the amirs and leading men; whoever caught one of the slips would send word to the village where his deputies were posted and would thereupon take possession of it as his own unencumbered estate (1). During the seventeen days that al-Maʾmun and the troops with him stayed in his company, he spent on them a sum equivalent to fifty million dirhams.

When al-Maʾmun was about to depart, he bestowed upon him ten million dirhams and, in addition to the lands already in his hands, granted him the very town where he was encamped—namely the district of Fam al-Ṣulḥ—as a fresh iqṭāʿ. Al-Maʾmun returned to Baghdad in the latter part of Shawwal that same year.

In that year ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭahir set out for the Egyptian provinces and, by al-Maʾmun’s command, wrested them from ʿUbayd (2) Allah ibn al-Sari ibn al-Hakam, who had taken control of them (3). He recovered the country after a series of campaigns whose details are too long to relate (4).

Among the notable figures who died that year were Abu ʿAmr al-Shaybani the philologist—his name was Ishaq ibn Mirar (5); Marwan ibn Muhammad al-Taṭari (6); and Yahya ibn Ishaq (7).

Then the year 211 AH began, and among the eminent deceased in it was Abu al-Jawwab (8).