THE HISTORY OF AL-'.fABARi AN ANN OT A TED TRAN SLA TIO N

VOLUME XXVIII 'Abbasid Authority Affirmed THE EARLY YEARS OF AL-MAN~UR A.D. 753-763 /A.H. 136-145 Bibliotheca Persica Edited by Ehsan Yar-Shater

The History of al-Tabari (Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muliik)

VOLUME XXVIII

'Abbasid Authority Affirmed

translated and annotated by

f ane Dammen McAuliffe

University of Toronto

State University of New York Press The History of al-Tabar!

Editorial Board Ihsan Abbas, University of Jordan, Amman C. E. Bosworth, The University of Manchester Franz Rosenthal, Yale University Everett K. Rowson, The University of Pennsylvania Ehsan Yar-Shater, Columbia University IGeneral Editor)

Estelle Whelan, Editorial Coordinator

Center for Iranian Studies Columbia University

SUNY

SERIES IN NEAR EASTERN STUDIES Said Amir Arjomand, Editor

The preparation of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. Contents

Preface I vii

Abbreviations I xi

Translator's Foreword I xiii

The Caliphate of Abu Ja'far al-Man~ur

The Events of the Year I36 (cont'd) (753-754) I;. The Events of the Year 137 (754-755) I 7 An Account of Abu Muslim's Murder and the Reason for It I 18 The Episode of Sunbadh I 44 The Events of the -Year 138 (755-756} I 48 The Reason Jahwar Turned against al-Man$iir I 49 How al-Mulabbid Came to Be Killed I 50 The Events of the Year 139 (756-757) I 54 The Arrest of

The Events of the Year r4r (758-759) I 62 The Rawandiyyah Affair and How Abu Ja

The Events of the Year 142 (7 59-760) I 77 Why

The Events of the Year 144 (761-762) I 84 The Reason Abu Ja

The Events of the Year 145 ·(762-763) I 142 The R~bellion of Muhammad b.

Bibliography of Cited Works I 29 3

Index I 305