The jurist Naṣr (1) related from his teacher, also named Naṣr, that moments before the latter died he heard him saying, “My master, grant me a little respite; I am acting under command, and so are you.” Then I heard the call to the ʿAsr prayer, so I said, “Master, the muezzin is calling.”

He replied, “Sit me up.” I seated him, whereupon he pronounced the opening takbīr, placed one hand upon the other, performed the prayer, and passed away on the spot.

Ibn ʿAsākir dated the death of the jurist Naṣr to the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ in the year ninety (2). Those who escorted his bier said, “We were unable to bury him until shortly before sunset because the crowd stood between us and him. We had never seen a funeral like it, and we kept watch at his grave for seven nights (3).”

I add: In the same year there also died—
• The Mālikī shaykh Abū Yaʿlā Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-ʿAbdī al-Baṣrī, known as Ibn al-Ṣawwāf (4), aged ninety, the author of many works;
• The ḥadīth authority of Isfahan, Abū Naṣr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Simsār (5), the last to transmit from Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Jurjānī;
• The shaykh of Hamadhān, Abū al-Fatḥ ʿAbdus ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdus (6), who died at ninety-five; and
• The leading Qur’an reciter of Baghdad, Abū al-Qāsim Yaḥyā ibn Aḥmad al-Sībī (7), who had studied under al-Ḥammāmī and lived to the age of one hundred and two.