Abū al-ʿAtāhiya composed another elegy for this Ḥumayd (1):

O Abū Ghānim, broad indeed is the shelter you afford,
and your grave is solid, its sides firmly constructed;
yet what good is the fine architecture of a tomb
when the body inside is falling to pieces?

Ibn Khallikān (2) has recorded further excellent verses by this al-ʿAkawwāk, but we have omitted them for brevity.

[Then came the year 214 AH]

On Saturday, the 25th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal of that year, Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd confronted Bābak the Khurramite—may Allah curse him. The Khurramite slaughtered a great many of Muḥammad’s troops, killed him as well, and the rest of his men fled. We belong to Allah and to Him we return. Al-Maʾmūn therefore dispatched Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm and Yaḥyā ibn Aktham to ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir, offering him a choice between Khurasan or the combined governorship of al-Jibāl, Azerbaijan, and Armenia so that he might fight Bābak the Khurramite (3). He chose to remain in Khurasan, for it stood in urgent need of firm control and there was fear of a Khārijite resurgence there.

In the same year Abū Isḥāq ibn al-Rashīd entered Egypt, reconquered it, restored it to obedience, captured ʿAbd al-Salām and Ibn Julays, and put them both to death.

During that year as well, a man called Bilāl al-Ḍaḍābī the rebel (al-shārī) rose in insurrection. Al-Maʾmūn sent his son al-ʿAbbās against him with a contingent of commanders; they killed Bilāl and returned unharmed.

That year al-Maʾmūn appointed ʿAlī ibn Hishām as governor of al-Jabal, Qumm, Iṣfahān, and Azerbaijan.

In the same year the pilgrimage was led for the people by Isḥāq ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās.

[Among the notable figures who died that year]

Ahmad ibn Khālid al-Wahbī (4);

and Ahmad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Qāsim ibn Ṣabīḥ (5), Abū Jaʿfar the secretary, who had headed al-Maʾmūn’s chancery.