When the scribes emerged (1) the drone they produced … were bows, and the pens of those bows their arrows (2).

Abū Salamah Ḥafṣ ibn Sulaymān (3) was the first to serve as vizier for the House of al-ʿAbbās. Abū Muslim killed him at al-Anbār on al-Saffāḥ’s order four months after his appointment, in the month of Rajab. He was dignified, upright, and delightful in conversation; al-Saffāḥ found comfort in his company and enjoyed his nightly talks because of the charm of his discourse. But the caliph grew suspicious that he leaned toward the House of ʿAlī, so Abū Muslim arranged for assassins to murder him treacherously, as noted earlier. When news of his death reached him, al-Saffāḥ recited:

To the Fire let him go, and all who are like him …
For what of his have we been deprived that we should grieve? (4)

He was called “the vizier of the House of Muḥammad” and was also known as al-Khallāl because he lived in the Khallālīn quarter of Kūfa. He was the first to bear the title “vizier.” Ibn Khallikān (5) reports from Ibn Qutaybah that the term wazīr is derived from wizr, meaning “burden,” as though the ruler loads him with heavy responsibilities and relies on his judgment. Al-Zajjāj, however, holds that it comes from wazar, meaning “mountain,” as though the ruler takes refuge in his counsel just as a frightened man seeks refuge in a mountain. Allah knows best.

[Then the year 133 AH began]

In it al-Saffāḥ appointed his uncle Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī over Basra and its districts, the regions along the Tigris, al-Baḥrayn, and ʿOmān, and he dispatched his uncle Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī to the provinces of al-Ahwāz.

That same year Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī killed the Umayyads who were in Mecca and Madinah. In that year as well Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī died in Madinah in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, appointing his son Mūsā to succeed him. His governorship of the Ḥijāz had lasted only three months. When news of his death reached al-Saffāḥ, he made his maternal uncle Ziyād ibn ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Dār (6) al-Hārithī governor of the Ḥijāz, placed over Yemen his other maternal cousin Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Dār, entrusted the command of Syria to his uncles ʿAbd Allah and Ṣāliḥ, the sons of ʿAlī, and confirmed Abū ʿAwn as deputy over Egypt.