Al-Muwaffaq next marched against a city known as al-Manṣūrah, another of the Zanj foundations, where Sulaymān ibn Jāmiʿ was in command. He laid siege to it and its defenders fought fiercely; many on both sides were slain. During the fighting Abū al-ʿAbbās, the son of al-Muwaffaq, loosed an arrow at Aḥmad ibn Hindī, striking him in the head and killing him. He had been one of the chief commanders of the Zanj leader, and his death caused that leader intense grief.

The following morning the Muslims were still encircling the Zanj stronghold. It was Saturday, three days before the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir. Al-Muwaffaq’s troops were drawn up in the finest order. Al-Muwaffaq himself advanced, prayed four rakʿahs, and earnestly implored Allah, then pressed the siege. Allah routed the city’s garrison. When he reached the first moat he found it fortified to the utmost, and discovered that the Zanj had encircled the town with five moats and five walls. Each time he passed one wall they fought him from behind the next, but he defeated them and moved on until he reached the city proper, where he slew great numbers and the rest fled.

He captured many women and children from among the Zanj, including the wives of Sulaymān ibn Jāmiʿ and his kinsmen (1). He also rescued from their hands about ten thousand Muslim women and children from Basra, Kūfa, and Wāsiṭ (2), sending them back to their families—may Allah reward him well (3).

He then ordered the demolition of its warehouses and walls and the filling in of its moats and canals. He remained there seventeen days and dispatched detachments after the fugitives. Whenever any of them were brought to him, he won them over to the right path with courtesy, gentleness, and pardon, assigning each man to the care of one of the commanders, for his purpose was to bring them back to the truth.

After that he rode to Ahwāz, expelled the Zanj from it, and killed many of their nobles—among them Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Baṣrī, an obeyed leader in their ranks. He seized abundant booty from their wealth.

Al-Muwaffaq then wrote to the leader of the Zanj—may Allah disgrace him—calling him to repent and return from his crimes, injustices, and forbidden acts, from his pretensions to prophethood and apostleship, from the ruin of towns, and from his violation of people’s honor and property. He offered him safety should he come back to the truth, but the Zanj leader sent no reply.

An Account of Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaq’s March to the City in Which the Zanj Leader Resided—al-Mukhtārah—to Lay Siege to It

When Abū Aḥmad wrote to the Zanj leader summoning him to the truth and received no answer—an act of disdain—he set out with a mighty host of nearly fifty thousand fighting men, heading for the city the rebel had built and named al-Mukhtārah. On reaching it he found it superbly fortified; the rebels had surrounded it with a great array of siege engines, and a vast multitude had gathered around the Zanj leader