Epistle of Imam Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdullāh to Hārūn al-Rashīd

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. To proceed: I have understood your letter and the safe-conduct you offered me — that you would bestow upon me the moneys of the Muslims, and grant me as fiefs their estates, which God made theirs to the exclusion of me and of you, and in which He did not appoint for us so much as a date-stone’s groove or a thread. I thought it too grave even to give it a hearing, let alone to incline toward it, and I recoiled from it in disdain at accepting it. So withhold from me, O man, your money, your fiefs, and the fulfilling of my needs. She reared me with a deficient upbringing and bore me undutiful toward such offers. By God, were those of my family who were killed Turks or Daylamites — for all the remoteness of their lineage from me — their defence and the demand for their blood would still be incumbent upon me, since their killing, wrongfully and in enmity, came from you people. God lies in wait for you for what you have committed of that, and God suffices as Requiter, Punisher, Helper of His friends, and Avenger upon His enemies.

And how should I not demand their blood and sleep upon neglecting to avenge them — my father killed by hunger, thirst, and torment, by the cramping of prisons, the weight of fetters, and the heaping-on of burdens — my father ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan, the Pure Soul, of lofty aspiration, of pleasing religion, of godly fear and abundant good, the elder of the descendants of Fāṭimah, the master of all the sons of Hāshim, the highest in rank of the people of his age, the noblest in deeds among the people of God’s lands? Then following him were his brothers and his father’s sons, then my brothers and my paternal cousins — stars of the sky, pegs of the world, ornament of the earth, security of creation, mine of wisdom, wellspring of knowledge, refuge of the wronged, and shelter of the distressed; not one of them but, were he to swear an oath upon God, God would fulfill his oath. Whatever I forget of things, I shall not forget their slaughter-grounds, and what befell them through your evil power, the baseness of your triumph, the enormity of your audacity, and the hardness of your hearts.

And how should I forget it — something I do not recall by night but it makes my resting-place harsh upon me and unsettles me from my place, nor by day but it makes my living bitter upon me and constricts my soul — until I would wish that I could find a way to seek the aid of wild beasts against you, let alone the aid of people; and take from you the right of God that has become incumbent upon you, and take revenge upon your wrongdoer, and heal the burning of a breast whose anguishes have multiplied, and calm a heart of the believers seething with misgivings, and dispel the rage of their hearts — even for a single day — then God may decree concerning me whatever He wishes.

If I live, then I shall be one who attains his vengeance, calling to God the Glorified upon the path of right guidance — I and whoever follows me — treading the way of those who went before me of my fathers, my brothers, and my brethren, who rose for justice, the summoners to truth. And if I die, then it shall be upon the same course on which they died — neither dreading their slaughter-grounds nor turning away from their creed. For in them I have a goodly example and a guiding model.

The first of my models among them is the Commander of the Faithful (the pleasure of God be upon him), since he never ceased rising up — at the time when rising up was, given the possibility, an absolute duty. There opposed him one who was as insignificant as the cleft of a hoof to a sandal, and there contended against him one who was as worthless as darkness alongside the sun. And, by the life of God, they found of the party of Satan the like of what I have found — while they recognized the place of truth and knew the locations of right guidance. So they sold the great reward of the Hereafter for the paltry, fleeting goods of this world, and the sweetness of truth for the harsh bitterness of falsehood.

So the fourth of them said: “How can the caliphate and prophethood be his?” — out of envy and transgression. For of old were the prophets and the family of the prophets envied — those whom God singled out with the like of what He singled us out with. And the Blessed and Exalted took them to task for it, saying:

“Or do they envy people for what God has given them of His bounty? For We gave the family of Abraham the Scripture and wisdom, and We gave them a great kingdom.” [al-Nisāʾ: 54]

Then al-Ḥasan followed — the scion of the Messenger of God ﷺ and his likeness, the master of the youth of the people of Paradise. He struggled against the very ones whom the Commander of the Faithful had struggled against, until a man of Asad leapt upon him and stabbed him in the thigh. When his capacity fell short and his supporters forsook him, he and his brother made peace — excused, wronged, and robbed of their due. So the accursed one contrived to assassinate the son of the Messenger of God ﷺ until he attained his aim — so al-Ḥasan passed away poisoned, a martyr, wronged, struck down.

And his full brother al-Ḥusayn passed over, in the like of that by which his father and his brother had perished. They killed him, denied him the water of the Euphrates while it was made freely available to every wild beast, and made him thirst and made his family thirst and killed them wrongfully — they appealing to them but receiving no answer, imploring their mercy but receiving none — then they passed his head about as a gift to Yazīd of wines and debauchery. So away with the wrongdoing people.

Until, when corruption appeared on land and sea, Zayd ibn ʿAlī sold his soul for the cause of God, and it was not long before he was killed, then crucified, then burned. So God ennobled with such a slaughter-ground the best of slaughter-grounds.

Then there was nothing but the rising of his son Yaḥyā (peace be upon him), revolting in Khurāsān, and he met his appointed end, having given full justification for their cause.

And my brother Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh had made his call after Zayd and his son. The first to answer him and hasten to him was your grandfather Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, together with his brothers and his sons. So he went out, by his own claim, to uphold his call, until by calling to the summons to him he deceived whole groups. It is well known among the Community that you used to call people to us, and to us you claimed to return authority, and God took from you a covenant in our favour, and we took from you a covenant for our Mahdī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah. Then you broke that, and laid claim to an inheritance of the caliphate that you were not accustomed to claim, neither anciently nor recently. So here you are now, seeking to make God’s religion crooked and seeking the killing and extermination of the progeny of the Messenger of God.

By God, even had he met God with nothing but the killing of the Pure Soul, my brother Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh, he would have met Him with a grievous sin and a great calamity. So he lapped at their blood as dogs lap, and grew avid for killing their small and their great with the avidity of wolves, and gorged on them with the gorging of swine. And God lies in wait for him and for whoever acts by his deed.

Then God tested us with you after him. You were eager for our killing, and wronged the first and the last of us; no abode thereafter gives them security from you, nor does the remoteness of any neighbour — your stratagems and your guile pursue them wherever they take cover, in the lands of the Turks and of Daylam. Your soul does not rest nor your heart settle short of finishing off the last of us; you neither spare our small ones nor show mercy to our great ones.

Tyranny drove you forth and hatred carried you to the point that you openly disparaged the Commander of the Faithful, drew near to you those who hate him, and gave shelter to those who revile him — until you outdid the Banū Umayya in enmity toward him, healed their burning rage by reviling him, ordered the harrowing-up of the grave of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (peace be upon him), the obliterating of its site, the killing of its visitors, and the extirpation of those who love him.

By God, the Banū Umayya — whose traces we have set up as an example of evil to you — were more tender toward us, more compassionate of heart toward us than all of you. And why should there be no struggle against you, while you devote yourself to the disobedience of God morning and evening — at one time inciting contests among beasts, at another lying with eunuchs, coming to males, and abandoning the prescribed prayers, sober and drunk — none of that diverting you from killing the friends of God and violating the sanctities of God? Glory be to God — how great is His forbearance with you and the likes of you!

As for the safe-conduct to which you invited me, and the moneys you offered me — one like me is not turned from his resolve by enticements. Shall I sell out the Muslims, when their eyes have looked up to me in hope? Shall I sell my high standing for your money, and the honour of my station for your dirhams, and clothe myself in shame and disgrace for the sake of your position? Then indeed I would have gone astray.

By God, my food is naught but coarse fare, my clothing naught but the rough, my undergarment naught but the coat of mail, my companion naught but the sword, my bed naught but the ground, and my only appetite from this world is naught but meeting you in battle, and the desire to struggle against you, even for a single stand — awaiting one of the two goods in all of that: either victory or martyrdom.

Furthermore: we have from God a promise He will not break, and a certainty He will surely fulfill, where He says:

“God has promised those of you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely make them successors in the land as He made successors those before them, and that He will surely establish for them their religion which He has approved for them, and that He will surely exchange, after their fear, security for them: they worship Me, not associating anything with Me.” [al-Nūr: 55]

And He it is who says: “And We desired to show favour to those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them leaders and to make them the inheritors.” [al-Qaṣaṣ: 5]

Text of the Safe-Conduct (Amān) — in the hand of Hārūn al-Rashīd

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. This is a safe-conduct for Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and for seventy men of his companions: I grant you safe-conduct, O Yaḥyā, and the seventy men of your companions, by the safe-conduct of God — there is no god but He, who knows of the secrets of the servants what He knows of their open acts — a safe-conduct sound, valid, and truthful, its outward like its inward and its inward like its outward, untainted by any rancour, unmixed with any deceit that might later be made a pretext by any means or for any cause.

I grant to Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the seventy men of his companions a pure, confirmed covenant, an obligatory, weighty pledge, and the protection of God, the protection of His Messenger, the protection of His sent prophets and His angels brought near; and that he has made these pledges and protections for him and his companions binding in a confirmed, sound bond, from which there is no acquittal for him in his world or his Hereafter except by fulfilling it.

So if he breaks what he has granted you and your companions of this safe-conduct, or contravenes it toward some matter you would dislike, or conceals within himself toward you other than what he displayed, or introduces any seeking of deception toward you or treachery against you — then may God accept from him neither voluntary devotion nor obligatory act; and Zubayda, daughter of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Jaʿfar, is thrice irrevocably divorced from him; and every chattel he owns, of male slave, female slave, concubine, and mothers-of-children, are free; and every woman he marries in the future is divorced; and every slave he comes to own in the future, male or female, they are free; and every property he owns or acquires is alms to the poor and the destitute; and upon him is the obligation of walking to the Sacred House of God barefoot and on foot; and upon him are all the most binding constraining oaths; and the Commander of the Faithful, Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh, is divested of the command of the faithful, and the Community is quit of his governance, with no obedience owed to him upon their necks. And God is surety over him for what he has confirmed; and God suffices as Witness.