This, however, is a mistake, for Ibn Yūnus said: “He settled in Egypt and died there on a Tuesday, seven days before the end of the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, in the year 232 AH. He had lost his sight shortly before his death, and he left a son named Muḥammad, born in Egypt, who narrated reports from his father.” (1)
I say: This is the sound date of his death.
It has also been said that he died in the year 230, and it has been said: in 233.
As for the brother of Yūsuf ibn ʿAdī—namely the ḥadith master Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī (2)—he possessed a better memory than Yūsuf and was more eminent; he died twenty years before Yūsuf.
Yūsuf is represented in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī by only one lengthy ḥadith, related by Abū Isḥāq ibn al-Darajī, who granted me permission (ijāzah) for it through Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṣaydilānī and others.
They said: “Fāṭimah bint ʿAbd Allāh informed us, Ibn Riḍah informed us, al-Ṭabarānī informed us, Aḥmad ibn Rushdīn narrated to us, Yūsuf ibn ʿAdī narrated to us, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, from Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah, from al-Minhāl, from Saʿīd, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
A man came to him (3) and said, “O Abū al-ʿAbbās! I find in the Quran …”
(1) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 1560.
(2) His biography has already been given on p. 442 of the present volume.
(3) Al-Hafiz states that this man was Nafiʿ ibn al-Azraq, who later became the head of the Azariqa faction of the khawarij. He used to sit with Ibn ʿAbbas in Mecca, questioning and disputing with him. One of his explicit questions is recorded by al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak, 2/394, through the chain of Dawud ibn Abi Hind from ʿIkrima: Nafiʿ ibn al-Azraq asked Ibn ʿAbbas about the verses: “hadha yawmun la yantiqun” (This is a day when they will not speak), “la tasmaʿu illa hamsa” (you will hear nothing but a murmur), “wa aqbala baʿduhum ʿala baʿdin yatasāʾalun” (they will turn to one another, questioning), and “hāʾum iqraʾu kitābiyya” (Here, read my record). The report consists solely of this narrative, which is one of the stories referred to in the hadith of the present section. Al-Tabarani likewise transmits, on the authority of al-Dahhak ibn Muzahim, that Nafiʿ ibn al-Azraq and Najda ibn ʿUwaymir came to Mecca with several leaders of the khawarij and found Ibn ʿAbbas seated near the Zamzam well while the people stood around him asking questions. Nafiʿ ibn al-Azraq said to him: “I have come to question you,” and he proceeded to ask him about numerous matters of tafsir that he had written down on two sheets.