So he sent him back to Madinah, where ʿAbd al-Wāḥid took charge of him, beat him, and confiscated his property until he left him with nothing but a coarse woollen cloak, begging from the people of Madinah. He had served as deputy governor of the city for three years and some months. Al-Zuhri had once offered him sound advice: whenever a matter confused him, he should ask the scholars. He neither accepted the counsel nor acted on it; the people therefore came to detest him and the poets satirized him, and that was the end of his affair.

That same year ʿUmar ibn Hubayrah removed Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḥarashī from the governorship of Khurasan because the latter treated his directives lightly. When he dismissed him, he summoned him, punished him, seized a large amount of his wealth, and ordered him killed—then pardoned him. He appointed over Khurasan Muslim ibn Saʿīd ibn Aslam ibn Zurʿah al-Kilābī, who travelled to the province and recovered revenues that had lapsed during Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḥarashī’s tenure.

In this year al-Jarrāḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥakamī, the deputy governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan, campaigned in the land of the Turks. He captured Balanjar, routed the Turks, drowned them and their families in the water, took many captives, seized nearly all the forts adjacent to Balanjar (1), and expelled most of their inhabitants. [He and the Khagan, their king, then met in a fierce battle; it ended with the Khagan’s defeat. The Muslims pursued them and inflicted a massive slaughter—so many were killed that they cannot be numbered] (2).

The leader of the pilgrimage that year was ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Naṣrī (3), governor of the Two Sanctuaries and al-Ṭāʾif. ʿUmar ibn Hubayrah remained governor over Iraq and Khurasan, with Muslim ibn Saʿīd serving as his deputy in Khurasan.

In this same year al-Saffāḥ was born—Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, nicknamed al-Saffāḥ, the first caliph of the Abbasid dynasty. A group of people in Iraq had already pledged allegiance to his father in secret.

[Among the notable deaths this year was] Khālid ibn Maʿdān al-Kalāʿī (4): [he transmitted reports from a number of Companions, was a distinguished Successor, and was among…]