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English Translation of al-Jahshiyari’s Kitab al-Wuzaraʾ wa al-Kuttab: 6: Scribes of Yazid, Muʿawiyah b. Yazid and Marwan


During the Time of Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah

ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aws al-Ghassānī—who had previously written for Muʿāwiyah—served as a scribe for Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah. Sarjūn b. Manṣūr continued to manage the dīwān al-kharāj during his reign.

When news reached Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah of al-Ḥusayn’s journey toward Kūfah, he was distressed and troubled by it. He consulted Sarjūn b. Manṣūr about whom to appoint over Iraq to confront al-Ḥusayn. Sargūn said: “ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād.” Yazīd would dislike ʿUbayd Allāh, and therefore, replied: “There is no good in him. Name someone else.” Sarjūn then said: “If Muʿāwiyah were alive and had advised you to appoint him, would you have followed his advice?” Yazīd said: “Yes.” Sarjūn then presented him with a written appointment from Muʿāwiyah to ʿUbayd Allāh, designating him governor of Kūfah, bearing Muʿāwiyah’s seal. He said: “I had this in my possession all along, and the only reason I did not mention it earlier was my awareness of your dislike for ʿUbayd Allāh.” So Yazīd ordered that the appointment be executed. At the time, ʿUbayd Allāh was already serving as governor of Baṣrah alongside Muslim b. ʿAmr al-Bāhilī.

Sarjūn and Yazīd wrote the following letter to Ubayd Allah b. Ziyād:

Ammā baᶜd (As for what follows): 

The praised man is bound to be vilified one day, and the vilified man may be praised one day. You have been elevated to a station, as the poet said: 

You have been raised until you neigh among the clouds above— 

And there remains for you no perch but the perch of the sun. 

Al-Ḥusayn has been made your trial—your era over all others, your land over all lands, and you among all governors have been afflicted by him. Either you emancipate yourself—or return a slave, just as a slave is enslaved. 

And peace.”

Yazīd also appointed Salm b. Ziyād as governor over Khurāsān. His scribe was Asṭifānūs, who had previously served Salm’s brother, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. 

Muʿāwiyah b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah:

Al-Rayyān b. Muslim was a scribe of Muʿāwiyah b. Yazīd. Sarjūn b. Manṣūr al-Nasrānī was his scribe for dīwān.

Marwān b. al-Ḥakam

Sufyān al-Aḥwāl used to write for Marwān. Sarjūn b. Manṣūr al-Nasrānī was also his scribe dedicated to the dīwān. It has also been narrated that Abū al-Zuʿayziʿah wrote for him.


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