the celebrated mystic. Abū Nuʿaym mentions her in al-Ḥilyah; al-Qushayrī in al-Risālah (1); Ibn al-Jawzī in Ṣifat al-Ṣafwah; and Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī in al-Maʿārif. Most writers praised her, though Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī spoke against her and accused her of zandaqah (heresy); perhaps some report about her had reached him.
Al-Suhrawardī cites for her, in al-Maʿārif, the lines:
I have set you in my heart as the one who speaks with me,
And left my body free to any who would sit beside me;
Thus my body keeps the visitor good company,
While the beloved of my heart is the companion within me. (2)
They relate of her many worthy states and righteous deeds—fasting by day, standing in prayer by night—and people saw blessed dreams concerning her. Allah knows best.
She died in the Noble Jerusalem, and her grave lies to its east on the Mount (al-Ṭūr). Allah knows best.
[Then the year 186 AH began]
In that year ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn Māhān set out from Marw to wage war on Abū al-Khaṣīb at Nasā, fought him there, and took his womenfolk and children captive; thus Khurasan was brought into line.
That same year Hārūn al-Rashīd performed the ḥajj with the people, accompanied by his two sons, Muḥammad al-Amīn and ʿAbd Allah al-Maʾmūn. The total of what he distributed to the inhabitants of the Two Sanctuaries reached one million and fifty thousand dinars, for whenever the people came to him he gave, they then went to al-Amīn and he gave, and then to al-Maʾmūn and he gave.
The governorship of Syria and Iraq was assigned to al-Amīn, and Hamadhān and the eastern lands to al-Maʾmūn. Thereafter al-Rashīd named his son al-Qāsim—after his two elder sons—bestowing on him the title al-Muʾtamin and appointing him over al-Jazīrah, the frontier districts, and the garrison cities. He was prompted to this because al-Qāsim had been raised in the care of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ṣāliḥ.
When al-Rashīd had secured the oath of allegiance for his sons al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn, someone wrote to him:
O king who—were you a star—would be the star of bliss,
Bind a pledge for Qāsim and strike for him a spark of kingship;
Allah is One, Unique—then make the heirs to the throne a single line. (3)