In that same year al-Rashīd removed ʿAlī ibn Mūsā from the governorship of Khurāsān and appointed Harthamah ibn Aʿyan in his place.

That year al-Rashīd captured Heraclea in the month of Shawwāl, razed the city, and took its inhabitants captive. He then sent armies and raiding detachments through Byzantine territory as far as ʿAyn Zarbah and the Black Church. Heraclea’s daily revenue amounted to one hundred thousand, and it maintained thirty-five thousand mercenaries.⦗1⦘

Humayd ibn Maʿyūf was given command of the Syrian littoral as far as Egypt. He entered the island of Cyprus, seized its population, and brought them to al-Rāfiqah, where he sold them; the bishop alone fetched two thousand dinars, the sale being conducted by Abū al-Bakhtarī the judge.

In that year al-Faḍl ibn Sahl embraced Islam at the hands of al-Maʾmūn. The pilgrimage was led by al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAbbāsī, who was governor of Mecca. After this year no summer campaign (ṣāʾifah) was undertaken until 215 AH.

Among the notable deaths of the year were:
• Salamah ibn al-Faḍl al-Abrash;
• ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim⦗2⦘, the jurist and foremost transmitter from Imām Mālik, regarded as the main pillar of the Mālikī school, and one of the outstanding righteous;
• ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq⦗3⦘, who appeared before al-Rashīd and was granted a large sum—about fifty thousand—but refused to accept it;
• al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā al-Sīnānī;
• Muḥammad ibn Salamah;
• and Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Maṣṣīṣī⦗4⦘, one of the trustworthy ascetics, who said: “For fifty years I have not spoken a single word for which I have needed to apologize.”