the traces of innovation (bidʿah) that clung to him; for that reason al-Bukhārī coupled his name with another narrator, and his reports are judged to be of the fair (ḥasan) category.
ʿAbbād ibn Yaʿqūb stated in his book al-Manāqib: “Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Aṣbāghī (1) and others narrated to us, from Jaʿfar al-Aḥmar, who said (2):
We visited Fitr ibn Khalīfah while he was unconscious. When he regained consciousness he said, ‘Servant of Allah! It would not please me were every hair on my body to become a tongue glorifying Allah, if that were in exchange for my love of the Ahl al-Bayt.’”
15 – Ibn Isḥāq: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār, the historian (4).
He is also said to be “Ibn Kuthān” (3), the eminent scholar, ḥāfiẓ, and historian, Abū Bakr—
and some say: Abū ʿAbd Allāh—the Qurashī, allied to the Muṭṭalibīs, Madinan, author of al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah.
His grandfather Yasār was taken captive at ʿAyn al-Tamr (4) during the rule of the Caliph of the Messenger of Allah
(1) In Mizān al-iʿtidāl, 3/364, the reading is “al-ahāʿī”.
(2) In the manuscript, between the words “he said” and “we entered” there appears the interpolation: “I heard Fitr b. Khalīfa say,” an addition that serves no purpose. The compiler himself cites the report in Mizān al-iʿtidāl, 3/364, with the chain: “from Jaʿfar al-Aḥmar: I heard Fitr b. Khalīfa, while he was ill, say: ‘I would not wish … because of my love for the Prophet’s Household.’”
(*) The biography is recorded in: Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, 7/321–322; Khalīfa, Ṭabaqāt, 271, 327; Khalīfa, Tārīkh, 16, 426; al-Bukhārī, al-Tārīkh al-kabīr, 1/40; al-Bukhārī, al-Tārīkh al-ṣaghīr, 2/111; Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿārif, 491–492; Yaʿqūbī, Maʿrifa wa-l-tārīkh, 2/27–28; al-Bukhārī, al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, fols. 370–381; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl, 7/191–194; Ibn Ḥibbān, Mashāhīr ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār, 139–140 (death dated 150 AH); Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist, Book 3, Section 1; al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād, 1/214–234; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt al-aʿyān, 4/276–277; Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, Muqaddimat ʿUyūn al-athar, 1/7–17; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-kamāl, fols. 1166–1168; al-Dhahabī, Tadhhīb al-tahdhīb, 3/183–185; al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, 6/275–278; al-Dhahabī, Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ, 1/172–174; al-Dhahabī, Mizān al-iʿtidāl, 3/468–475; al-Dhahabī, al-ʿIbar, 1/216; al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī bi-l-wafayāt, 2/188–189; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb, 9/38–46; al-Dhahabī, Ṭabaqāt al-ḥuffāẓ, 75–76; Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī, Khulāṣat tadhhīb al-kamāl, 326–327; Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt al-dhahab, 1/230.
(3) The name is Kawthān, with a medial thāʾ; it appears corrupted as “Kawtān” in Tārīkh Baghdād, 1/214, and in Ibn al-Qifṭī’s Fawāt al-wafayāt, 4/276, and as “Kawmān” in Tahdhīb al-kamāl.
(4) ʿAyn al-Tamr is a town near al-Anbār, west of Kūfa, close to a place called Shafāthā. Both localities export pressed dates and ordinary dates to the rest of the country. Situated on the edge of the desert, it is an ancient settlement conquered by the Muslims in the early expansion.