between you and Satan with all his promptings, for he has found no surer avenue by which to corrupt your intention—nor one closer to his practiced craft (1)—than the door he has now flung open before you.
It is also related that Abū Muslim wrote to al-Manṣūr:
“To proceed: I once chose a man to be my imām and guide in what Allah has made obligatory upon His servants. He dwelt in the quarter of learning and was closely related to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Yet he treated me as an ignoramus regarding the Qur’an, twisting it from its proper places in pursuit of a trifling gain that Allah has freely granted to His creatures. He was like one who lets down a bucket in deceit. He ordered me to bare the sword, banish mercy, accept no excuse, and show no leniency for a stumble. I carried this out to strengthen your authority until Allah, through me, made you known to those who had been ignorant of you, caused your enemies to obey you, and brought you to prominence after obscurity, insignificance, and humiliation. Then Allah delivered me through repentance. If He pardons me, forgiveness has long been His hallmark; but if He punishes me, it is for what my own hands have sent ahead, and Allah is never unjust to His servants.” Al-Madāʾinī transmitted this from his teachers (2).
Al-Manṣūr then dispatched Jarīr ibn Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Bajalī—who in his day had no peer among a company of commanders—and ordered him to address Abū Muslim with all the gentle speech he could muster. Among what he was to say was that the Caliph wished to raise his rank, exalt his station, and grant him every concession; if he accepted, well and good. But if he refused, Jarīr was to add: “The Caliph disavows al-ʿAbbās if, once you split the community, he does not overtake you in person and fight you before all others. Even were you to plunge into the deepest sea, he would plunge in after you until he catches you and kills you—or dies first. Do not utter these words, however, until you have lost all hope of bringing him back by fair means.”
When al-Manṣūr’s commanders reached him at Hulwān, they went in to him, reproached him for his intent to defy the Commander of the Faithful and for the opposition in which he stood, and urged him to return to obedience. He consulted the men of counsel among his own officers, and all of them forbade him to go back to the Caliph. They advised him to stay in Rayy so that Khurāsān would remain under his rule and the troops at his command; if the Caliph dealt justly with him, so be it—if not, he would still possess power and the protection of his army.
At that, Abū Muslim sent word to al-Manṣūr’s commanders: “Return to your master; I will not meet him.” When they lost hope of persuading him, they pronounced the very words al-Manṣūr had instructed them to say. On hearing them, he was deeply shaken and said, “Leave me—this instant.”
Abū Muslim had already appointed Abū Dāwūd Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid as his deputy over Khurāsān. During Abū Muslim’s absence, when suspicions arose, al-Manṣūr wrote to Abū Dāwūd: “The governorship of Khurāsān is yours for as long as you live; I have appointed you to it and removed Abū Muslim.”
Consequently, Abū Dāwūd wrote to Abū Muslim, once news of his confrontation with the Caliph reached him: “It does not befit us to oppose the caliphs from the Prophet’s House. Return to your Imām in a spirit of hearing and obedience. Peace.” This, too, added to Abū Muslim’s distress.
He then sent back word: “I shall send Abū Isḥāq to him—a man in whom I place full trust.” He therefore dispatched Abū Isḥāq to al-Manṣūr, who received him with honor.