“…but she no longer recognised me; of all the changes time had wrought, she noticed only grey hair and a bald crown.” (1)
Al-Ṭayyib ibn Ismāʿīl reported:
“I was present with Ibn Abī al-ʿAtāhiyah when he had copied from al-Yazīdī nearly a thousand volumes devoted exclusively to Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ.”
He added, “That comes to about ten thousand pages.”
Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “Whenever I heard Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ speak I used to think he knew nothing, so simple and unadorned was his speech.”
Al-Yazīdī said, “I heard Abū ʿAmr relate: ‘Saʿīd ibn Jubayr heard my recitation and said, “Hold fast to this way of reciting.”’ ”
Al-Aṣmaʿī also said, “Each day a jug and a sprig of basil would be bought for Abū ʿAmr for two fals. When evening came he would give the jug away in charity and tell the maidservant, ‘Dry the basil and pound it into the soapwort.’ ”
Abū ʿUbayd said, “Several people told me that Abū ʿAmr studied under Mujāhid; some added, ‘and under Saʿīd ibn Jubayr as well.’ ”
We have likewise transmitted that Abū ʿAmr and his father fled from al-Ḥajjāj and his oppression, and that he transmitted only a few hadiths.
More than one authority stated that he died in the year 154 AH.
Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “Abū ʿAmr lived for eighty-six years.”
Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ alone said, “Abū ʿAmr and Abū Sufyān, the two sons of al-ʿAlāʾ, died in 157 AH.”
168 – Abū Shujāʿ al-Qitbānī Saʿīd ibn Yazīd (M, D, T, S)
The Imām, exemplar, blessing of his age: Abū Shujāʿ Saʿīd ibn Yazīd al-Ḥimyarī, of Alexandria.