and for the Muslims’ public needs, such as arms, reservoirs, and other necessities. The man concerned was Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās; his mother was Umm Ḥusman bint Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī. He ranked among the leading men of Quraysh and their bravest. Al-Manṣūr appointed him governor of both Basra and Kufa, and al-Mahdī married him to his daughter al-ʿAbbāsa. His wealth was immense: his daily revenue reached one hundred thousand, and he possessed a ring of red ruby the like of which had never been seen.
He transmitted a hadith from his father, who in turn related it from his great-grandfather, Ibn ʿAbbās. It is a prophetic report concerning wiping the head of an orphan to the front of his head and wiping the head of one who has a father to the back of his head (1).
He later visited al-Rashīd to congratulate him on his accession; the caliph honored and exalted him, and greatly increased his stipend. When he prepared to depart, al-Rashīd accompanied him as far as Kalwadhā (2) to see him off.
He died in Jumādā al-Ākhira of this year at the age of fifty-one. Al-Rashīd sent trusted officials to inventory his liquid assets; they found three million dinars in gold and six million dirhams in silver, exclusive of his real estate. Ibn Jarīr records that his death and that of al-Khayzurān occurred on the same day (3).
One of his slave-girls stood by his grave and recited:
“The soil has become the lodging of the one I loved;
Greet the dust and say to it, ‘Peace be upon you.’
We cherish you, O earth, for no reason
save the honor of the one upon whom you were heaped.”
In this same year al-Khayzurān—formerly a slave-girl of al-Mahdī and the mother of the Commanders of the Faithful al-Hādī and ar-Rashīd—also passed away. Al-Mahdī had purchased her, shown her great favor, emancipated her, and then married her. She alone bore two sons who both became caliphs: Mūsā al-Hādī and ar-Rashīd. No woman shares this distinction except Wallāda bint al-ʿAbbās al-ʿAbsiyya, wife of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, mother of al-Walīd and Sulaymān; and Shāh Fūnd bint Fayrūz ibn Yazdajird, who bore her master al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik two sons who likewise attained the caliphate, Marwān and Ibrāhīm.
A hadith has been transmitted through al-Khayzurān from her master al-Mahdī, from his father, from his grandfather, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:
“Whoever fears Allah, Allah will protect him from everything.” (4)
When al-Khayzurān was presented