so he appointed him to the governorship, cancelled the rest of the sum that had been imposed upon him, placed the banner in his hand, and named his son Yaḥyā governor of Adharbayjan, whereupon the people set out in their service.

Yaḥyā said, “When we passed by the bridge, that same augur rushed up to me and demanded the payment I had promised him. I ordered it for him, and he collected five thousand.”

In that same year al-Manṣūr departed for the Pilgrimage, driving along the sacrificial animals. After he had travelled a few stages beyond Kūfah, the very sickness that would bring about his death took hold of him. He already suffered from ill-humor, and the scorching heat together with riding during the fiercest midday hours aggravated it. Severe diarrhoea struck him and grew worse until his illness became critical. He entered Mecca and died there on the night of Saturday, six days having elapsed from Dhuʾl-Ḥijjah. The funeral prayer was offered over him, and he was buried at Kadāʾ near the incline of the Maʿlā Gate at the upper end of Mecca. At that time he was sixty-three years old—some said sixty-four, others sixty-five; another report puts him at sixty-eight—Allah knows best.

Al-Rabīʿ the chamberlain concealed his death until he had secured the oath of allegiance for al-Mahdī from the commanders and the leading men of Banū Hāshim, after which the burial took place. The man who led the funeral prayer was Ibrāhīm ibn Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, who also supervised the Pilgrimage that year.

Here follows the biography of al-Manṣūr ⦗1⦘

He is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, known as Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr. He was older than his brother Abūʾl-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ. His mother was an umm walad named Salāmah.

He transmitted—from his grandfather, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to wear his signet ring on his right hand. Ibn ʿAsākir cited this report ⦗2⦘ through the chain of Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sulamī, from al-Maʾmūn, from al-Rashīd, from al-Mahdī, from his father al-Manṣūr.

The oath of allegiance was given to him as caliph after his brother in Dhuʾl-Ḥijjah 136 AH, when he was forty-one years old, for the most widely accepted view is that he was born in Safar 95 AH at al-Ḥumaymah in the Balqāʾ region. His caliphate lasted twenty-two years less a few days. He was of brown complexion, with plentiful hair that reached his shoulders, a sparse beard, a broad forehead, and an aquiline nose with a pronounced ridge. His eyes were large, as though each were a speaking tongue. A certain majesty of kingship blended with his demeanour ⦗3⦘; hearts inclined toward him and eyes followed him. He recognised nobility in its proper places ⦗4⦘; refinement shone in his features, and the gait of a lion marked his stride. Such was the description given by one who had seen him ⦗5⦘.