with an army dispatched by al-Maʾmun; he encircled Baghdad and enticed its soldiers with the promise of pay (1), so they yielded in full hearing and obedience to al-Maʾmun (2).

ʿĪsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Khālid fought, with a band loyal to Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī. Later, by stratagem, ʿĪsā allowed himself to fall captive to the Maʾmūniyya, and in the end Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī went into hiding at the close of the year. His tenure had lasted one year, eleven months, and twelve days.

By that time al-Maʾmun had reached Hamadhān, and his forces had already brought Baghdad back under his authority.

The leader of the pilgrimage that year was Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī.

Among the notable deaths this year was ʿAlī ibn Mūsā (3), son of Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Qurayshi Hāshimī ʿAlawī known as al-Riḍā. Al-Maʾmun had considered relinquishing the caliphate to him, but he refused, so the caliph named him heir apparent instead, as related above. He died in Ṣafar of this year at Ṭūs.

He related ḥadīth from his father and others, and a number of people narrated from him—among them al-Maʾmun, Abū al-Ṣalt al-Harawī, and Abū ʿUthmān al-Māzinī the grammarian.

I once heard him (4) say: “Allah is too just to charge His servants with what they cannot endure, and they are too weak to accomplish whatever they desire.”

Among his poetry:
Every one of us hopes his appointed term will be prolonged (5) … yet death (6) is the bane of hope.
Let not the empty deceits of fancy beguile you; adhere to moderation and cast excuses aside (7).
This world is but a fleeting shadow: a rider alights beneath it for a moment and then moves on.