and Abū al-Ashhab al-ʿAṭāridī, Abū Bakr al-Nahshalī, and ʿUfayr ibn Maʿdān.

[Then the year 167 AH began]

In it al-Mahdī dispatched his son Mūsā al-Hādī to Jurjān at the head of an imposing army the like of which had never been seen, appointing Abān ibn Ṣadaqah to handle his correspondence. In the same year ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā, who had been the heir-apparent after al-Mahdī, died in Kūfah. The city’s deputy governor, Rūḥ ibn Ḥātim, summoned the judge and a number of notables to testify to his death; he was then buried. Because Rūḥ had refused to lead the funeral prayer over him, al-Mahdī wrote to him in the sternest terms, censuring him severely and ordering that his administration be audited.

That year al-Mahdī removed Abū ʿUbayd Allah Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿUbayd Allah from the Bureau of Correspondence and installed the chamberlain al-Rabīʿ ibn Yūnus in his place, who in turn appointed Saʿīd ibn Wāqid as his deputy; nevertheless, Abū ʿUbayd Allah continued to enter according to his former rank.

During the same year a harsh epidemic and widespread coughing struck Baghdad and Basra, and darkness covered the land so that it looked like night until full daylight appeared. This occurred during the last nights of Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that year.

In that year al-Mahdī pursued a number of zanādiqa across the provinces, had them brought before him, and executed them deliberately in his presence (1). The man supervising the affairs of the zanādiqa was ʿUmar al-Kalwādhī.

That year al-Mahdī also ordered a major expansion of the Sacred Mosque, incorporating many adjacent houses into its precinct. He entrusted the work to Yaqṭīn ibn Mūsā, his official in charge of the Two Sanctuaries, who continued the construction until al-Mahdī’s death—as will be mentioned. Because of the truce, no summer campaign (ṣāʾifah) was undertaken.

The pilgrimage that year was led on behalf of the people by the deputy governor of Madinah, Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad, who died a few days after completing the ḥajj; Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās was appointed in his stead.

Among the notable figures who died that year were:

Bashshār ibn Burd, Abū Muʿādh the poet (2), a client of ʿUqayl. Born blind, he began composing verse before the age of ten and produced similes to which even the sighted could not aspire. He was praised by al-Aṣmaʿī, al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū Tammām, and Abū ʿUbaydah, who said that he left behind 13,000 lines of poetry. When news reached al-Mahdī that Bashshār had lampooned him and people testified that he was a zindīq, the caliph ordered that he be