to go to Mecca; al-Rashīd consented, and he remained there until he died in the same year—may Allah have mercy on him.

He used to say, “Yaḥyā is afraid that I might resume authority over the provinces. By Allah, I would never do so— even if I were restored to my former post.”

In this year there also died:

Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ (1), Abū Muʿāwiyah, the ḥadīth teacher of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. He was reliable, learned, devout, and scrupulous. When his father—who had been governor of Basra—passed away, he left five hundred dirhams; Yazīd did not take a single dirham of it. Instead, he wove palm-leaf mats with his own hands and lived on the proceeds with his family. He died in Basra this very year, though some say earlier; Allah knows best.

[Then the year 183 AH began]

That year the Khazars launched an assault from the direction of Armenia, ravaging the region, taking captive nearly one hundred thousand Muslims and dhimmīs, and killing great numbers of people. The deputy governor of Armenia, Saʿīd ibn Muslim, was routed. Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd therefore dispatched Khāzim ibn Khuzaymah and Yazīd ibn Mazyad at the head of large, formidable armies, and they set right what had been ruined in those lands. The pilgrimage that year was led on behalf of the people by al-ʿAbbās ibn Mūsā al-Hādī.

[Among the notable deaths in that year]

• ʿAlī ibn al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, who passed away during his father’s lifetime. He was distinguished for abundant worship, piety, fear of Allah, and reverence.

• Muḥammad ibn Ṣubayḥ (2), Abū al-ʿAbbās, the preaching mawlā of Banū ʿIjl, better known as Ibn al-Sammāk. He transmitted ḥadīth from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, al-Aʿmash, al-Thawrī, Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, and others. On one occasion he entered upon al-Rashīd and said, “You will stand before Allah; so consider where your final destination will be—Paradise or Hell?” Al-Rashīd wept until he almost died.

• Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar (3) ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Hāshimī, and it is said—