130 – ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Hamdānī (ʿ)
An imam, exemplar, ḥāfiẓ, and authoritative proof; known as Abū ʿAmr and also Abū Muḥammad al-Hamdānī, al-Sabīʿī, the Kūfan who was stationed at the frontier post of al-Ḥadath (1). He was the brother of the ḥāfiẓ Isrāʾīl.
Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Ghadīr al-Ṭāʾī informed us; ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Muḥammad informed us; ʿAlī ibn al-Musallim informed us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ghassānī informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-ʿUmari in Mosul informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Abī Khidāsh narrated to us; ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ruled that for a miscarried fetus the due compensation is a ghurra (the value of a male or female slave), or a horse, or a mule.”
This hadith is extremely singular.
(*) al-Tarikh al-Kabir, 6/406; al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 2/143; al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Tabari, 7/634; Mashahir Ulama al-Amsar, 186; Tarikh Baghdad, 11/152; Tahdhib al-Kamal, 1068; Tazhib al-Tahdhib, 3/13/2; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 1/279; Mizaan al-I‘tidal, 3/328; al-Ibar, 1/203, 300, 449; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 8/237; Khulasa Tazhib al-Kamal, 304.
(1) A strong fortress situated between Malatya, Samsat and Marash, belonging to the Syrian frontier zone (al-thughur). It was also called al-Hamra (the Red) because of its reddish soil, and its citadel stood on Mount al-Ahaydib. According to Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Jabir, it was first taken in the caliphate of Umar by Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri under Iyad ibn Ghanm; Muawiya later maintained it. After falling into ruin it was rebuilt in 162/778-9 by the caliph al-Mahdi and therefore renamed al-Mahdiyya. Al-Waqidi relates that heavy rains soon destroyed its ill-constructed walls, whereupon Harun al-Rashid rebuilt it and garrisoned troops there. In Sayf al-Dawla’s time it saw several engagements; the Byzantines demolished it, and in 343/954 Sayf al-Dawla restored it and defeated the Byzantine commander (al-damastuq). Al-Mutanabbi alludes to this in his famous ode that opens: “Does al-Hadath the Red know its hue, and which of the two cup-bearers built it with booty...?”
(2) The sound wording is the one transmitted by Malik in al-Muwatta, 2/855, and by al-Bukhari, 12/218.