A.H. 176 (792). Shi`ite revolt in Daylam. Hamza el-Khuzā`ī, governor of Khorāsān.
A.H. 178 (794). El-Fadhl ibn Yahya was appointed governor of Khorāsān.
A.H. 178 (794). He built mosques and post-stations in Khorāsān, conducted a “Holy War” in Transoxiana, and was unsuccessfully attacked by the king of Oshrūsana Khārakhara.[199]
A.H. 179 (795). Mansūr el-Himyari was governor of Khorasan.
A.H. 180 (796). Ja`far ibn Yahya was governor of Khorāsān and Sīstān.
A.H. 182 (798). The famous Caliph Hārūn er-Rashīd appointed his infant son Ma´mūn ruler over all the countries from Hamadān to the farthest East, under the guardianship of Ja`far ibn Yahya.
The year A.H. 187 (802) was memorable in Mohammedan annals for the sudden disgrace and fall of the all-powerful favourites of the Caliph, the Barmecides,[200] at that time represented by the brothers Fadhl and Ja`far and their aged father Yahya. Their story has been told too often to bear repetition in this place, although, as we have seen, the Barmecides had from their origin been closely connected with Khorāsān.
On the fall of the Barmecides, A.H. 187 (802), `Alī ibn `Isā[201] was appointed to the governorship of Khorāsān, but the complaints against his misgovernment and extortion grew so loud that in A.H. 189 (804) Hārūn resolved to undertake a journey of inspection into the province. He accordingly set out at the head of 50,000 men,[202] leaving the government in the hands of his heir-apparent Amīn. On reaching Ray, however, he found `Alī ibn `Isā awaiting his arrival with rich presents for himself and his generals, and, soothed by these gifts and by the flattery of the cruel governor, Hārūn took him into favour and sent him back to Khorāsān, while he himself returned to his capital, A.H. 190 (806).
In the following year a certain Rāfi` ibn Layth, a grandson of the Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyār, for reasons of private vengeance, killed the governor of Samarkand and became master of that town. With the aid of the discontented citizens and some Turkish tribes he repulsed the army sent against him by `Alī ibn `Isā, A.H. 191 (807). Hārūn, on hearing of this revolt, at once despatched his trusted general Harthama to re-establish order; but the seditionary movement under Rāfi` continued to grow with such rapidity that the Caliph thought fit to take the field against him in person.[203] So, again leaving Baghdad in the hands of his son Amīn, he set out for Khorāsān with a large army. On reaching Kirmānshāh, he sent forward Ma´mūn, accompanied by Fadhl ibn Sahl as his vezīr, with orders to establish himself in Merv and to send Harthama to attack Rāfi`, who had established his camp in Bokhārā and was now practically master of Transoxiana. Meanwhile the Caliph, who was suffering from a severe malady,[204] was advancing by slower stages towards Khorāsān with the main body of his army. On reaching Tūs the symptoms became more acute, and on the 3rd of Jumāda II. 193 (24th March 809), the great Caliph succumbed at the early age of forty-five, and was buried in that town.