together with ʿAmr and ʿUmārah, the two sons of Ḥazm. ʿAmr went in to Muʿāwiyah and said, “O Muʿāwiyah! Those who ruled before you also had sons, yet they never did what you have done; your son is only a youth among the youths of Quraysh….” He spoke to him harshly, so Muʿāwiyah wept, then perspired and cooled down (1). He said, “You are merely a man who has voiced an opinion—however far it may go. But he is my son, while they are their sons; my son is dearer to me than their sons. State your need.” ʿAmr replied, “I have no need.”

His brother ʿUmārah met him, and he related the incident. ʿUmārah said, “We belong to Allah! Was it for this that we lashed our camels’ flanks all the way from Medina? (2)” ʿAmr said, “Then go in to him.” While he was still speaking to him, a messenger from Muʿāwiyah came to ʿUmārah and said, “Present your need and your brother’s need.” He did so, and Muʿāwiyah granted it (3).

We have not encountered from Maʿmar a report with a higher isnād than this one, though his narrations are plentiful in the Six Books, in the Musnad of Aḥmad, and in al-Ṭabarānī’s Muʿjams. I also possess from his Jāmiʿ (4) volumes one, two, and three.

Al-Fasawī said in his Tārīkh: “I heard Zayd ibn al-Mubārak al-Ṣanʿānī say, ‘Maʿmar died in the month of Ramaḍān, in the year 152 AH’—thus he said. However, Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid al-Ṣanʿānī, narrating from Ibn Rāhwayh, said: ‘Maʿmar died in Ramaḍān, in the year 153 AH, and I performed the funeral prayer over him.’ Aḥmad, Abū ʿUbayd, Shabāb, and al-Fallās likewise dated his death to the year 153 AH.

Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythamah said: “I heard Aḥmad and Ibn Maʿīn say: He died in the year—”