It is related that, one day, ʿUbayd Allah became thirsty; a woman brought him a jug of cold water, and he rewarded her with thirty thousand coins. On another occasion he was presented with a young male and female slave while he sat among his companions. He said to one of them, “Take them—they are yours.” He then reflected and declared, “By Allah, to single out some of those present for favor over others is disgraceful miserliness and contemptible baseness.” He therefore ordered a servant: “Give every one of my companions a male and a female slave.” They were counted, and they came to eighty pairs in all.

ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Bakrah died in Bust (1); others say in Zarakh. Allah—exalted and most forbearing—knows best, and all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds (2).

The year 80 AH

In this year a sweeping flood (sayl al-jihāf) (3) struck Mecca; it was so called because it swept away everything in its path. It carried off pilgrims from the valley of Mecca together with their laden camels, as well as men and women, and no one was able to rescue them. The water reached al-Ḥajūn, and many people drowned; some reported that it rose until it nearly covered the Kaʿbah itself. Allah knows best.

Ibn Jarīr (4) transmitted from al-Wāqidī that a plague visited Basra in this same year, though the more widely accepted view is that it occurred in 69 AH, as noted earlier.

Also in this year al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah crossed the River of Balkh and remained in Kash (5) for two years, steadfastly opposing the Turkish enemy; many episodes occurred there whose full account would be lengthy. During that period a letter arrived from Ibn al-Ashʿath urging him to depose al-Ḥajjāj. Al-Muhallab forwarded the letter in its entirety to al-Ḥajjāj, who read it; what followed will be detailed later in the account of Ibn al-Ashʿath’s wars.

That same year al-Ḥajjāj mustered forces from Basra, Kufa, and elsewhere to fight Rutbīl, king of the Turks, in retaliation for the men of ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Bakrah who had been killed the previous year. He assembled forty thousand troops—twenty thousand from each of the two garrison cities—and placed them all under the command of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ashʿath, even though al-Ḥajjāj detested him deeply, saying, “Whenever I see him I feel like killing him.” On one occasion Ibn al-Ashʿath entered upon al-Ḥajjāj while ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī (6) was present, whereupon he said, “Look—”