Abū Ayyūb al-Mūriyānī, Sulaymān b. Abī Sulaymān Makhlad (d. 154/771), was secretary and vizier to al-Manṣūr, the ʿAbbāsid caliph. As can be gathered from his title, he was originally from Mūriyān or Mūrān, a district of Khūzistān near Ahwāz (Yāqūt, 4/679; al-ʿĀmirī, 143). He was a mawlā (client) of the Banū Sulaym, one of the tribes of Baṣra (al-Balādhurī, 3/242; al-Irbilī, 86; Kaḥḥāla, 4/258).

One report states that Abū Ayyūb was acquired by al-Manṣūr [as his slave] before he became caliph: when al-Manṣūr sent him along with an offering to Abū al-ʿAbbās al-…