Among the commanders he put to death were Abū Ḥātim and Abū ʿAbbād, both Khārijites. Once the affairs of the provinces had become firmly settled under his control, he proceeded to the land of Qayrawān, pacified it and brought it into line(1); he reassured its inhabitants, set its administration on a sound footing, and removed every cause for concern. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

The Construction of al-Rāfiqah, the Famous City

In this same year al-Manṣūr ordered his son al-Mahdī to build al-Rāfiqah on the pattern of Baghdad. He also instructed that a wall be raised and a moat dug around Kūfa. To finance these works he took money from its residents, levying forty dirhams upon every well-to-do person—although he had originally fixed the tax at five dirhams, he eventually collected forty after forty.

Someone composed the following lines about that:
“O my people, never have we seen
—from the Commander of the Faithful—
a deed like this.
He first apportioned five among us,
then exacted forty upon forty from us.”

In this year Yazīd ibn Asad al-Sulamī led the summer expedition (al-ṣāʾifah). During the same year the Byzantine emperor sued al-Manṣūr for peace, agreeing to pay him the jizyah.

That year al-Manṣūr also dismissed his brother al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad from the governorship of al-Jazīrah and fined him a large sum. He likewise removed Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī from the governorship of Kūfa.

Some said he did so because of reports that had reached him of Muḥammad’s involvement in reprehensible acts unbefitting a provincial governor; others said it was because he had executed Muḥammad ibn Abī al-ʿAwjāʾ. Ibn Abī al-ʿAwjāʾ was a zindīq, and it is said that when the order was given to strike off his head, he confessed to having fabricated four thousand ḥadiths—declaring the unlawful lawful and the lawful unlawful, making people fast on the day of the Festival of Breaking the Fast and break their fast in the days of Ramaḍān. Al-Manṣūr wished to hold Muḥammad accountable for having killed him, so he dismissed him for that reason, intending to exact retaliation. ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā said to him, “Commander of the Faithful, neither remove him for this nor kill him for it, for he executed the man on account of zandaqah. Should you depose him for that, the common people will praise him and censure you.” Al-Manṣūr therefore left him in office for a time, then dismissed him and appointed ʿUmar ibn Zuhayr in his place as governor of Kūfa.

In the same year al-Manṣūr removed al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd from Medina and appointed his own uncle ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAlī in his stead, assigning Fulyah ibn Sulaymān as overseer over him. He confirmed Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad over Mecca, al-Haytham ibn Muʿāwiyah over Baṣrah, Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd over Egypt, and Yazīd ibn Ḥātim over Ifrīqiyah.

Those who died this year were:
Ṣafwān ibn ʿUmar,
and ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀtikah, both Damascenes.