Muḥammad ibn Sinān al-ʿAwqī (1) and Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl (2) also died that year.
[Then the year 224 AH began]
Events of that year:
A man in Āmul (3), Ṭabaristān, named Māziyār ibn Qārin ibn Wandā Hurmuz, rose in rebellion. He refused to have the ḥaml (annual tribute) (4) delivered to the governor of Khurasan, ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn, insisting instead on sending it directly to the Caliph. Al-Muʿtaṣim therefore dispatched an emissary to meet the tribute in one of the provinces, take possession of it, and hand it over to ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir. Māziyār thereupon seized (5) those very districts and openly defied al-Muʿtaṣim.
Māziyār had been corresponding with Bābak al-Khurramī, promising him assistance. It is also said that the one who emboldened Māziyār was al-Afshīn, hoping thereby to wear down ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir so that al-Muʿtaṣim would appoint al-Afshīn to Khurasan in his stead. In response, al-Muʿtaṣim sent Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muṣʿab—brother of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm—at the head of a large army. Lengthy campaigns followed, the details of which Ibn Jarīr (6) recounts at length, until Māziyār was captured and brought to ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir. Interrogated about the letters al-Afshīn had sent him, he admitted their authenticity. ʿAbd Allah then forwarded him to the Commander of the Faithful together with an immense quantity of confiscated wealth—gold, jewels, and fine garments.
When Māziyār was brought before the Caliph, al-Muʿtaṣim again questioned him about al-Afshīn’s letters. He denied them, whereupon the Caliph ordered him flogged until he died. His body was then crucified beside that of Bābak al-Khurramī on the bridge of Baghdad, and the principal informers and followers among his supporters were executed as well.
In this same year al-Ḥasan, the son of al-Afshīn, married Atrujjah bint Ashnās and consummated the marriage in al-Muʿtaṣim’s palace at Sāmarrāʾ during the month of Jumādā. It was an extravagant wedding, personally supervised by the Commander of the Faithful, so lavish that, it was said, even the beards of the common folk were anointed with al-ghāliyah (7).