they had witnessed the whole scene along with me. They seized me, threw a blanket over me, and began to smother me, (1) while I kept pushing my head out here and there until I slipped away with not a stitch on my body. (2)
I then met an Abyssinian woman, snatched her veil, and used it to cover my nakedness; she protested with such-and-such words. (3)
I came to Jaʿfar and he asked, “What is the matter with you?”
I replied, “Everything I owned has been taken.”
He went with me to the king’s gate and said, “Ask leave for the Party of Allah.”
The doorkeeper answered, “He is with his family.”
Jaʿfar said, “Seek permission for me.”
Permission was granted, and he declared, “ʿAmr has given me his pledge upon my religion.” (4)
The king said, “Never!”
Jaʿfar retorted, “Indeed he has.”
The king told a man, “Go; if he really has, do not let him utter a single word without writing it down.”
The man came and began writing whatever I dictated, leaving out nothing—not even the drinking bowl—and had I wished to take anything of their wealth and add it to my own, I could have done so. (5)
ʿAmr also said, “I was present at Badr with the polytheists, and then I attended Uhud, …”
(1) In other words: they cover me and keep my soul from departing.
(2) Meaning: the garment.
(3) Al-qinaʿ: the cloth with which a woman covers her head.
(4) Al-Matalib and Al-Majmaʿ read: “follow me,” whereas Kashf al-Astar has: “ʿAmr has abandoned his religion and adopted mine.”
(5) According to Abu Hatim and al-Nasaʾi, no one narrated from ʿUmayr b. Ishaq except ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAwn. Ibn Maʿin said, “He is worthless,” although on another occasion he declared him reliable. Al-Nasaʾi judged him unobjectionable, and Ibn Hibban listed him among the trustworthy narrators in Al-Thiqat. Al-ʿUqayli placed him in Al-Duʿafaʾ because only one transmitter narrated from him. Ibn ʿAdi stated: “I know of no one who reported from him other than Ibn ʿAwn; he has only a few hadith, but his narrations are recorded.” The remaining transmitters in the chain are trustworthy.
Ibn Hajar cited the report in Al-Matalib al-ʿAliya, 4/195-198, attributing it to Abu Yaʿla, and commented: “Its isnad is sound (hasan), though it differs from the well-known account that ʿAmr embraced Islam at the hands of the Negus himself.”
Al-Bazzar transmitted it in his Musnad, as preserved in Kashf al-Astar (no. 1740), remarking: “We know of no other chain in which Jaʿfar narrates this from the Prophet, peace be upon him, except this one.” Al-Haythami reproduced it in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid, 6/27-29, saying: “It is reported by al-Tabarani and al-Bazzar. ʿUmayr b. Ishaq was declared reliable by Ibn Hibban and others; the criticism leveled at him is not harmful, and the rest of its transmitters are those of the Sahih.” This hadith appeared earlier, vol. 1, p. 437, in the section on the Negus.