Among them stands al-Faḍl ibn Yaḥyā, a host unto himself—no other host can reinforce him, a host indeed. (1)

He has two days: a day of open-handed bounty and a day of dauntless valor; it is as though Time itself lay captive between the two.

When a Barmakid has reached the age of ten, his ambition is already to be an amir or a vizier.

On this journey to Khurasan extraordinary things befell al-Faḍl ibn Yaḥyā. He captured many lands—among them Kabul and the regions beyond the Oxus—subdued the king of the Turks, who had long held out, and lavished immense sums in gifts. He then set out for Baghdad; when he drew near, al-Rashid and the city’s notables rode out to meet him, and poets, preachers, and leading dignitaries assembled before him. He began granting gifts of a million, five hundred thousand, and similar sums, disbursing such vast wealth that it could scarcely be reckoned without great effort and expense. A poet entered while the sealed bags of money lay before him, being handed out to the people, and recited:

“Through al-Faḍl ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khālid and the generosity of his two hands, may Allah suffice us against every miser’s stinginess!”

Al-Faḍl ordered that the poet receive a handsome reward.

That year the summer expedition was led by Muʿāwiyah ibn Zufar ibn ʿĀṣim, and the winter expedition by Sulaymān ibn Rāshid. The pilgrimage was led by Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, the deputy of Mecca.

In the same year died Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān, ʿAntar ibn al-Qāsim, and ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm, the judge of Baghdad; al-Rashid performed the funeral prayer over him and he was buried there. Some say he had died the previous year—Allah knows best.

Then the year 179 AH began.

In it al-Faḍl ibn Yaḥyā returned from Khurasan, having appointed ʿUmar ibn Jamīl as his deputy there, and al-Rashid made Manṣūr ibn Yazīd ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥimyarī governor of the province. In the same year al-Rashid dismissed Khālid ibn Barmak from the chamberlainship and restored it to al-Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ. That year also saw the uprising of Ḥamzah ibn Atrak al-Sijistānī in Khurasan—part of his story will be related in due course. In it al-Walīd ibn Ṭarīf the Shārī returned to al-Jazīrah; his power grew and his followers multiplied, so al-Rashid sent Yazīd ibn Mazyad al-Shaybānī against him. He maneuvered with him (2) until he killed him, whereupon his followers scattered. Al-Fāriʿah then composed an elegy mourning her brother al-Walīd ibn Ṭarīf: