In this year, Muḥammad b. Sulaymān passed away in Basra. Hārūn al-Rashīd ordered the confiscation of his wealth that could be of use to the caliphs.
Among his possessions were found large amounts of gold, silver, and other items. These assets were seized to be used in wars and for the benefit of the Muslims.
The genealogy of Muḥammad b. Sulaymān is as follows: Muḥammad b. Sulaymān b. ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbās. His mother was Umm Ḥasan bint Jaʿfar b. Ḥasan b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. Muḥammad b. Sulaymān was among the valiant men of Quraysh. He had been appointed governor of Basra and Kufa by al-Manṣūr. Al-Mahdī married him to his own daughter, ʿAbbāsiyya. He possessed great wealth and fortune; his daily income was 100,000 dirhams. He had a ring of red ruby, the like of which had never been seen.
He transmitted, through his grandfather from his father, a marfūʿ hadith (a Prophetic report with an unbroken chain) stating that one should stroke the head of an orphan from the back to the front, and the head of one's own child from the front to the back. He had visited Hārūn al-Rashīd to congratulate him on his caliphate. Hārūn honored him, showed him respect, and granted him additional authority beyond his previous powers. When Muḥammad b. Sulaymān wished to leave the caliphal palace, Hārūn al-Rashīd accompanied him and saw him off as far as Kilwaza.
Muḥammad b. Sulaymān died in the month of Jumādā al-Ākhira of this year at the age of fifty-one. Hārūn al-Rashīd sent someone to select from his hidden wealth those items suitable for the caliphal office. When the appointed official inventoried his assets, he found 3,000,000 dinars in gold, 6,000,000 silver dirhams, and also some properties.
According to the narration of Ibn Jarīr, Muḥammad b. Sulaymān and Hārūn al-Rashīd's mother, Khayzurān, died on the same day.
One of Muḥammad b. Sulaymān's slave girls stood by his grave and recited the following poem:
"O Muḥammad! May dust be poured upon the head of the one with whom you stayed last night.
Throw earth upon him and say to him: 'Live.'
O earth, we love you, and apart from the one upon whom you are scattered, we have no honor; the honor is his."
In this year, the slave girl of Caliph al-Mahdī and the mother of the Commander of the Faithful, Mūsā al-Hādī and Hārūn al-Rashīd, Khayzurān, passed away. Al-Mahdī had purchased her and brought her into his palace. When she gained favor with al-Mahdī, he emancipated her and married her. Khayzurān bore him two sons, both of whom became caliphs: one was Mūsā al-Hādī, the other Hārūn al-Rashīd. This honor was also attained by another woman besides Khayzurān: the wife of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān and mother of al-Walīd and Sulaymān, Wallāda bint ʿAbbās al-ʿAbsiyya. Another was Shāhfirand bint Fayrūz b. Yazdajird, who bore her master al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik two sons, Marwān and Ibrāhīm, both of whom also became caliphs.
Khayzurān narrated, through her master al-Mahdī, his father, and grandfather, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
"Whoever fears Allah, everything will protect him."
When Khayzurān was presented for purchase, al-Mahdī liked her but was displeased with the thinness of her legs and said to her:
– O slave girl! You possess great beauty, but if only your legs were not so thin, wounded, and bruised. – O Commander of the Faithful, you need more the place to which these legs are attached than the legs themselves. You can do without seeing them.
Al-Mahdī liked her reply and purchased her. Khayzurān became his favorite and gained prestige. During al-Mahdī's lifetime, she performed the ḥajj once. While she was in Mecca, al-Mahdī sent her a letter expressing his loneliness and his love and longing for her in the following poem:
"We are in utmost joy, but our joy is only complete with you.
We have only one deficiency, O beloved: you are far away and we are here. Come quickly, if you can, come flying with the winds."
Khayzurān sent the following reply to al-Mahdī, or said to his messenger who came to her:
"We understood the longing you described. We almost flew, but we could not.
If only the winds could carry the love and longing in our hearts to you.
I always long for you, but if you can still be joyful while far from me, may your joy continue."
It is related that Muḥammad b. Sulaymān, the governor of Basra who died on the same day as her, had gifted her one hundred slave girls. Each slave girl held a silver cup filled with musk. In response to this gesture, Khayzurān wrote him the following letter:
If you sent these to express your feelings for us in material terms, what we think of you is much higher and greater than what you have sent us. You have sent us less than what you owe. But if you sent these gifts to increase our friendship, you have accused us of being deficient in friendship." Thus, she returned the gifts to Muḥammad b. Sulaymān.
Her daily income from her endowments was 100,000 dirhams. Three days before the end of the month of Jumādā al-Ākhira of this year, on a Friday night, she died in Baghdad. Her son Hārūn al-Rashīd left the palace to accompany her funeral, carried her bier, and brought it to the cemetery. On the way, his foot sank into the mud. When he reached the cemetery, he had water brought to wash his feet. He put on his leather socks and led his mother's funeral prayer. He placed her in her grave. When he came out of the grave, a pulpit was brought for him, and he sat upon it. He called for Faḍl b. Rabīʿ, gave him his seal, and appointed him as steward.
During the burial of his mother Khayzurān, Hārūn al-Rashīd recited the following verses by the poet Ibn Nuwayra:
"We were, for a time, like the companions of Juzayma. So close were we that it was said, 'These will never be separated.'
When we parted, I and Mālik—though we had long been together—it was as if we had never spent even a single night together."