I say: The fact that they abandoned ʿIkrimah—despite his learning—and accompanied Kathīr’s bier instead can only be attributed to a serious grievance they carried in their hearts against him, may Allah have mercy upon him.

Yahya ibn Bukayr transmitted from al-Darawardi who said: “ʿIkrimah and Kathīr ʿAzza died on the same day, and none but the black inhabitants of Medina attended their funerals.”

Nuh ibn Habib said: “They both died on one day, and the people remarked, ‘The jurist of the community has died, and the poet of the community has died.’”

Al-Bukhari and others reported—through ʿAli ibn al-Madini—that ʿIkrimah died in Medina in the year 104 AH.

Yaʿqub al-Fasawi narrated this from ʿAli and added: “No one volunteered to carry his bier, so they hired four men to do so.”

ʿAli ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Tamimi, Musʿab ibn ʿAbd Allah, Ibn Numayr, al-Fallas, Abu ʿUbayd, Shabab, and Ibn Yunus said that he died in 105 AH; the same is transmitted by Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Baraʾ from Ibn al-Madini.

Al-Tamimi and Ibn Yunus also said that he was eighty years old.

Al-Waqidi related—quoting his daughter Umm Dawud—that he died in 105 AH.

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdi and Abu ʿUmar al-Darir held that he died in 106 AH, but the soundest view is that it was 105.

Abu Maʿshar al-Sindi, Abu Nuʿaym, Ibn Abi Shaybah, his brother ʿUthman, Harun ibn Hatim, and Qaʿnab ibn al-Muharrar stated that he died in 107 AH, and other dates have also been put forward.

Muslim included a narration of his, paired with Tawus, in the Book of Hajj; thus, eminent scholars are to be found both among those who dismissed him and among those who accepted his reports as evidence. (1) And Allah knows best what is correct.