Among the noted figures who died in that year were:
Abū Muslim al-Khurāsānī, as mentioned above; and Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, one of those whose reliability has been questioned, as we recorded in al-Takmīl. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.
[Then the year 138 AH began.]
That year Constantine, the emperor of the Byzantines, stormed Malatya by force, tore down its wall, and granted amnesty to whatever fighting men of the city fell into his hands.
During the summer campaign (ṣāʾifa) of that same year, Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī, the governor of Egypt, marched out; he rebuilt the sections of Malatya’s wall that the Byzantine ruler had demolished, and he presented his brother ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī with forty thousand dinars, granting the same amount to his nephew al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī.
In that year ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī—who had been broken by Abū Muslim, had fled to Basra, and had sought refuge with his brother Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī—pledged allegiance to the caliph, returned to obedience, yet was nevertheless confined in the prison of Baghdad, as will be related.
That year Jahwar ibn Marrār al-ʿIjlī renounced allegiance to the caliph al-Manṣūr. After defeating Sunbādh and seizing his stores together with Abū Muslim’s wealth, his confidence swelled and he imagined that those riches would enable him to challenge the caliphate. Al-Manṣūr therefore dispatched Muḥammad ibn al-Ashʿath al-Khuzāʿī at the head of a large army. A fierce battle ensued: Jahwar was routed, most of his followers were slain, and the money, chests, and treasures he had with him were taken. He was then overtaken and put to death.
In that same year the Kharijite al-Mulabbid was killed by Khāzim ibn Khuzayma, who was leading eight thousand men. More than a thousand of al-Mulabbid’s followers were slain, and the rest scattered.
Al-Wāqidī said (1): “The pilgrimage that year was led by al-Faḍl [ibn Ṣāliḥ] ibn ʿAlī [ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās], and the provincial governors were the same as those named for the previous year.”
Among the notable people who died that year were:
Zayd ibn Wāqid;
al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; and, according to one opinion, Layth ibn Abī Sulaym.