Ibrâhim al-Imâm as governor over Mesopotamia and its frontier fortresses. Accordingly, ʿAbd-al-Wahhâb started in the year 140 at the head of troops from Khurâsân and was accompanied by al-Ḥasan ibn-Ḳaḥṭabah. He ordered the people of Syria and Mesopotamia to furnish contingents of troops, which they did to the number of 70,000. With these, he marched to the site of Malaṭyah, gathered workmen from various places and started the construction. Al-Ḥasan ibn-Kaḥṭabah himself would sometimes carry a stone and hand it over to the mason. He would also provide the workers with dinners and suppers at his own expense, opening his kitchens to the public. ʿAbd-al-Wahhâb was displeased at this and wrote to abu-Jaʿfar stating that he [ʿAbd-al-Wahhâb] gave food to the people, but al-Ḥasan distributed many times more, his aim being to contend with him for superiority in beneficence, to spoil what he did, and to disparage him by means of extravagance and hypocrisy; and that al-Ḥasan had special heralds to go round calling people to his meals. To this, abu-Jaʿfar replied, "Boy, al-Ḥasan feeds people on his own account; and thou feedest them on mine. What thou hast written was due to thy ignominy, deficient energy and base-mindedness." In the meantime, he wrote to al-Ḥasan: "Feed the people, but do not use a herald." Al-Ḥasan used to announce to the workmen that he who, in building a wall, got first to the crown of a cornice would receive so much." This made them put forth special effort to finish the work; and thus was Malaṭyah with its mosque rebuilt in 6 months. For every group of ten to fifteen troops in the army, he built a house of two rooms below and two rooms above and a stable. At a distance of thirty miles from the city, he built a frontier castle and another on a rivulet called Ḳubâḳib that empties its water into the Euphrates. Al-Manṣûr settled in Malaṭyah 4,000 fighters from Mesopotamia, Malaṭyah being one of
