Al-Manṣūr was in Iraq. He commissioned the champion of the Abbasid cause, Abū Muslim al-Khurāsānī, to march against his uncle. The two armies met at Nisibis, the battle grew fierce, heroes fell, and the crisis deepened. ʿAbd Allāh was routed with only his closest followers and made for Basra. His brother Sulaymān concealed him for a time, but al-Manṣūr kept demanding his surrender until Sulaymān handed him over. ʿAbd Allāh remained in prison for several years.

It is said that the foundations of the jail were undermined, water was poured in, and the structure collapsed on ʿAbd Allāh in the year 147 AH—Allah’s will is decisive.

76 – Ruʾba ibn al-ʿAjjāj al-Tamīmī, the rajaz poet
A bedouin of Basra.

He heard hadith from his father and from the genealogist al-Bakrī. Narrations from him were transmitted by Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl, Abū ʿUbayda, Abū Zayd the grammarian, and a number of others.

He was a leading authority on the Arabic language, and his father had heard hadith from Abū Hurayra.

Khalaf al-Aḥmar said, “I heard Ruʾba say, ‘There is nothing in the Quran more eloquent than His words, ﴿Then proclaim what you have been commanded﴾ (al-Ḥijr 15:94).’”

Al-Nasāʾī said of Ruʾba, “He is not strong.” Others record that he died in the year 145 AH.

Ruʾba—with a hamza—refers to a piece of wood used to splint a cracked vessel; its plural is riʾāb. Al-rūba—with a wāw—means curdled milk, and it can also denote a portion of the night.

77 – Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī, the governor, uncle of al-Manṣūr (S, Q)
He related hadith from his father and from ʿIkrima.