the people of Kufah of supporting Ibrāhīm, he would send for the man and have him killed in his house at night. Al-Furāfiṣah al-ʿIjlī had intended to rise in Kufah, but could not do so because al-Manṣūr was there. Meanwhile people were converging on Basra from every direction to pledge allegiance to Ibrāhīm, arriving in groups and singly. Al-Manṣūr posted armed pickets along the roads; they would kill such travellers, bring him their heads, and he would impale them in Kufah so that the sight might admonish the people.
Al-Manṣūr also summoned Ḥarb al-Rāwandī—who was stationed in al-Jazīrah with two thousand cavalry to fight the Khārijites—to come to him in Kufah. Ḥarb set out with his force, and on the way passed through a town whose inhabitants backed Ibrāhīm. They said to him, “We will not let you pass, for al-Manṣūr has only called you to fight Ibrāhīm.” He replied, “Woe to you—let me through!” They refused, so he fought them, killed five hundred of them, and sent their heads to al-Manṣūr. Al-Manṣūr said, “This is the first victory.”
On the night of Monday, the first of Ramaḍān of that year, Ibrāhīm slipped out under cover of darkness to the cemetery of Banū Yashkur with about a dozen horsemen. That same night Abū Ḥamād al-Abrāṣ arrived with two thousand cavalry as reinforcements for Sufyān ibn Muʿāwiyah, and the governor quartered them in the palace. Ibrāhīm, his companions, and those who had rallied to him then moved against the baggage wagons and weapons of that force, seized them all, and thereby strengthened themselves; this was his first booty. By daybreak he had gained the upper hand. He led the people in the dawn prayer in the congregational mosque, and crowds gathered round him—some merely watching, others offering open support.
Sufyān ibn Muʿāwiyah, the caliphal deputy, barricaded himself in the governor’s palace and kept the troops with him; Ibrāhīm besieged them. Sufyān asked Ibrāhīm for safe-conduct, which he granted, and Ibrāhīm entered the palace. A rush-mat was spread for him at the front of the audience chamber, but a gust of wind turned it upside down, and the people regarded this as a bad omen. Ibrāhīm said, “We do not take bad omens,” and sat upon the upturned mat. He ordered Sufyān ibn Muʿāwiyah to be held in irons, seeking thereby to clear himself before al-Manṣūr, and took possession of the state treasury. In it he found six hundred thousand—some said two million—so his position grew very strong.
In Basra were Jaʿfar and Muḥammad, the sons of Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī and cousins of the caliph al-Manṣūr. They rode out against him with six hundred horsemen, but he routed them. Ibrāhīm then mounted al-Maḍāʾ ibn al-Qāsim with eighteen horsemen and thirty foot-soldiers and routed the six hundred cavalry who were with the two brothers; those who survived were granted amān (safe-conduct).
Ibrāhīm sent envoys to the people of Ahwāz; they pledged allegiance and obeyed him. He dispatched two hundred horsemen under al-Mughīrah to their governor. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, the governor, came out against him with four thousand cavalry, but al-Mughīrah routed him and seized the province. Ibrāhīm then sent forces to the lands of Fārs, which he took, and likewise to Wāsiṭ, al-Madāʾin, and the Sawād. His cause swelled greatly. Yet when the news of his brother Muḥammad’s death reached him, he was deeply shaken; he led the people in the ʿĪd prayer with a broken spirit.
One witness said, “By Allah, I saw death in his face as he addressed the people.” He announced to them the death of his brother Muḥammad, which only increased their anger against al-Manṣūr. The next morning he encamped with the people, appointing Numaylah as his deputy over Basra and leaving his son Ḥasan with him.
When word of these events reached al-Manṣūr he was bewildered, lamenting that he had dispersed his troops throughout the provinces, for he had