You have behaved with strictness and assaulted with courage...

You have behaved with strictness and assaulted with courage, maintaining your composure. You have done very well and testified to the correctness of my good impression about you. I invited your messengers and asked them and confided in them, and I found their views and merits just as you indicated; so, take good care of them. It has also come to my knowledge that al-Husayn Ibn ‘Ali has marched towards Iraq.

You should, therefore, set up observation posts, prepare with arms, be cautious for mere suspicion. Kill anyone whom you suspect.[^17] Your tenure is put to the test by this Husayn rather than by anyone else, so is your country and your own self as governor. The outcome will determine whether you will be freed or whether you will return to slavery[^18]; so,…