“By Allah, Commander of the Faithful, I approached in trepidation; but when I saw how lightly you regarded them and how boldly you advanced against them, my heart grew firm and tranquil. I never imagined anyone could conduct himself so in battle; that, Commander of the Faithful, is what emboldened me.”

Al-Manṣūr thereupon ordered that ten thousand be bestowed upon him, expressed his approval of him, and appointed him governor of Yemen. Maʿn ibn Zāʾidah had previously been in hiding, for he had fought the black-clad Abbasids (al-musawwidah) alongside Ibn Hubayrah and had not shown himself until that very day. When the caliph witnessed the sincerity of his fighting, he was pleased with him.

It is also related that al-Manṣūr said of himself: “I erred in three matters: I slew Abū Muslim while accompanied by only a small company; I departed from Syria—had two swords clashed in Iraq, the caliphate would have been lost; and on the day of the Rāwandiyyah, had a sahm ghrab (stray arrow) struck me, I would have perished to no purpose.” This admission bespeaks his prudence and stern resolve.

In that same year al-Manṣūr invested his son Muḥammad with the succession, gave him the honorific al-Mahdī, placed Khurasan under his authority, and dismissed ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān from the province because he had killed a number of the caliph’s partisans. Al-Manṣūr consulted Abū Ayyūb, the secretary of correspondence, about him. Abū Ayyūb said, “Commander of the Faithful, write to him and order him to dispatch a large army from Khurasan to wage jihad against the Byzantines. Once they have marched out, you may send whomever you wish to remove him from Khurasan in humiliation.”

Al-Manṣūr wrote to that effect. ʿAbd al-Jabbār replied: “The Turks have ravaged Khurasan; if an army leaves it, the province will be endangered and its affairs will be thrown into disorder.”

Al-Manṣūr then asked Abū Ayyūb, “What do you think?” He answered, “Write to him: ‘Khurasan is more entitled than any other land to reinforce the Muslim frontier zones, and I have already prepared troops to send to you.’”

Al-Manṣūr wrote again, and ʿAbd al-Jabbār responded: “Khurasan’s provisions are meagre this year; if an army enters it, it will ruin them.”

The caliph said to Abū Ayyūb, “What is your view now?” He replied, “Commander of the Faithful, the man has laid bare his defiance and revolted; do not bargain with him.”

Thereupon al-Manṣūr dispatched his son Muḥammad al-Mahdī to take up residence in Rayy. Al-Mahdī sent ahead Khāzim ibn Khuzaymah as a vanguard against ʿAbd al-Jabbār. Khāzim kept deceiving him and those with him until his followers fled; they seized ʿAbd al-Jabbār himself, set him on a camel facing its tail, and paraded him thus through the provinces until they brought him before al-Manṣūr, together with his son and a number of his kinsfolk. Al-Manṣūr ordered his neck struck, and banished his son and those with him to an island on the fringe of Yemen. Later the Indians captured them, though some were subsequently ransomed.

Al-Mahdī then settled as governor of Khurasan. His father ordered him to campaign against Tabaristan and to fight the ispahbadh with the forces at his disposal, reinforcing him with an army commanded by ʿUmar ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, the man best versed in the warfare of Tabaristan. Concerning him the poet said:

So tell the caliph—should you come to him
with honest counsel, for no good comes from the suspect—
When enemies’ wars awaken you from sleep,
awaken ʿUmar for them, then lie at ease.
A youth who never sleeps upon waste ground
and who drinks no water but with blood. (1)