as al-Mansur sat in his curtained litter. ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan called out to him, “By Allah, Abu Jaʿfar, this is not how we treated your captives on the Day of Badr!” The remark silenced al-Mansur, weighed heavily upon him, and made him turn away from them in anger.
When the prisoners reached Iraq they were locked up in al-Hashimiyyah. Among them was Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan, an exceptionally handsome youth; people would come merely to gaze at his beauty, and he was nicknamed “the Golden Brocade” (al-dibāj al-aṣfar). Al-Mansur had him brought before him and said, “I shall kill you in a manner in which I have killed no one else.” He then thrust him between two pillars, walled him in, and left him there until he died. Upon al-Mansur be whatever punishment and curse from Allah he deserves.
Many of the family perished in that prison, until relief came to the survivors after al-Mansur’s own death, as we shall relate. Among those who died was ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan ibn ʿAli ibn Abi Talib. It is more likely, however, that he was executed outright, as were his brother Ibrahim ibn al-Hasan and others; only a few ever emerged alive. Al-Mansur had placed them in a dungeon where no call to prayer could be heard and where they could determine the times of worship only by reciting the Quran.
The people of Khurasan later interceded for Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-ʿUthmani. Al-Mansur ordered him beheaded, sent his severed head to Khurasan—may Allah grant him no good for it—and may Allah have mercy on Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-ʿUthmani,
who was Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan the Umayyad (1) (may Allah have mercy on him), Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Madani, known as al-Dibāj because of the beauty of his face. His mother was Fatimah bint al-Husayn ibn ʿAli. He transmitted hadith from his father and mother, from Kharijah ibn Zayd, Tawus, Abu al-Zinad, al-Zuhri, Nafiʿ, and others. A number of scholars narrated from him, and al-Nasaʾi and Ibn Hibban declared him reliable. He was the maternal half-brother of ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan. His daughter Ruqayyah, famed for her beauty, was married to his nephew Ibrahim ibn ʿAbd Allah, and it was on her account that Abu Jaʿfar al-Mansur killed him this very year. He was generous, noble, and widely praised.
Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said:
Sulayman ibn ʿAbbas al-Saʿdi recited to me, quoting Abu Wajzah al-Saʿdi in praise of him:
We found the purest, whitest scion of Quraysh—
a youth standing between the Caliph and the Messenger;
Greatness reached you from this side and that, (2)
and you stood for it amid the swirling torrents.
For glory there is no night-lodging apart from you,
no midday shade save under your care;
It will not pass you by in search of another,
nor will it accept from you any substitute. (3)