he informed them of the killing, they were struck with alarm, yet outwardly they displayed extravagant delight. Al-Manṣūr then addressed the people on the matter, as has been related above.

Next al-Manṣūr wrote to the agent charged with Abū Muslim’s estates and stored wealth, sending a letter couched in Abū Muslim’s own words and commanding him to bring everything he held of treasuries, monies, valuables, and jewels. The letter was sealed with Abū Muslim’s complete signet, every facet of it impressed in the wax. When the treasurer saw this he became suspicious, for Abū Muslim had already instructed him: “If a letter reaches you sealed with half the signet, carry out its contents, for I always seal my correspondence with half the seal. But should a letter come bearing the full impression, do not accept it and do not act upon what it contains.” Accordingly the treasurer refused to comply with the demand al-Manṣūr had sent. Al-Manṣūr then dispatched men who seized the whole of the treasure and put that treasurer to death.

Al-Manṣūr also wrote to Abū Dāwūd Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid, appointing him governor of Khurāsān in place of Abū Muslim, as he had formerly promised.

In this same year Sunbādh rose to avenge Abū Muslim’s blood. Sunbādh, a Magian, had taken control of Qūmis (1) and Isfahan and was also known as Fayrūz Isbahbadh. Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr sent against him an army of 10,000 cavalry under Jahwar ibn Marrār al-ʿIjlī. They met in the open country between Hamadhān and Rayy, where Jahwar routed Sunbādh, slew 60,000 of his followers, captured their children and women, and afterwards killed Sunbādh himself. His revolt lasted seventy days. Jahwar then seized what Sunbādh had appropriated of Abū Muslim’s wealth that was in Rayy (2).

That same year a man called Mulabbid ibn Ḥarmalah al-Shaybānī appeared in al-Jazīrah with 1,000 Khārijites. Al-Manṣūr dispatched several large armies against him, but each one recoiled and was broken. Humayd ibn Qaḥṭabah, the governor of al-Jazīrah, then engaged him; Mulabbid defeated him, forcing Humayd to take refuge in a fortress. Humayd therefore made peace with Mulabbid for one hundred thousand, paid the sum, and Mulabbid accepted it and withdrew (3).

That year the pilgrimage was led by the caliph’s uncle, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās.

Al-Wāqidī said: He—the caliph’s uncle—was governor of Mosul; the governorship of Kūfa belonged to ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā, of Basra to Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī, of al-Jazīrah to Humayd ibn Qaḥṭabah, of Egypt to Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī, of Khurāsān to Abū Dāwūd Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid, and of the Ḥijāz to Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh. No summer expedition (ṣāʾifa) was mounted that year, the caliph being fully preoccupied with Sunbādh and other matters.