Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah; ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, the uncle of al-Saffāḥ—after whom the Palace of ʿĪsā and the Nahr ʿĪsā in Baghdad are named. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “He followed a commendable path and kept aloof from the authorities. He died this year at the age of seventy-eight.” Hammām ibn Yaḥyā; Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb of Egypt; and ʿUbaydah bint Abī Kilāb, a devout worshipper who wept out of fear of Allah for forty years until she went blind. She used to say, “I long for death, for I fear that I might commit a deed that will bring about my ruin on the Day of Resurrection.”

Then the year 164 AH began.

In that year ʿAbd al-Kabīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb led a raid into Byzantine territory. Michael al-Biṭrīq (the patrician) confronted him with about ninety thousand men, among them Tazadh the Armenian patrician. ʿAbd al-Kabīr lost heart, forbade the Muslims to fight, and withdrew. Al-Mahdī resolved to have him beheaded, but intercession was made for him, so he was imprisoned in al-Muṭbiq.

On a Wednesday toward the end of Dhū al-Qaʿdah, al-Mahdī laid the foundations of a sun-dried-brick palace at ʿĪsābādh (1). He then set out for the Hajj, but a fever struck him on the road, so he turned back. During the return journey the people became so thirsty that some of them nearly perished. Al-Mahdī grew angry with Yaqṭīn, the superintendent of the works, and from the place where he turned back he dispatched al-Muhallab ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Abī Jaʿfar to lead the pilgrims; that year he conducted the Hajj on behalf of the people.

Those who died in that year include Shaybān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān the grammarian; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salama al-Mājishūn; and Mubārak ibn Faḍālah, a student and transmitter of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.