—al-Manṣūr, and it was he who offered the funeral prayer for him. Others, however, claim that the prayer over al-Manṣūr was led by ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā, the heir-apparent after al-Mahdī; yet the first report is the sound one, for it was he who was serving as deputy governor of Mecca and al-Ṭāʾif. The governorship of Medina lay with ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAlī; that of Kūfa with ʿUmar ibn Zuhayr al-Ḍabbī—the brother of al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr, the Caliph’s chief of police; that of Khurasan with Ḥumayd ibn Qaḥṭabah; that of the land-tax of Basra and its territories with ʿImārah ibn Ḥamzah; the conduct of prayer and the judiciary there with ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-ʿAnbarī; and the command of its militia (aḥdāth) with Saʿīd ibn Daʿlaj.

Al-Wāqidī (1) relates: “In that year a severe plague struck the people; multitudes perished, among them:
Aflah ibn Ḥumayd,
Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ,
Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ in Mecca,
and Zufar ibn al-Hudhayl (2) ibn Qays ibn Sulaym ibn Mukammil ibn Dhuhl ibn Dhuʾayb ibn Jazīmah ibn ʿAmr ibn Hanjūr ibn Jundub ibn al-ʿAnbar ibn ʿAmr ibn Tamīm ibn Murr ibn ʿUdd ibn Ṭābikhah ibn Ilyās ibn Muḍar ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān (3) al-Tamīmī al-ʿAnbarī, the Kufan Ḥanafī jurist—earliest of Abū Ḥanīfah’s companions to die and the most prolific in applying analogical reasoning (qiyās). He was a devout man who began with the study of hadith, after which jurisprudence and analogy predominated. Born in 116 AH, he died in 158 AH at the age of forty-two. May Allah have mercy on him and on us.”

Then came the year 159 AH.

The year opened with Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Manṣūr al-Mahdī as Caliph. At its outset he dispatched al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad to Byzantine territory at the head of a large army, and he himself rode out with them to see them off. They advanced, captured a great Byzantine city, seized abundant booty, and returned safe and sound, not a single man missing.

In that same year Ḥumayd ibn Qaḥṭabah, governor of Khurasan, passed away. Al-Mahdī appointed Abū ʿAwn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Yazīd in his stead, made Ḥamzah ibn Mālik governor of Sijistān, and set Jibrīl ibn Yaḥyā over Samarqand.