Perhaps—just perhaps—time will slacken its reins,
as circumstances turn, though time is ever adverse;
Then wishes will be fulfilled and regrets be soothed (1),
and, after the matters of today, other matters will unfold.

The vizier Yaḥyā ibn Khālid heard him and said, “I adjure you—come back!” He took the petitions from al-Faḍl’s hand and signed them all.

Yet al-Faḍl went on probing their affairs until he gained the upper hand, whereupon he assumed the vizierate after them. Concerning this Abū Nuwās says (2):

Time showed no regard for the Barmakid clan
when it struck their kingdom with a dreadful decree;
If an age would not keep faith with Yaḥyā,
it is hardly bound to honor al-Rabīʿ’s line.

He was later appointed vizier, after al-Rashīd, to his son al-Amīn. When al-Maʾmūn entered Baghdad he went into hiding; al-Maʾmūn sent him a pledge of safety (3). He emerged, but remained obscure until he died in this year at the age of sixty-eight (may Allah have mercy on him).

[Then came the year 209 AH]

Among the events of that year:

• ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir laid siege to Naṣr ibn Shabath (4) after warring with him for five years. That year he pressed him so hard that Naṣr sought safe conduct from ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir. Ibn Ṭāhir wrote to al-Maʾmūn, who ordered him to issue a document of amnesty on behalf of the Commander of the Believers. Ibn Ṭāhir did so; Naṣr surrendered, and ʿAbd Allah commanded the demolition of the fortified town in which he had been entrenched, putting an end to his mischief.

• Fighting also took place with Bābak al-Khurramī. Bābak captured several Muslim commanders, among them a leading officer of the army, and this weighed heavily on the Muslims.

• That year the people were led in pilgrimage by Ṣāliḥ ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-ʿAbbās, the governor of Mecca.

• In the same year the Byzantine ruler Michael, son of Nikephoros (Georgius), died after nine years on the throne, and they invested his son Theophilus, son of Michael, with the kingship.