The Nāṣirī Generations 12: III. ’ABD-ULLAH, SON OF TAHIR.

12

On the decease of Talhah, the Commander of the Faithful, Mamun, summoned to his presence ’Abd-ullah, the son of Tahir, who had become Amir [governor] of Misr. ’Abd-ullah had been brought up at the Court of the Khilafat, and under the patronage, and under the eye, of the Khalifah himself, and had become greatly accomplished. In his seventeenth year, Mamun had entrusted him with the command of his forces; and he had so conducted himself, that, in his twenty-seventh year, ’Abd-ullah had become renowned among men for his manliness, his vigour, his intrepidity, and his virtues and talents. At this period the Khalifah appointed him to the government of Khurasan, and directed that ’Ali, son of Tahir, brother of ’Abd-ullah, should act as his brother’s Khalifah, or Lieutenant, in the command of the troops of the Dar-ul-Khilafat [the capital], in repressing the seditious and rebellious, and in the extermination of heretic Kharijis, and, likewise, in carrying out the affairs of state, and all such other duties as appertained unto ’Abd-ullah to perform and attend to.
At the time the Khalifah’s mandate to proceed into Khurasan and assume the government reached him, ’Abd-ullah was at Dinawr engaged in suppressing Babak-i-Khurrami. When he reached Nishapur, rain, which had not fallen for a considerable time, began to descend and to refresh the parched ground on the very same day, and the people took it as a good omen. He founded palaces for himself, and his followers and dependents, at Shadyakh of Nishapur. He suppressed the Kharijis, and punished them with severity; and ruled with the utmost equity and justice, and introduced many good and wise regulations.
He was also a great patron of learning, and to such a degree, that he requested the Imam 'Abd-ul-Kasim, son of Sallam, to write a commentary for him on the work entitled Gharib-ul-Hadis; and, in recompense for so doing, sent him a present of 100,000 silver dirams and a valuable dress of honour.
The Lord of the Faithful, Al-Mamun, had entrusted Abd-ullah with the government of the whole of the territory of 'Ajam; and, when that Khalifah died, his successor, Al-Mutasim B’illah, confirmed him, as his father had done before, in the government of the whole of the territory of 'Ajam, which Abd-ullah retained until the year 230 H., in the reign of Al-Wasik B’illah, when he died. He had exercised sovereignty over the territories of 'Ajam for a period of seventeen years; and, when he died, he had attained the age of forty-eight, the same age as his father. When his death drew near, he nominated his son Tahir as his successor over Khurasan.