In that same year Yaʿqūb al-Saffār took control of Nishapur. Its deputy, Muḥammad b. Ṭāhir b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir, rode out to render service, but al-Saffār rebuked, insulted, and imprisoned him. Al-Muʿtamid sent a message reprimanding al-Saffār and ordering him to return to his own province, yet he refused, seized the entire region, and the surrounding lands submitted to him (1).

In the year 260 al-Saffār encountered al-Ḥasan b. Zayd the Alid (2). The Alid forces were routed, and al-Saffār entered Tabaristan and Daylam. The Alid sought refuge in the mountains; al-Saffār pursued him, but many of his troops perished in the snow. Prices soared, and in Baghdad a kurr (3) of grain sold for one hundred and fifty dinars.

That year the Byzantines captured the city of Luʾluʾa (4).

In 261 AH the Daylamites sided with al-Saffār and turned against the Alid, who withdrew to Kirmān.

As for the Zanj, their battles were unceasing. Yaʿqūb al-Saffār marched to Fārs, met Ibn Wāṣil, defeated him, and carried off forty million dirhams from his fortress.

Al-Muʿtamid was wearied and perplexed by al-Saffār’s affairs. He therefore sought conciliation, sending robes of honor and appointing him governor of Khurasan and Jurjan. Al-Saffār, however, was not satisfied unless he came to Samarra, harboring evil intentions. Al-Muʿtamid consequently moved to Baghdad, while al-Saffār advanced with battalions like mountains.

It was said that they numbered seventy thousand horsemen, their baggage borne on ten thousand camels. He encamped at Wāsiṭ in the year two—