partner to Him, and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. Take this testimony from me, that you may meet me with it on the Day of Resurrection.

Saʿīd then supplicated, saying, “O Allah, do not give him power over anyone else whom he might kill after me.”

He was thereupon slaughtered on the leather mat.

It has reached us that al-Ḥajjāj lived only fifteen nights after Saʿīd’s death; a devouring ulcer (1) afflicted his abdomen. He summoned a physician to examine him. After looking at the wound, the physician asked for a piece of putrid meat, tied it to a thread, lowered it into al-Ḥajjāj’s throat, left it there for a while, and then drew it out; it was clotted with blood. The physician knew then that the patient would not survive.

This story is objectionable and unsound.

Abu Nuʿaym transmitted it in al-Ḥilyah and said (2): “My father narrated to us; my maternal uncle Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; Abu Umayyah Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm informed me in writing; Ḥāmid ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us.”

Hārūn al-Ḥammāl (3) reported: “Muḥammad ibn Maslamah al-Makhzūmī narrated to us; Mālik narrated to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from the scribe of al-Ḥajjāj. Mālik—he was the brother of Abu Salamah, the official in charge of the treasury—said:

“I used to write for al-Ḥajjāj when I was a young lad. He found me light-hearted and admired my handwriting, so I would enter upon him without permission. One day—after he had killed Saʿīd ibn Jubayr—I entered his pavilion, which had four doors, by the doorway behind his back and heard him saying, ‘What business have I with Saʿīd ibn Jubayr!’ I slipped out quietly, knowing that if he realized I had been there he would kill me. It was only a short while before he died (4).”

Abu Ḥudhayfah an-Nahdī related: Sufyān narrated to us, from ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī Ḥusayn, who said:

“When Saʿīd ibn Jubayr was summoned to be executed (5), his young son began to weep, so he said, ‘Why…’”