Events of the year 230 AH
In Jumada(1) of this year the tribe of Banū Sulaym sallied about the Prophet’s City, spreading corruption in the land and menacing the highways. The people of Madinah fought them but were routed, whereupon the raiders seized the area between Madinah and Makkah together with its watering-stations and villages.
Caliph al-Wāthiq therefore dispatched Bugha the Elder, Abū Mūsā al-Turkī, at the head of an army. He met them in Shaʿbān, killed fifty of their horsemen, captured another fifty, and the remainder took to flight. He then offered them safe-conduct on condition that they submit to the judgment of the Commander of the Faithful. A great number accepted; he entered Madinah with them and imprisoned their leaders in the residence of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah. That same year he set out for the pilgrimage, and the rites were attended by Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muṣʿab, the governor of Iraq. The pilgrims were led by the emir Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd.
Among the notable deaths this year was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn(2), governor of Khurāsān and the adjoining provinces. The revenue of the lands under his authority amounted to forty-eight million dirhams, and the caliph appointed his son Ṭāhir to succeed him. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir al-Amīr died nine days after the Turkic officer Ashnās, on Monday, the eleventh night of Rabīʿ al-Awwal that same year.
Judge Ibn Khallikān(3) relates that he actually died in 228 AH at Marw, while others say Nishapur. He was renowned for generosity and praised by many, and he composed fine poetry, some of which is cited below. He(4) also held the governorship of Egypt after 220 AH.
The vizier Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Maghribī records that the Egyptian melon known as al-ʿAbdallāwī is associated with this ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir. Judge Ibn Khallikān(5) comments: either he was especially fond of the fruit, or he was the first to cultivate it there—Allah knows best.
Among his verses(6):
“Pardon my slip, that you may gain the merit of my gratitude, and let not your reward escape you.”