Abū Mushir narrated—on the authority of a shaykh from the Ḥakam tribe—that al-Jarrāḥ al-Ḥakamī said: “For forty years I abandoned sins out of shame; thereafter, piety overtook me.”

Shabbāb remarked: “He was a Damascene who later resided in Basra and Kūfa, and he was one of the Qur’an reciters.”

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim said: “Whenever he walked through the Great Mosque of Damascus, he had to incline his head away from the lamps because of his height.”

Mujālid related: “When Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab was appointed over Iraq and then departed for Khurāsān, he left al-Jarrāḥ in his place as governor of Iraq.”

Al-Ḥasan al-Zurqī stated: “Al-Jarrāḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh had command of the whole of Khurāsān—its warfare, its stipends, and its finances.”

Ibn Jābir said: “In 112 AH al-Jarrāḥ campaigned against the Turkish lands and returned, but the Turks caught up with him and killed him along with his companions.”

Abū Sufyān al-Ḥimyarī said: “Al-Jarrāḥ was in charge of Armenia and was a righteous man. The Khazars (1) killed him, and the people in every province were shaken by his death.”

Sulaym ibn ʿĀmir recounted: “I entered upon al-Jarrāḥ; he raised his hands, so the commanders raised theirs. He kept them aloft for a long time, then said to me, ‘Abū Yaḥyā, do you know what we were engaged in?’ I replied, ‘No; I saw you earnestly supplicating, so I raised my hands with you.’ He said, ‘We were asking Allah for martyrdom. By Allah, not one of them lived on after that expedition without attaining martyrdom.’”

Khalīfah reported: “In 112 AH al-Jarrāḥ marched from Bardhaʿa (2) against Ibn Khāqān. They fought a fierce battle, and al-Jarrāḥ was killed during Ramadan. The Khazars then overran Azerbaijan and advanced to the vicinity of Mosul (3).”

Al-Wāqidī said: “The calamity that befell the Muslims through al-Jarrāḥ’s death was enormous; soldiers in every army wept for him.”