in Antioch, where he made the Byzantines quake with fear and humiliation. Yet a number of impossible exploits have been falsely ascribed to him in a fabricated “life.”

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān is said to have instructed Maslamah: “Put al-Baṭṭāl in charge of your advance guards and order him to patrol by night, for he is a bold and daring commander.”

One man added, “Maslamah invested al-Baṭṭāl with command over ten thousand men and made them an elite detachment (1).”

Abū Marwān relates from al-Baṭṭāl: “On one occasion we came to a village to mount a raid. In one house a lamp was burning and a small child was crying. His mother said, ‘Be quiet, or I shall hand you over to al-Baṭṭāl.’ The child kept crying, so she lifted him from his cradle and said, ‘Take him, Baṭṭāl!’ I replied, ‘Give him here.’ ”

Many extraordinary incidents followed him. In the end he was found on the battlefield grievously wounded, still drawing breath. King Leo came up and asked, “Abū Yaḥyā, how do you find things?” He replied, “What is there to see? Such is the way of champions: they kill and are killed.”

Leo ordered, “Fetch the physicians.” They came but discovered that the fatal blows had already done their work. The king then asked, “Have you any request?” Al-Baṭṭāl said, “Command that those who have stood fast with me be entrusted with my estate, my shroud, and the funeral prayer over me, and then set them free.” The king complied.

He was killed in 112 AH; another report says 113 AH.

132 – Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah ibn Qatādah ibn ʿAzīz al-Sadūsī (ʿ)

Others say: Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah ibn ʿUkābah—he was a ḥāfiẓ, a master of hadith memorization.