The Killing of Ma'n ibn Za'ida

مقتل معن بن زائدة

Fearing winter's onset Ma'n withdrew to Bust; Kharijites who resented his rule slipped among the builders at his house, hid their swords in reed bundles at roofing-time, and entered his dome while he was being cupped — they butchered him, one splitting his belly with a dagger, Abu al-Ghulam al-Taqi striking his head. Yazid ibn Mazyad killed every one of them, then held Sijistan, bearing hard on its Arabs and Ajam until forged letters to al-Mansur — that the Mahdi's letters confused him — brought his dismissal, imprisonment and confiscation. Later released, he lay hidden in Madinat al-Salam until Kharijites met him on the bridge and he fought them; then he rose to Yusuf al-Barm in Khurasan.

The long-form text for this entry has not been written yet. The facts and connections below come from the museum's data.

Ma'n ibn Za'ida's Campaign on Rutbil

Al-Mansur gave Sijistan to Ma'n ibn Za'ida al-Shaybani, who demanded of Rutbil the atawa al-Hajjaj had settled; Rutbil sent camels, Turkish tents and slaves, doubled in value — which enraged Ma'n. With Yazid ibn Mazyad on the van he marched on Rukhkhaj; Rutbil had left to summer in Zabulistan, which Ma'n took with mass captives, among them the boy Faraj al-Rukhkhaji — who told how a cloud of dust raised by wild asses' hooves looked to Ma'n like an army coming to wrest the captives, so he put them to the sword until he saw the donkeys and stopped; 'I saw my father bent over me saying: kill me, not my son'. The captives ran near thirty thousand. Mawand, Rutbil's deputy, sought aman to be borne to the Commander of the Faithful — sent to Baghdad with five thousand of their fighters, honored by al-Mansur, granted stipend and command.

The Killing of Ma'n ibn Za'ida

At a glance

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

People

Ma'n ibn Za'ida's Campaign on Rutbil