And Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl, Abū al-Nuʿmān al-Sadūsī, nicknamed ʿĀrim, was al-Bukhārī’s teacher. (1)

Another was Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ. (2)

Also included was Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Rabbih al-Jurjisī al-Ḥimṣī, the foremost scholar of Homs in his day. (3)

[Then the year 225 AH began.]

Among the happenings of that year:

• Bugha the Elder entered, bringing with him Mankajūr, who had offered obedience under a guarantee of safety.

• In the same year al-Muʿtaṣim dismissed Jaʿfar ibn Dīnār from the deputy-governorship of Yemen, became enraged with him, (4) and appointed Itākh over Yemen in his stead.

• That year ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir sent al-Māziyār in chains. He entered Baghdad riding a mule with a padded saddle (5) on the fifth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah. Al-Muʿtaṣim ordered that he be flogged in his presence with four hundred and fifty lashes, after which water was forced down his throat until he died. (6) The caliph then commanded that he be crucified beside Bābak al-Khurramī. Under the scourge al-Māziyār confessed that al-Afshīn had been corresponding with him, urging him to renounce his loyalty. Al-Muʿtaṣim thereupon grew angry with al-Afshīn and ordered his imprisonment. A cell like a narrow minaret was built for him within the palace, called “the Pearl,” barely large enough to contain him.

This took place after the caliph had become certain that al-Afshīn intended to rebel against him and was planning to go to the land of the Khazars (7) to muster them against the Muslims. The caliph acted swiftly, arresting him before any of this could occur, and convened a tribunal for him. Present were the chief judge, Aḥmad ibn Dawād the Muʿtazilī, (8) the vizier Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Zayyāt, and the deputy Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muṣʿab. In that session al-Afshīn was charged with several matters indicating that he still adhered to the religion of his Persian ancestors; foremost among them was that he was uncircumcised. He pleaded that he feared the pain, whereupon the vizier—who was conducting the interrogation—retorted, “You clash with lances in battle without fearing their blows, yet you claim to fear the cutting of a foreskin!”