Others state that the city’s moat and ramparts were not finished until 147 AH. Al-Manṣūr went on enlarging and refining Baghdad, the last structure he built being the Palace of al-Khuld. He imagined that he would dwell there forever, or that the palace itself would endure and never fall into ruin; yet when the work was complete, he died. Baghdad, as will be shown later, has in fact been devastated more than once.
Ibn Jarīr said (1): In this same year al-Manṣūr removed Salm ibn Qutaybah from the governorship of Basrah and appointed Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī in his place. The reason was that al-Manṣūr had written to Salm ordering him to demolish the houses of those who had pledged allegiance to Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan; when Salm tarried, al-Manṣūr dismissed him and sent his cousin Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān, who wrought havoc in the city and razed many dwellings. He likewise deposed ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Rabīʿ from the governorship of Madinah, installing Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān, and he dismissed al-Sarī ibn ʿAbd Allāh from Makkah, assigning the post to ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAlī.
He said (2): The pilgrim caravan that year was led by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, as related by al-Wāqidī and others.
He said (3): That same year the summer campaign (ṣāʾifah) against Byzantine territory was commanded by Jaʿfar ibn Ḥanẓalah al-Bahrānī.
Among the notable persons who died in that year were:
• Ashʿath ibn ʿAbd al-Malik,
• Hishām al-Sāʾib al-Kalbī,
• Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, and
• according to one report, Yazīd ibn Abī ʿUbayd.
[Then the year 147 AH began.]
During it, Ishtarkhān the Khwārizmian, leading a force of Turks, raided the Armenian frontier. They entered Tiflis, slew vast numbers, and took many captives from among the Muslims and the ahl al-dhimmah (protected non-Muslims). Among those killed that day was Ḥarb ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāwandī, after whom the Harbiyyah quarter of Baghdad is named. Stationed in Mosul with two thousand men to fight the Khārijites, he had been sent by al-Manṣūr to support the Muslims of Armenia. Serving under Jibrīl ibn Yaḥyā, the army was routed and Ḥarb was killed—may Allah have mercy on him.
In this same year ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, the uncle of al-Manṣūr who had wrested Syria from the Umayyads, also passed away.