that there was in the prison a number of commanders who had been deputies of Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qaṣrī. Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar had confined them, and among them was ʿĪsā ibn Maʿqal al-ʿIjlī. The missionaries met them in the prison and invited them to pledge allegiance to the Abbasid family; finding them already strongly disposed to the idea, they accepted. In the same prison they also found Abū Muslim al-Khurasānī. At that time he was a youth serving ʿĪsā ibn Maʿqal al-ʿIjlī and was likewise incarcerated. His gallantry, physical strength, and readiness—together with his master—to embrace the cause impressed them. Bakr ibn Māhān therefore purchased him for four hundred dirhams, took him out with them, and entrusted him with this mission. Whenever they dispatched him anywhere he went, and the task they assigned to him unfailingly succeeded. What befell him thereafter we shall relate, if Allah Most High wills, in due course.

Al-Wāqidī said:

In this year Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās died; he was the one for whom the Abbasid missionaries were calling people. His son Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ then took his place. The sounder opinion, however, is that he actually passed away in the following year.

Al-Wāqidī and Abū Maʿshar also said:

That year the pilgrimage was led by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, accompanied by his wife Umm Salamah bint Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.

It is also said that the one who led the pilgrims was Muḥammad ibn Hishām ibn Ismāʿīl; this was the view of al-Wāqidī, while the first opinion was reported by Ibn Jarīr (1). Allah knows best.

Muḥammad ibn Hishām ibn Ismāʿīl, then governor of the Ḥijaz, used to stand at the door of Umm Salamah, presenting her with gifts and tokens of courtesy and apologizing for any shortcoming, yet she paid him no attention. The governors of the other provinces were the same as those mentioned in the previous year.

Among those who died this year were:

al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza (2)
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Makkī, the Qur’an reciter, a freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Sāʾib and a distinguished Successor. He narrated from Abū al-Tufayl ʿĀmir ibn Wāthila; many scholars transmitted from him, and the leading imams declared him reliable. The soundest view is that he died in this year, though it is said that he passed away a year later, or in year fourteen, or in year fifteen—Allah knows best.

al-Zuhri (3)
Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shihāb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Zuhrah ibn