Many a dark-skinned one whose deeds are dazzling white—
In her presence musk could only envy camphor.
Like the pupil of the eye, people think it black,
yet in truth it is pure light.

Al-Maʾmun had consulted about putting his uncle Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī to death. Aḥmad ibn Abī Khālid, the one-eyed vizier, said to him, “O Commander of the Believers, if you kill him you will have peers; but if you pardon him you will have no peer.”

Al-Maʾmun then began building palaces on the Tigris adjacent to his own residence. The uprisings subsided and mischief was dispelled. He ordered that the cultivators of the Sawād of Iraq be taxed at one part in fifty, whereas previously they had been assessed at one half. He adopted the reinforced qafīz (1)—ten makākī according to the Hārūnid makūk (2). He remitted a large portion of the land tax in various provinces and showed leniency to the people on many occasions. He appointed his brother Abū ʿĪsā ibn al-Rashīd over Kūfah, his brother Ṣāliḥ over Baṣrah, and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh (3) ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as deputy of the Two Sanctuaries; it was he who led the people in the pilgrimage that year.

In the same year Yaḥyā ibn Muʿādh engaged Bābak al-Khurramī in battle but did not capture him.

Among those who died this year was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (4). We have devoted to him an extensive biography at the beginning of our book “Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyīn.” Here we shall present a concise summary, and Allah’s help is sought.

He is the erudite imam Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUthmān ibn Shāfiʿ ibn al-Sāʾib ibn ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbd Yazīd ibn Hāshim ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Quṣayy, the Qurashi al-Muṭṭalibī. Al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd embraced Islam on the Day of Badr, and his son Shāfiʿ ibn al-Sāʾib was among the younger Companions. His mother was from the Azd tribe. While pregnant with al-Shāfiʿī she dreamed that Jupiter emerged from her womb, shot toward Egypt, and from it a fragment fell upon every land. (5)