thirty-three rulers—right up to our own day, a span of six hundred years, the first of them being al-Saffāḥ.

The caliph in our time is al-Mustakfī, who holds the pulpit title, while the power to bind and release rests in the hand of the Sultan, al-Malik al-Nāṣir—may Allah support them both.

Having confined ourselves, in recounting the merits of the Messenger of Allah’s uncle ﷺ, to this brief selection, let us now mention his death. It occurred in the year 32 AH, when he was eighty-six years old; none of his sons, their sons, nor the caliphs descended from him, ever reached that age.

A lofty, imposing dome stands over his grave in al-Baqīʿ, and we shall treat his son, the jurist ʿAbd Allah ibn al-ʿAbbās, in a separate section.

The Funeral of al-ʿAbbās

Namla ibn Abī Namla narrated—on the authority of his father—who said: When al-ʿAbbās died, the Banū Hāshim sent someone to announce to the people of the ʿAwālī district, “May Allah show mercy to whoever attends the funeral of al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.” The people converged in great numbers. (1)

Al-Wāqidī said: Ibn Abī Sabrah told us, from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jāriya, who said: A herald announcing the death of al-ʿAbbās arrived at Qubā riding a donkey; another herald then came to us, also on a donkey, and he turned toward the villages of the Anṣār until he reached the lower quarter, whereupon the people gathered.

When the bier was brought to the place where funeral prayers are held, the crowd became too dense, so they carried it on to al-Baqīʿ. I have never seen a procession like it: no one could get close to his bier, and they crowded around at—