Yūsuf ibn Yazīd al-Qarāṭīsī said: When al-Maʾmūn came to Egypt, there were people there lodging complaints against his two governors, Ibrāhīm ibn Tamīm and Aḥmad ibn Asbāṭ.
The vizier al-Faḍl ibn Marwān took his seat in the congregational mosque; the notables gathered, and al-Ḥārith ibn Miskīn was brought in so that he might be appointed to the judiciary. While al-Faḍl was speaking with him, one of the complainants said to the vizier, “Ask him—may Allah set you right—about Ibn Tamīm and Ibn Asbāṭ.”
Al-Faḍl replied, “That is not why he has been summoned.”
The man repeated, “May Allah set you right—ask him.”
So al-Faḍl said to al-Ḥārith, “What is your opinion of those two?”
He answered, “They are oppressive, high-handed wrongdoers.”
The mosque stirred in turmoil. Al-Faḍl rose, informed al-Maʾmūn, and said, “I feared for my own safety because of the people’s uprising with al-Ḥārith.”
Al-Maʾmūn sent for al-Ḥārith and asked, “What do you say about these two?”
He replied, “Oppressive, high-handed wrongdoers.”
Al-Maʾmūn asked, “Have they wronged you in anything?”
“No.”
“Have you ever dealt with them?”
“No.”
“Then how can you bear witness against them?”
He said, “Just as I have borne witness that you are the Commander of the Faithful, even though I have only set eyes on you this very hour.”
Al-Maʾmūn said, “Leave this land and sell both your little and your much.”
He confined him in a tent, then proceeded to al-Bashrūd ⦗1⦘, taking him along. When al-Bashrūd was captured, he summoned al-Ḥārith and asked him the same question he had posed to him in Egypt; al-Ḥārith gave exactly the same answer.
Al-Maʾmūn then said, “What is your verdict on our military expedition?”
Al-Ḥārith replied, “I was informed by Ibn al-Qāsim, from Mālik, that al-Rashīd wrote to ask him about fighting them, and he replied: ‘If they have revolted because of injustice committed by the ruler, it is unlawful to fight them; but if they have merely ruptured the unity of the community, then fighting them is permissible.’”
Al-Maʾmūn retorted, “You are a goat, and Mālik is an even bigger goat than you. Leave Egypt.”
Al-Ḥārith said, “O Commander of the Faithful, to the frontier zones?”
He replied, “No—to the City of Peace.”
Dāʾūd ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥarrānī narrated from his father, who said: When he was brought