Among those who died that year were: Hajjaj al-Sawwaf; Humayd ibn Zadawayh al-Tawil; Sulayman ibn Tarkhan al-Tamimi—already mentioned under the previous year; ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd, according to one report; Layth ibn Abi Sulaym, according to the sounder view; and Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Ansari.

[Then came the year 144 AH]

That year Muhammad ibn Abi al-ʿAbbas al-Saffah, acting on the order of his uncle al-Mansur, marched against the territory of Daylam, accompanied by forces from Kufah, Basrah, Wasit, Mosul, and the Jazirah.

In the same year Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Mansur—later known as al-Mahdi—returned to his father from Khurasan and entered al-Hirah with his cousin Raʾitah bint al-Saffah as his bride.

That year Abū Jaʿfar al-Mansur himself led the Hajj. He appointed Khazim ibn Khuzaymah as his deputy over al-Hirah and the army, placed Rabah ibn ʿUthman al-Murri in charge of Madinah, and dismissed Muhammad ibn Khalid al-Qasri from that post. The people went out to greet Abū Jaʿfar al-Mansur along the road to Mecca during his pilgrimage in 144 AH; among those who welcomed him was ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan ibn ʿAli ibn Abi Talib. Al-Mansur seated him beside him on the ceremonial carpet and spoke with him so intently that he neglected most of his luncheon.

He asked him about his two sons, Ibrahim and Muhammad: “Why did they not come to me with the others?” ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan swore that he did not know where in Allah’s earth they might be—and he was speaking truthfully. The background is that Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan had received the pledge of allegiance from a number of people in the Hijaz, near the end of Marwan al-Himar’s reign, to assume the caliphate and depose Marwan. Among those who pledged him at that time was Abū Jaʿfar al-Mansur himself, before authority passed to the Abbasids. When the caliphate devolved upon Abū Jaʿfar al-Mansur, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan and his brother Ibrahim became exceedingly fearful of him, for al-Mansur suspected that they would rise against him just as they had intended to rise against Marwan—and what al-Mansur feared indeed came to pass. They slipped away into distant lands, first to Yemen, then to India, where they went into hiding. Al-Hasan ibn Zayd pointed out their whereabouts, so they fled elsewhere; again al-Hasan ibn Zayd tracked them down and revealed their location, setting himself up as their relentless accuser before al-Mansur—astonishing behavior from someone counted among their own followers! Al-Mansur spared no effort