that the earlier generations enjoyed longer lifespans because their journey through the wide-open desert was long; but once the caravan (1) drew near the land of settlement, the call rang out: “Spur the mounts on!”

He also said, “Whoever is content lives pleasantly, and whoever is greedy prolongs his own folly.”

On another day, while exhorting the caliph, he declared:
“O Commander of the Believers, if I speak I fear you, and if I keep silent I fear for you. Yet I put my fear for you ahead of my fear of you; for the adviser’s words, ‘Be mindful of God,’ are better than the flatterer’s, ‘Yours is a household already forgiven.’ ”

And he said, “The Pharaoh of Egypt boasts of a river he never caused to flow—how brazen he is!”

This topic could be expanded at length; his written works are filled with such precious sayings and their like.

As for Jaʿfar, his ninth forefather, Ibn Diḥya said, “Jaʿfar was called al-Jawzī, being linked to a ford among the fords of Basra known as Jawza.” Others said, “There was a single walnut tree (jawza) in his house, and in Wāsiṭ no other walnut tree could be found.”

A river’s furḍa is a breach in its bank, while a sea’s furḍa is the place where ships dock.

Abū al-Muẓaffar (2) said, “My grandfather had memorized the Quran and studied jurisprudence under Abū Bakr al-Dīnawarī the Hanbalī and under Ibn al-Farrāʾ.”

I add: he also recited the Quran to Sibt al-Khayyāṭ.