Ahmad ibn Ishaq informed us; al-Fath ibn ʿAbd al-Salam informed us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Muhammad ibn ʿUmar, and Muhammad ibn ʿAli related to us. They said:
Abu Jaʿfar ibn al-Muslimah narrated to us; ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman informed us; Jaʿfar al-Firyābī narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Abī al-Sarī narrated to us; Zayd ibn Abī al-Zarqāʾ, from Sufyān, said:
“The issues on which we and the Murjiʾah differ are three:
- They say that faith is words only, with no deeds, whereas we say that it is words and deeds.
- We say that it increases and decreases, while they say that it neither increases nor decreases.
- We affirm the reality of hypocrisy, while they say: there is no hypocrisy.”
65 – Sālim ibn Ḥāmid *
Deputy-governor of Damascus for al-Mutawakkil. He was unjust and tyrannical, so a party of Arab nobles set upon him and killed him at the gate of the governor’s residence on a Friday in the early 230s AH.
When the news reached al-Mutawakkil he bristled and said, “Who will take charge of Syria with the might of al-Ḥajjāj?” He therefore appointed Afrīdūn the Turk, who set out with seven thousand cavalry, and al-Mutawakkil allowed him two mornings of unrestricted sword-use and permission to plunder the city.
Afrīdūn camped at Bayt Lihyā (1). At dawn he cried out, “O Damascus, what will befall you from me today?” A black mule was brought for him to mount, but it kicked him in the chest with its hind hoof and killed him.
His grave remained well-known at Bayt Lihyā, and his army was sent back to Iraq. Afterwards al-Mutawakkil himself came to Damascus, built a palace at Darayya, and conditions improved.
66 – ʿAbd al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam ibn Aʿyan al-Miṣrī **
The peerless jurist, Abū ʿUthmān.