Yusuf ibn al-Majishun said: When ʿAbd al-Malik sat to pass judgment, guards would stand over his head with drawn swords.
Yahya ibn Yahya (1) al-Ghassani related: ʿAbd al-Malik would often sit with Umm al-Dardaʾ at the rear of the Great Mosque of Damascus. She once said to him, “I have heard that, after all your piety and worship, you drank ṭilāʾ (2)!” He replied, “Yes, by Allah—and I have shed blood as well.”
It was also said that he suffered from halitosis (3).
Al-Shaʿbi said: ʿAbd al-Malik once ascended the pulpit and declared, “O Allah, my sins are enormous, yet they are small beside Your pardon, O Most Generous, so forgive them for me.” (4)
(The compiler comments:) He was one of the most formidable men of his age and among the master strategists—and al-Hajjaj was one of his sins.
He died in Shawwal, 86 AH, at a little over sixty years of age.
90 – ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam al-Madani * (d)
Governor of Egypt, Abu al-Asbagh al-Madani.
After ʿAbd al-Malik, the succession was pledged to him by his father, and he ruled Egypt independently for more than twenty years.
(1) The manuscript reads “Yahya ibn Bahr,” which is a scribal mistake; we have adopted the correct form from the author’s Mizān, and the report is also in Ibn ʿAsakir, vol. 10, p. 262a.
(2) al-tilaʾ: grape must boiled until two-thirds of its volume has evaporated; some Arabs use the term for wine in general.
(3) His mouth emitted a foul odour.
(4) Ibn ʿAsakir, vol. 10, p. 263a.
(*) Bibliography: Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat, 5/236; Khalifa, al-Tabaqat, no. 2062; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh, 6/8; Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿarif, pp. 355, 362; al-Kindi, Wulat Misr wa-Qudatuha, p. 48; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 2/2, p. 393; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, 10/194b; al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmaʾ wa-l-Lughat, 1/1, p. 206; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, p. 847; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 3/274; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, 1/99; Ibn Hajar, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 2/243b; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 9/57; al-Maqrizi, al-Khitat, 1/209; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 6/356; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-Zahira, 1/171 ff.; al-Suyuti, Husn al-Muhadara, 1/260, 586; Ibn Hajar, Khulasa Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, p. 241; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 1/95; Ibn Hisham, Khizanat al-Adab, 3/583.