim and Muhammad ibn Mahan, who defected to Tahir (2).

Tahir thereupon entered Baghdad by force and cried out, “Whoever remains in his house is safe.”

They hemmed al-Amin into his palaces for several days. He resolved to make a night sortie, out of tribal pride, and did so, but they captured him while he was aboard a harraqa (3), a river barge. Tahir’s men attacked in their zawariq (4), small skiffs, clung to his barge, breached it, and it sank. Al-Amin threw himself into the water; a man seized him and brought him to Tahir, who killed him and sent his head to al-Maʾmun—surely we belong to Allah. Al-Maʾmun was not gladdened by his brother’s death (5).

Our chronicles contain marvels and poems on these events, but I am not inclined to set them down here in full.