and see him part of the way. Little did I know that the slave-girl had discovered everything that had taken place and was acting as a spy against me. She sent her own servant to al-Mahdi, informed him of the affair, and kept repeating: “The man you have preferred to me has done such-and-such.”

Al-Mahdi flew into a rage. He dispatched men along the road, they brought the Alid back, and he shut him up in a room in the palace. The very next day he summoned me. I went to him, having no idea what had become of the Alid.

When I entered, he said, “What has happened to the Alid?”

I replied, “He is dead.”

He said, “By Allah?”

“By Allah,” I said.

“Then place your hand on my head and swear by my life.” I did so.

He called out, “Boy, bring out whoever is in that room.” The Alid emerged, and I was utterly confounded. Al-Mahdi said, “Your blood is lawful,” and ordered that I be thrown into a well in the dungeon known as al-Muṭbiq.

Yaʿqūb relates: I was placed where I could neither hear nor see; my sight failed and my hair grew until I looked like a beast. Long periods passed over me. One day I was called, lifted out of the well, and told, “Greet the Commander of the Faithful.” I offered the salutation, thinking him to be al-Mahdi. When I mentioned al-Mahdi he said, “May Allah have mercy on al-Mahdi.”

I asked, “Al-Hādī?” He said, “May Allah have mercy on al-Hādī.”

I asked, “Al-Rashīd?” He answered, “Yes.”

I said, “O Commander of the Faithful, you can see the weakness and illness that have overtaken me. If you deem it proper, set me free.”

He asked, “Where do you wish to go?”

I replied, “Makkah.”

He said, “Go—and may you be rightly guided.” He travelled to Makkah and remained there only a short while before he died—may Allah Most High have mercy on him.

This same Yaʿqūb used to admonish al-Mahdi for drinking nabīdh (fermented date wine) in his presence and for his constant enjoyment of music. He would reproach him, saying, “It was not for this that you appointed me vizier, nor for this that I kept your company. After performing the five daily prayers in the Sacred Mosque will you drink wine and have singing before you?” Al-Mahdi would answer, “ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar used to listen.” Yaʿqūb would retort, “That was not one of his good deeds. If this were a pious act, the more a servant persevered in it the better it would be.”

On the same subject a poet urged al-Mahdi:

Put Yaʿqūb ibn Dāwūd completely aside,
And turn to the ruddy wine with its pleasant bouquet.

In this year al-Mahdi went to the palace called Qasr al-Salām at ʿĪsābādh (1)—built for him of fired brick after the first palace he had raised at al-Qabin—and took up residence there, striking dirhams and dinars on the spot. In the same year al-Mahdi ordered the establishment of the barīd (postal relay) between Makkah, Madinah, and Yemen; no one had done this before. In it Mūsā al-Hādī marched to Jurjān; in it he appointed Abū Yūsuf, the companion of Abū Ḥanīfah, as chief judge; and in it the pilgrimage was led on behalf of the people by Ibrāhīm ibn Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad, governor of Madinah. There was no summer expedition (ṣāʾifah) this year because of the truce that existed between al-Rashīd and the Byzantines. In this year Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Samīn died.

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