have passed over you?’
He said, ‘Two periods of full strength—that is, forty and forty (1).’

A note on the differing reports regarding Abu Burdah’s death:
Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdiyy related, from Ibn ʿAyyash al-Mantuf (2), that he died in 103 AH.
Abu ʿUbayd, Khalifah, and a number of others said he died in 104 AH.
Another report says he died when he was in his early eighties.
The one who claimed he died in 107 AH was mistaken.

119

– Ayyub ibn al-Qurriyyah (3) al-Namari *
Al-Qurriyyah was his mother.
His father’s name was Yazid (4) ibn Qays ibn Zurarah al-Namari al-Hilali—
a Bedouin, illiterate yet strikingly eloquent; his eloquence became proverbial (5).

He visited ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, and both were impressed by his command of language. Later al-Hajjaj dispatched him as an envoy to Ibn al-Ashʿath in Sijistan, instructing him to repudiate al-Hajjaj, champion that cause, and revile him.

He replied, ‘I am only a messenger.’
Al-Hajjaj retorted, ‘You will do it, or I shall strike off your head.’
So he complied. When al-Hajjaj eventually prevailed, Ibn al-Qurriyyah was brought before him, and al-Hajjaj asked, ‘Tell me about the people of Iraq.’
He answered, ‘They are the most knowledgeable of people about truth and about falsehood.’

‘What of the people of the Hijaz?’
‘They are the quickest to plunge into discord, yet the least able to carry it through.’

‘And the people of Syria?’
‘They are the most obedient to their governors.’

‘And the people of Egypt?’