Editing Ali al-Rida (section)

==Journey to Khorasan==
In 200/815-16, the caliph [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-mamun-SIM_4889 Maʾmun] wrote inviting him to come to Marv and sent Rajaʾ b. Abi’l-Zahhak, cousin of the vizier Fazl b. Sahl, and the eunuch Fernas to accompany him on his trip. Shiʿite sources name in place of Fernas the eunuch Yaser, who later appears in the personal service of the Imam and, after the latter’s death, reported about him in Qom. The assertion by Abu’l-Faraj Esfahani and Mofid that the Imam was accompanied to Marv by the general Isa Joludi is definitely mistaken. The latter in this year suppressed the rebellion of Muhammad b. Jaʿfar in Mecca and took him along to Iraq, where he was surrendered to Rajaʾ b. Abi’l-Zahhak.<ref>Tabari, III, pp. 993-95.</ref> 

Rajaʾ thus conveyed both Alids to Khorasan. The Imam seems to have made the pilgrimage to Mecca in this year accompanied by his five-year-old son Muhammad. He set out for Marv early in 201/late summer, 816. His travel route was, according to most sources, via Basra, Ahvaz, and Fars; this was natural since Baghdad and Kufa at this time were in the hands of rebels. Yaʿqubi’s statement that Rajaʾ traveled via Baghdad and Nehavand (Mah al-Basra) is thus erroneous. It is certain that the Imam did not pass through Qom. He visited Nishapur, where the prominent Sunni traditionists like Ebn Rahuya, Yahya b. Yahya, Muhammad b. Rafeʿ, and Ahmad b. Harb came out to meet him, and he stayed for some time in the town. Shiʿite sources report that next to the house where he stayed he planted an almond tree whose fruit had miraculous healing power. A bath in the quarter of his residence was known in the time of Ebn Babuya as Ḥammam al-Rida and people used to come to wash in and drink from a spring there where he had washed himself and prayed. 

On a new summons of Maʾmun, the Imam continued on to Marv. According to some Shiʿite accounts, Maʾmun at first proposed to resign from the [[caliphate]] in favor of him. The Imam resisted his proposals for about two months but finally consented reluctantly to an appointment as heir to the caliphate. Maʾmun gave him the title Reza, which had previously been used in Shiʿite rebellions to refer to the descendant of the Prophet upon whose choice as caliph the Muslim community would agree. Shiʿite claims that the name had been given to him by his father appear to be without foundation. The [[bayʿa]] of the dignitaries and army leaders in Marv to the heir-apparent took place according to Tabari on 2 Ramazan 201/23 March 817, according to Suli on 5 Ramazan/27 March. The first to pledge allegiance to Reza, who was dressed in green, was Maʾmun’s still minor son Abbas. Among the poets who offered their eulogies to him on this occasion were Ebrahim b. Abbas Suli and [[Deʿbel Khozaʿi]]. Both wore given 10,000 of the newly minted dirhams bearing the name of the Alid. [[Abbasid|Abbasids]] and Alids then took turns in receiving gifts, the former led by Abbas b. Maʾmun, the latter by Muhammad b. Jaʿfar. After the ceremony, on 7 Ramazan/30 March, an official letter of the caliph announcing the appointment was drawn up to be read in the mosques throughout the empire. Maʾmun gave orders that the name of the crown prince be included in the [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/khutba-SIM_4352 Khutba] everywhere and that the color of the uniforms, official dress, and flags be changed from black, the official Abbasid color, to green. The color green had not previously been associated with the Alids and was probably intended to signify a reconciliation between Abbasids and Alids rather than a surrender to the claims of the latter.