some benefit. He did all this as a flight from death and in the hope that the caliphate would last for him—yet it did not last. He was slain and his residences were destroyed, as will soon be mentioned. Ṭāhir acted just as al-Amīn had done, until Baghdad was on the verge of total ruin.

Someone versified on the matter:
Who has struck you, O Baghdad, with the evil eye?
Were you not once the comfort of the eye?
Did you not hold a people whose very dwelling there—
whose mere nearness—was beauty upon beauty?
The raven croaked their parting and they scattered;
what burning anguish that separation cost me!
I commend to Allah a people whom, whenever I recall them,
the water of my eyes pours from my eyes.
They were—then time dispersed and shattered them,
and time always shatters what joins two sides. ⦗1⦘

The poets spoke at great length about these events. Ibn Jarīr has transmitted a worthy selection and inserted a long, continuous ode that lays out what happened in detail—an enormity among enormities—which we have omitted in full. ⦗2⦘

Ṭāhir then seized the produce and revenues of the landed estates that belonged to the commanders and others, and he invited them to accept safe-conduct and pledge allegiance to al-Maʾmūn. A number answered his call, among them ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥumayd ibn Qaḥṭabah, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī ibn Māhān, and Muḥammad ibn Abī al-ʿAbbās al-Ṭūsī. Many of the Hāshimites and other amirs wrote to him, and their hearts inclined toward him.

On one occasion al-Amīn’s men captured some of Ṭāhir’s troops and killed a group of them near the Palace of Ṣāliḥ. When al-Amīn heard of this he grew boastful and exultant, giving himself over to amusement, wine, and play, and entrusting the conduct of affairs to Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Nahīk.

Soon the power of Ṭāhir’s forces increased and al-Amīn’s position weakened greatly. People sided with Ṭāhir’s army, and his zone was exceedingly secure: no one feared theft, pillage, or anything of the sort. Ṭāhir took over most of Baghdad’s quarters and suburbs and forbade the boatmen to carry provisions to those who opposed him so as to tighten the stranglehold upon them. Prices therefore rose steeply among his opponents, and those who had not left Baghdad earlier rued their decision.

Merchants were prevented from bringing any goods or flour into Baghdad, and vessels were diverted to Basra and elsewhere. Many engagements took place between the two sides. One was the encounter at Darb al-Ḥijarah, which went in al-Amīn’s favor; many of Ṭāhir’s men were killed there. One of the Baghdad ruffians—from the ʿayyārūn and ḥarāfishah—would come out naked, carrying a pitch-smeared rush-mat shield ⦗3⦘ and a pouch of stones under his arm. If a mounted archer loosed an arrow at him from afar, he would fend it off with his mat and remain unharmed; but when the horseman drew near, he would hurl a stone from his sling and strike him, and by such means they routed their foes.

Another was the battle of al-Shammāsiyyah, in which Harthamah ibn Aʿyan was taken captive. This distressed Ṭāhir, and he ordered a bridge to be built over the Tigris above al-Shammāsiyyah; he then crossed with his men to the opposite bank and fought them in person with the utmost ferocity,