Hishām seated him at his very side and disbursed to him 130,000 (1). ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh then kept urging the caliph to treat his two sons well, adding, “Both of them will one day hold authority.” Hishām marveled at the man’s certainty and put it down to folly—yet events unfolded exactly as he had foretold.

They relate that ʿAlī was strikingly handsome and perfectly proportioned; when he stood among the people it was as though he were mounted. His height reached his father ʿAbd Allāh’s shoulder; ʿAbd Allāh reached the shoulder of his father al-ʿAbbās; and al-ʿAbbās reached the shoulder of his father ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. Many people had already pledged allegiance to ʿAlī’s son Muḥammad for the caliphate several years before ʿAlī’s death, but his cause did not come into the open until his father passed away. The matter was then taken up by another of his sons, ʿAbd Allāh Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ, whose public emergence came in the year 132 AH, as will be mentioned, Allah willing.

Among those who died this year were: ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb; ʿUbādah ibn Nusayy; Abū Ṣakhrah Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād; and Abū ʿAyyāsh al-Maʿāfirī.

[Then the year 119 AH began.] In it al-Walīd ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ al-ʿAbsī raided Byzantine territory, and in the same year Asad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī killed the greatest king of the Turks, Khāqān. The reason was that Asad, governor of Khurāsān, had been acting as deputy over Iraq for his brother Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh. He marched with his forces to the city of Khuttal (2), captured it, and his troops spread through the land, killing, capturing, and seizing booty. Scouts informed the Turkish king Khāqān that Asad’s army had dispersed throughout Khuttal, so Khāqān seized the opportunity, mounted at once with his troops, and set out against Asad. He and his men packed abundant weapons, dried meat, and salt, and advanced with a vast host.

A reliable scout reached Asad and told him that Khāqān was coming against him with a mighty, dense army. Asad prepared himself, gathered his equipment, and immediately sent word to the outlying detachments of his forces, pulling them together. Some people then spread the rumor that Khāqān had already fallen upon Asad ibn ʿAbd Allāh and slain him and his men, hoping thereby to demoralize his troops so that they would not rally to him.