During that same year there died Abū al-Yaman al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ (1); ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth (2); Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm (3); and Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥāẓī (4).

Then the year 223 AH began.

On Thursday, 3 Ṣafar of that year, al-Afshīn entered upon al-Muʿtaṣim in Sāmarrāʾ, accompanied by Bābak al-Khurramī and his brother ʿAbd Allah in great pomp. Al-Muʿtaṣim had instructed his son Hārūn al-Wāthiq to go out and receive al-Afshīn, and daily reports of the expedition reached the caliph, so keen was his concern for the affair of Bābak. Two days before Bābak arrived, al-Muʿtaṣim himself rode post-haste, came to where Bābak was held without being recognized, looked at him, and returned.

When the day of the formal audience arrived, al-Muʿtaṣim made his preparations, the people stood in two rows (5), and he ordered that Bābak be mounted on an elephant so that his case—and his disgrace—might be publicly displayed. Bābak wore a brocade cloak and a round sable cap. The elephant had been readied, its extremities stained with henna, and it was decked with much silk and suitable trappings. Someone composed the following verses on the occasion (6):

The elephant, as ever, has been dyed
to bear the demon of Khurasan;
An elephant’s limbs are never tinted
save for a man of imposing rank.

When Bābak was brought before the caliph, he ordered that his hands and feet be cut off, his head severed, and his belly ripped open; then he commanded that the head be taken to