Then came the year 287 AH.

In its month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal the affair of the Qarmatians, under the leadership of Abū Saʿīd al-Jannābī, took a dangerous turn: they killed, carried off captives, and spread corruption throughout the region of Hajar. The caliph therefore mustered a large army, placed it under al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmr al-Ghanawī, and appointed him over al-Yamāmah and al-Baḥrayn to wage war against Abū Saʿīd. The two forces met there while al-ʿAbbās had ten thousand fighting men with him, and Abū Saʿīd captured them all (1). Of the entire force only the commander survived; the rest were executed to the last man, one after another, in Abū Saʿīd’s presence—may Allah disgrace him. This is exceedingly astonishing, the exact reverse of the incident involving ʿAmr ibn al-Layth, for on that occasion ʿAmr alone was taken prisoner from among his fifty-thousand companions and all the others escaped.

Another report states that when Abū Saʿīd had finished putting al-ʿAbbās’s men to death before his very eyes, he kept al-ʿAbbās with him for several days, then released him, provided him with pack-animals, and said, “Return to your sovereign and inform him of what you have witnessed.” This encounter occurred toward the end of Shaʿbān of the same year.

When word of this reached the people, they were seized with intense alarm; the inhabitants of Basra even resolved to abandon the city, but its deputy, Aḥmad al-Wāthiqī, stopped them. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we return.

In that same year the Byzantines launched a raid against the lands of Ṭarsūs. Its governor, Ibn al-Ikhshād (2), had died the previous year and had appointed Abū Thābit over the frontier. The Byzantines coveted that region, gathered their forces and advanced. Abū Thābit confronted them but was unable to withstand them; they killed a number of his men and took him captive along with others. The frontier populace then rallied around Ibn al-Aʿrābī and invested him with command, and that occurred in Rabiʿ al-Ākhir.

Also in this year Muḥammad ibn Zayd al-ʿAlawī (3), ruler of Ṭabaristān and Daylam, was killed. The cause was that when Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad al-Sāmānī captured ʿAmr ibn al-Layth, the governor of Khurāsān, Muḥammad supposed that Ismāʿīl would not move beyond his own jurisdiction and that Khurāsān was now ripe for the taking. He therefore set out from his own territory intending to seize it, but Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad reached Khurāsān before him and wrote, “Remain within your own province; do not overstep it.” Muḥammad refused, so Ismāʿīl dispatched an army against him under Muḥammad ibn Hārūn, who had served as deputy to Rāfiʿ ibn Harthamah. When the two forces met, Muḥammad ibn Hārūn feigned flight, and the army pursued him (4); whereupon he wheeled about and charged back at them,