of Yemen; he was the imam and unrivalled scholar of his age, Abū ʿAmr al-Hamdanī, better known as al-Shaʿbī.
It is also said that his name was ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and that his mother was among the captives taken at Jalūlāʾ (1).
One report states that he was born six years after the beginning of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s caliphate; this is one narration. Another opinion—related by Shabāb—places his birth in the year 21 AH (2).
Yet the capture of Jalūlāʾ occurred in 17 AH (3).
Ibn ʿUyaynah transmitted from al-Surī ibn Ismāʿīl, from al-Shaʿbī, that the latter said, “I was born in the year of Jalūlāʾ” (4). This report is objectionable, for al-Surī is not dependable; he has been accused of fabrication.
Aḥmad ibn Yūnus maintained that al-Shaʿbī was born in 28 AH (5).
Akhbar al-Qudat 2/413; al-Muntakhab min Dhayl al-Mudhayyal, by al-Tabari, p. 635; al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, part 1 of vol. 3, p. 322; al-Iklil 8/145; Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ 4/310; Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyya, by al-ʿAbadi, p. 58; Tarikh Baghdad 12/227; Tabaqat al-Fuqahaʾ, by al-Shirazi, p. 81; Simt al-Laʾali, p. 751; al-Jamʿ bayna Rijal al-Sahihayn, p. 377; Tarikh Ibn ʿAsakir (biography of ʿAsim ʿAyidh) 138; al-Asl (codex S) 8/342 b; Tabaqat Fuqahaʾ al-Yaman, p. 70; al-Lubab 2/21; Muʿjam al-Buldan (entry “Shaʿb”); Wafayat al-Aʿyan 3/12; Tahdhib al-Kamal, p. 642; Tarikh al-Islam 4/130; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 1/74; al-ʿIbar 1/127; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib 2/114 a; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya 9/230; Ghaya al-Nihaya, no. 1500; Tabaqat al-Muʿtazila 130, 139; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 5/65; al-Nujum al-Zahira 1/253; Tabaqat al-Huffaz, by al-Suyuti, p. 32; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, p. 184; Shadharāt al-Dhahab 1/126; Tahdhib Ibn ʿAsakir 7/141.
(1) See Akhbar al-Qudat 2/425 and Tarikh Baghdad 12/227. Jalulaʾ is a village in the province of Fars where the well-known battle of 16 AH ended in a Muslim victory. The site now lies in Iraq on the stage called Qazar al-Ribat (that is, “the Red Ribat”), renamed al-Saʿdiyya by the Iraqi government. Compare Muʿjam al-Buldan; Buldan al-Khilafa al-Sharqiyya, p. 87; and Wafayat al-Aʿyan 3/16. For the account of the battle, see al-Tabari 4/24.
(2) I.e. Khalifa ibn Khayyat, Tarikh, p. 149.
(3) Al-Tabari, Ibn al-Athir, and Muʿjam al-Buldan date the event to 16 AH; Khalifa’s Tarikh and Muʿjam Ma Istaʿjam to 17 AH, as in the present text; another view places it in 19 AH.
(4) Tarikh Ibn ʿAsakir (biography of ʿAsim ʿAyidh), p. 141.
(5) Ibid., p. 142.