Al-Rashīd discerned brilliance and sound judgment in ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʾmūn and used to say:
“By Allah, in him are the decisiveness of al-Manṣūr, the devotion of al-Mahdī, and the dignity of spirit of al-Hādī; and were I to add a fourth trait from myself, I could do so. Yet I set Muḥammad the son of Zubaydah before him, even though I know he follows his own desire—but I can do nothing else.”
He then recited:
The right course is plain to me, yet I have been
Overruled in the matter that would have been wiser;
And how shall milk be put back in the udder once
It has been drawn and shared out as common spoil?
I fear affairs will twist after they have been set straight,
And that the pact once concluded may be undone. (1)
According to al-Wāqidī, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ṣāliḥ led the ṣāʾifa (summer expedition), (2) while al-Rashīd himself led the people in the ḥajj. In the same year Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan set out for Daylam and stirred unrest there.
Among the notable deaths this year was Shawwānah, the devout, ascetic worshipper (3). She was a black bond-woman renowned for abundant acts of worship, and fine sayings are narrated from her. Al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ once asked her to pray for him, whereupon she said, “Is there not between you and Him such closeness that, were you to call upon Him, He would answer you?!” Al-Fuḍayl gasped and fell unconscious.
Also in this year died al-Layth ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fahmī, their client (4). Ibn Khallikān states (5): he was the client of Qays ibn
(1) Al-Muntazam, vol. 9, p. 10.
(2) See al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 5, p. 288.
(3) See her account in Hilyat al-Awliyāʾ, vol. 8, p. 113; and in Tārīkh Baghdad, vol. 9, p. 112. Her biography appears in Sifat al-Safwa, vol. 4, p. 53; al-Mukhtār min Manāqib al-Akhyār (Ibn al-Athīr), vol. 5, p. 264; Rawd al-Rayāḥīn, p. 257 (narration p. 189) and p. 516 (narration p. 475); Ṭabaqāt al-Shahrānī, vol. 1, p. 67; al-Kawākib al-Durrīyya, vol. 1, p. 327; and al-Dur al-Manthūr, p. 256.
(4) His biography is given in Ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd, vol. 7, p. 517; Ṭabaqāt Khalīfa, p. 296; Tārīkh Khalīfa, p. 449; al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, vol. 7, p. 246; al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr, vol. 2, p. 191; al-Maʿārif, p. 505; al-Kuny wa-al-Asmāʾ (al-Dulabī), p. 145; al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl, vol. 7, p. 179; Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amsār: al-Tarjama, p. 1536; al-Hilya, vol. 7, p. 318; Tārīkh Baghdad, vol. 3, p. 13; Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ, p. 78; Sifat al-Safwa, vol. 9, p. 304; al-Mukhtār min Manāqib al-Akhyār (Ibn al-Athīr), vol. 4, p. 239; Jamʿ al-Uṣūl lahu, vol. 15, p. 148; Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Lughāt, vol. 2, p. 73; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 4, p. 127; Ṭabaqāt ʿUlamāʾ al-Ḥadīth: al-Tarjama, p. 194; Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 21, p. 246; al-Ansāb, vol. 9, p. 353; Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, vol. 3, p. 423; al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 266; Sīrat Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 8, p. 136; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, vol. 1, p. 224; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 8, p. 459; Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, p. 464; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 2, p. 82; al-Ṭabaqāt al-Ṣughra lil-Manāwī, p. 520; Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab, vol. 2, p. 339; and Jamʿ Karāmāt al-Awliyāʾ, vol. 2, p. 238.
(5) Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 4, p. 127.