he received them graciously, draped them in robes of honour, and rewarded them with the most generous gifts. What transpired at the opening of the following year will be recounted in due course.

In the same year—during the month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal—another man from the Prophet’s Household arose in the districts of Qazwin and Zanjan. He was al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Arqaṭ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, better known as al-Kawkabī. The details of his affair there will be given later.

That same year Ismāʿīl ibn Yūsuf al-ʿAlawī—nephew of Mūsā ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Ḥasanī—also rebelled; the account of his uprising will be set forth in its proper place.

In this year, too, a Talibid rose in Kūfah: al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Al-Mustāʿīn dispatched Muzāḥim ibn Khāqān against him. They engaged in battle, the ʿAlawī was routed, and a great many of his men were killed. When Muzāḥim entered Kūfah he burned a thousand houses, pillaged the property of all who had joined the revolt, and even sold some of al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad’s slave-girls—his freedman was sold at the gate of the congregational mosque.

In that same year Ismāʿīl ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan (1) ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib appeared in Mecca. The city’s deputy, Jaʿfar ibn al-Faḍl ibn ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā, fled before him, whereupon Ismāʿīl ibn Yūsuf plundered his residence and the houses of his supporters. He killed a number of soldiers and other inhabitants of Mecca, seized the gold, silver, perfume, and covering of the Kaʿbah, and took from the people something like two hundred thousand dinars. He then marched to the Prophet’s City, whose governor, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ismāʿīl, likewise fled. Ismāʿīl ibn Yūsuf returned to Mecca in Rajab, besieging its people until they perished from hunger and thirst: bread sold at three awāq (ounces) for a single dirham, meat at four dirhams per ratl (pound), and a draught of water for three dirhams. The people of Mecca suffered every conceivable hardship at his hands. After a stay of fifty-seven days he moved on to Jeddah, plundered the merchants’ wealth there (2), seized the ships, and cut off provisions from Mecca until supplies had to be brought in from Yemen. Thereafter—may Allah not reward him with any good on behalf of the Muslims—he returned to Mecca.

When the Day of ʿArafah arrived, the people were unable to stand there either by day or by night. He killed one thousand one hundred pilgrims, robbed them of their possessions, and that year none stood at ʿArafah save him and those with him—may Allah accept from them neither obligatory nor voluntary deeds (3).

[Among the notable deaths this year] was Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr al-Kawsaj (4).