He asked, “Do you have any need?”
He replied, “Yes: that you do not visit me again; and if I die, do not lead the funeral prayer over me, and keep your black attire on.”
When Khalaf died, Asad nonetheless accompanied his bier and removed his black garments.
It was said that he heard a voice proclaiming, “Because of your humility and the honor you showed Khalaf, sovereignty has been secured for your descendants.”
This is a singular report; if it is authentic, Asad’s audience must have been with al-Maʾmūn, so that the chronology is correct, for Khalaf died at the beginning of Ramadan in the year 205 AH. It is also said that he lived sixty-nine years.
212 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyād, Abū ʿAlī al-Anṣārī, their freedman
The eminent scholar, the jurist of Iraq, Abū ʿAlī al-Anṣārī, their client, al-Kūfī, al-Luʾluʾī, a close disciple of Abū Ḥanīfah.
He settled in Baghdad, authored works (1), and occupied the foremost seat for teaching jurisprudence.
(*) Tarikh Ibn Maʿin, p. 114; al-Duʿafaʾ wa-l-Matrukin, p. 35; Akhbar al-Qudat, 3/188; al-Duʿafaʾ by al-ʿUqayli, fols. 82–83; al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 3/15; al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, p. 258; Akhbar Abi Hanifa wa-Ashabihi by al-Saymari, pp. 131–133; Tarikh Baghdad, 7/314; Tabaqat al-Fuqaha by al-Shirazi, p. 115; Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 1/132; Manaqib by al-Muwaffaq al-Makki, 1/46, 170, 173, 185, 264; 2/132 ff.; al-ʿIbar, 1/345; Mizan al-Iʿtidal, 1/491; Duwal al-Islam, 1/127; Tabaqat al-Qurra, 1/213; Lisan al-Mizan, 2/208; Jamiʿ al-Masanid, 2/433; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 2/188; Miftah al-Saʿada, 1/120; al-Jawahir al-Mudiyya, 1/193; 2/542; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 2/12; al-Fawaʾid al-Bahiyya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiyya, pp. 60–61; Manaqib al-Kardariyya al-Kubra, 2/209; al-Imtaʿ bi-Sirat al-Imamain al-Hasan ibn Ziyad wa-Sahibihi Muhammad ibn Shujaʿ by al-Kawthari.
(1) Al-Kawthari writes in al-Imtaʿ, p. 15, after listing the imam’s works: “As for the booklet ascribed to him which allegedly records the readings he heard from Abu Hanifa, transmitted through his son Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Ziyad, it is a patched-up forgery. It is unrelated to either Abu Hanifa or to al-Hasan ibn Ziyad. Scholars have established that its fabricator was Abu al-Fadl al-Khuzaʿi, a reciter whose deceit has been exposed, despite Ibn al-Jazari’s attempt to exonerate him. Abu Hanifa’s recitation was that of ʿAsim, from Zur ibn Hubaysh, from Ibn Masʿud, and from Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sulami, from ʿAli – may Allah ennoble his face – and along both chains there is …"