Then news reached him that unsettled him: al-ʿAbbās, son of al-Maʾmūn, had risen against him, and he succeeded in capturing al-ʿAbbās.

Al-ʿAbbās was extraordinarily handsome but dull-witted. In his father’s lifetime he had campaigned against the Byzantines and governed al-Jazīrah, but while he was absent the caliphate slipped from his grasp. Later ʿUjayf roused him and urged him to rebel, a number of commanders sided with him, and when al-Muʿtaṣim learned of it he arrested al-ʿAbbās.

It is said that he was smothered with a cloak until he died at Manbij (1).

Another report states that Yaḥyā b. Aktham once gazed at him, whereupon al-Maʾmūn smiled. Yaḥyā then cited a hadith concerning the permissibility of looking at a handsome face, but al-Maʾmūn said, “Fear Allah; that hadith is a fabrication.”

When Afshīn’s standing grew after he had wiped out Bābak, he asked to be made deputy over Khurasan. He then heard of Māzyār’s uprising and his war against Ibn Ṭāhir. Afshīn secretly sent an agent to win Māzyār over and stiffen his resolve. Māzyār ravaged the land, killing and oppressing its people.

Accordingly, in 224 AH al-Muʿtaṣim equipped Afshīn to fight him, while Ibn Ṭāhir also dispatched an army under his uncle for the same purpose. Lengthy battles ensued, and Māzyār was killed (2).

In 225 AH al-Muʿtaṣim arrested Afshīn. Afshīn was an enemy of both Ibn Ṭāhir and Ibn Abī Dāwūd; the two undermined him and planted in the Caliph’s mind the idea that Afshīn meant to kill him. Al-Muʿtaṣim threatened Afshīn’s secretary, who confessed, saying:

“He ordered me to write to Māzyār: ‘None remain but you and me. The Caliph’s army is with Ibn Ṭāhir, and apart from me he has no one. If you defeat Ibn Ṭāhir, I will rid you of al-Muʿtaṣim, and the White Religion will remain exclusively ours’—meaning:”