and let no one else be put to trial on our account.

So he came out to meet him that afternoon, and the two remained in single combat until nightfall. Each man stayed mounted, resting on his lance. Nuʿmān dozed off, whereupon the Jew struck him; the spear-point lodged in Nuʿmān’s belt, which spun round with the tip still caught in it. Nuʿmān seized him and exclaimed, “Treachery, son of the Jewess!”

The other retorted, “And does a warrior fall asleep, son of a bond-woman?”

Nuʿmān threw his weight on him and they both toppled; Nuʿmān, being a large man, landed on top. He slaughtered the Jew, sent me his head, and the land settled down. After me my uncle Sulaymān took charge, but the people of Damascus plundered him and carried off his womenfolk (1).

Al-Khatīb said: Ibrahim was offered the caliphate in al-Maʾmūn’s time. He fought al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl and defeated him. Then Ḥumayd al-Ṭūsī advanced against him; Ibrahim’s forces were routed and he hid for a while, until al-Maʾmūn seized him and pardoned him (2).

About him Diʿbil said:
“Ibn Shakla rose in Iraq and all its folk,
And every rough-haired, witless wretch inclined to him.
If Ibrahim could shoulder its burden,
Then after him it will surely suit Mukhāriq.” (3)

Mukhāriq was the foremost singer of his day.

Ibn Mākūlā said: Ibrahim was born in 162 AH (4).

I say: On that reckoning he could not have encountered Mubārak ibn Faḍālah.

Al-Khuṭabī said: They pledged allegiance to him in Baghdad, and he was surnamed al-Mubārak—and some say al-Marḍī—in