Ibn Ḥabīb (1) said: The clan-name al-Dīl is found among Taghlib, ʿAbd al-Qays, Iyād, and al-Azd.
This concludes al-Ḥāzimī’s quotations.
Accordingly, the nisbah applied to Abū al-Aswad appears in four forms: al-Dūlī, al-Dīlī, al-Duʾalī, and al-Duʾilī.
Ibn al-Sīd observed: duʾil, with a kasrah on the hamzah—I know of no disagreement about it.
More than one scholar has stated that Ibn Mākūlā and al-Ḥāzimī were mistaken in counting Farwah ibn Nufāthah among al-Duwl; rather, he was from Judhām.
Judhām and al-Duwl do not converge genealogically except through Sabaʾ ibn Yashjub (2).
Yahya ibn Maʿīn said: Abū al-Aswad died in the Plague of al-Jārif (3), in the year 69 AH, and this is the sound view.
It has also been said that he died shortly before that.
He lived to the age of eighty-five.
Whoever claimed that he died during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was in error.
29 – al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥuṣayn al-Tamīmī * (ʿ)
The eminent commander, the distinguished scholar, Abū Baḥr al-Tamīmī—one whose forbearance and nobility were proverbial.
(1) Previous source.
(2) See Lisaan al-Arab and Taj al-Arus, root D-A-L.
(3) The ta'un al-jarif (the sweeping plague) struck Basra at the beginning of the year 69 AH, during the time of Ibn al-Zubayr. It exterminated almost all of the population; the few survivors were unable to move the dead because of their sheer number. It was called “al-jarif” because it swept people away like a flood. Reports say that seventy thousand died each day, wild animals entered the houses to feed on the corpses, and only seven men and one woman attended the Friday prayer. Adapted from al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 2/383, and Taj al-Arus, root J-R-F.
(*) Ibn Saad, al-Tabaqat, 7/93; Khalifa, al-Tabaqat, p. 1555; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh, 2/50; Ibn Qutayba, al-Ma'arif, p. 423; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Ta'dil, vol. 2 (first part), p. 322; Abu Nu'aym, Akhbar Isbahan, 1/224; Ibn Abd al-Barr, al-Istihab, no. 160; Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Dimashq, 8/210 b; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghabah, 1/55; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-A'yan, 2/499; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, p. 72; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 3/129; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, 1/80; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah, 8/326; Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah, no. 429; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 1/191; Ibn Taghri, al-Nujum al-Zahirah, 1/184; Ibn Hajar, Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 44; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 1/78; Ibn Asakir, Tahdhib, 7/10.