Surprisingly enough...

Surprisingly enough, Harun told the agent who had beheaded Ja‘far to summon such and such persons, and when they came in, he told them: “Behead the agent, as I cannot tolerate to see Ja‘far’s murderer.[^5] On Saturday 3 Jamadi II 193/24 March 809, Harun died in Tus. He ruled as a caliph for 23 years and a few months.

He was four months past 44 years old when he died and was buried in the same place that the Holy Shrine of Imam al-Ridha (a.s.) is located now, about which his holiness had frequently informed. Sometimes he would say: “You will bury me with him in the same room.”[^6] At other times he would say: “Tus city will fill the gap between us.”[^7] Yet at other times he would say: “I and Harun would be like these two…,” joining his middle and index fingers together.

^8 In this respect, Diʿbil has some poems the gist of which is as follows: “There are two graves in Tus, one for the best of the people and the other for the worst of them; and this in itself is an admonitory lesson; neither that impure will benefit from that pure one, nor will this pure be harmed by this impure.[^9] On Thursday 15 Jamadi II 193/5 April 809, allegiance was secured for Muhammad Amin, Harun’s son, who was his heir and was in Baghdad when his father died.

His mother, Zubayda, daughter of Ja‘far b. Abi Jaʿfr Mansur, was among the noble ladies of the Abbasids. Her monuments, including the construction or the reconstruction of the city of Tabriz and some wells on the way to Mecca, are famous. She had one hundred female slaves who knew the Qur’an by heart. The sound of the Qur’an recitation was heard in her palace like the sound of the bees. She died in Baghdad in 216/831.

Qadhi Nur Allah has related in his Majalis al-Mu’minin that Zubayda was a devoted Shi‘a, and when Harun found out about her staunch belief, he divorced her and sent her the bill of divorce.

Zubayda wrote on the back of the bill: “I am thankful to God for the previous situation, and now that we are separated I am not regretful.”[^10] Eighteen nights had passed since Muhammad Amin’s rule when he decided to break his covenant and to dethrone Ma‘mun who was introduced as his father’s successor during the latter’s reign and to make his son, Musa Natiq, the caliph. He consulted the viziers and commanders, but no one except ‘Ali b. ‘Isa b. Mahan deemed it advisable.

Amin proceeded to dethrone Ma’mun and sent a massive army under the command of ‘Ali b. ‘Isa to fight against Ma’mun in Khurasan.