al-Hinnāʾī the ḥadith scholar, about the year of his birth, and he answered, “In 378 AH(1).”

Ibn Mākūlā(2) said, “I took ḥadith from him; he was trustworthy, and his nisba derives from the henna trade.”

Al-Kattānī stated, “He died in Jumādā al-Ūlā of the year 459 AH(3). He was the last of Ibn Durustawayh’s students. He was buried beside his brother ʿAlī in the Bāb Kaysān cemetery(4), and his funeral was enormous—the like of it we had not witnessed for a long time(5).”

69 – Ṣāḥib al-Yaman*

Among the remnants of Yemen’s kings there remained a child from the household of Ibn Ziyād, who had seized Yemen after the year 200 AH; authority stayed in the hands of his descendants for more than 260 years(6). The boy’s affairs were managed by his retainers—the servant Marjān, Najāḥ the Abyssinian, and Nafīs—all three of them slaves of the vizier Ḥusayn the Nubian(7), who appeared after the year 400 AH. Matters unfolded until the boy and his aunt, the Lady Ḥayyayn, were both laid to rest(8)(9).

This Ziyādī dynasty remained loyal to the ʿAbbāsids and exchanged gifts with them. Later, however, Najāḥ mustered an army and fought Nafīs.