He said (1): In the year 249 AH this man appeared, claiming to be ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allah (2) ibn ʿAbbās ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He summoned the people of Hajar to obey him; a number of them complied, whereupon much bloodshed, grave disorders, and widespread fighting ensued.
When he launched this uprising (3) a crowd of Zanj who used to clear the salt-marshes (4) rallied to him. He ferried them across the Tigris and encamped at al-Dīnārī. To some of the simple-minded among his followers he claimed he was Yaḥyā ibn ʿAmmu Abū al-Ḥusayn, who had been killed near Kūfah. He also boasted that in a single hour—simply by the movement of his tongue—he had memorised several surahs of the Quran that no one else could master so quickly, namely Sūrat al-Isrāʾ (“Subḥān”), al-Kahf, and Ṣād.
He further alleged that, while pondering in the desert which land to enter (5), a voice from a cloud told him to head for Basra, so he went. On approaching the city he found its people split into two factions, the Saʿdiyyah and the Bilāliyah. Hoping to join one group and use it against the other, he failed, so he travelled on to Baghdad and remained there a year. In Baghdad he claimed descent from Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Zayd and professed that he knew the secrets of his companions’ hearts, saying that Allah disclosed them to him. Because of this, ignoramuses from the riffraff and a number of the common rabble attached themselves to him.
He then returned to the region of Basra in Ramadan of that same year, and a large crowd gathered around him, though they possessed no equipment. It is reported that a force from Basra advanced against them; the two sides met, and in the rebel’s army there were only three swords, yet they routed their enemy, numbering some four thousand fighting men.
After that he marched toward Basra with his followers. A man from Jubba presented him with a horse, but finding neither saddle nor bridle for it, he (6) threw a rope over the animal, mounted, and bound its jaw with palm-fibre. He then seized another man, threatening him with death, and took 150 dinars (7) and 1,000 dirhams from him—this was the first wealth he acquired in those parts. From another man he took three barādhīn (8), and elsewhere he obtained some weapons and supplies. He pressed on with a small force lacking both arms and mounts. Even so, several engagements took place between him and the troops of the governor of Basra, and in every encounter he (9) defeated them. The more they reproached him, the stronger he grew, the more followers he gained, and the larger his army became. Yet he refrained from molesting the property of ordinary people, seeking only the wealth of the state.