—their number being estimated in the Ushnān parade ground.
Abu al-Hasan al-Gharrāfī (1) informed us; Abu al-Qaṭīʿī informed us; Abu Bakr ibn al-Zāghūnī informed us; Abu Naṣr al-Zaynabī informed us; Abu Ṭāhir al-Dhahabī informed us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad related to us; Luwayn related to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā related to us, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, from Mujāhid, from Ibn al-Zubayr, who said that ʿĀʾishah told him:
“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to me: ‘Your people fell short when they rebuilt this House, leaving part of it outside in al-Ḥijr (the semicircular enclosure).’ ”
When Ibn al-Zubayr later demolished the Kaʿbah, he found its foundations extending into al-Ḥijr. He summoned Quraysh, consulted them, and asked, “What do you think about these foundations?”
They replied, “Build upon them.”
So he did: he incorporated that section into the House and gave it two doors. When al-Ḥajjāj arrived, he remarked, “The Devil did not leave Ibn al-Zubayr alone until he inserted into the House what does not belong to it.” He then tore it down and rebuilt it as it had formerly been. (2)
(1) The author gives his biographical notice in his Mashyakha, fols. 94b–95a. The subject is ʿAli b. Aḥmad b. ʿAli b. Abī al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Khalaf al-ʿĀṣī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Iskandarānī al-Mālikī, counted among the foremost scholars of the Mediterranean frontier (thaghr). He acted for a time as deputy judge and was born in 707 AH/1307 CE. Al-Ghurāf is described as a small town with orchards at the extremity of the Bataʾih marshes, just south of Wāsiṭ.
(2) In the isnād, Yazīd b. Abī Ziyād al-Hāshimī al-Kūfī is weak, whereas the remaining transmitters are trustworthy. The wording of the ḥadīth itself is authentic. It is reported by al-Bukhārī, 3/351 ff. and 8/129 (Book of Pilgrimage, chapter “The merits and construction of Mecca”); by Muslim, no. 1333, nos. 398-405 (Book of Pilgrimage, chapter “Demolishing and rebuilding the Kaʿba”); by al-Nasāʾī, 5/214, 216; and by Aḥmad, 6/113, 176-177, 247. Muslim also relates, in the version of ʿAṭāʾ, that when Ibn al-Zubayr was killed, al-Ḥajjāj wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān informing him that Ibn al-Zubayr had built on foundations inspected by reliable Meccan notables. ʿAbd al-Malik replied: “We will not incorporate anything of Ibn al-Zubayr’s plaster; leave the extra height he added, but return the surplus stones to their former place and close the opening he created.” Al-Ḥajjāj therefore dismantled the structure and rebuilt it accordingly. ʿAbd al-Malik later regretted this. Muslim further reports through al-Walīd b. ʿAṭāʾ that al-Ḥārith b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī Rabīʿa visited ʿAbd al-Malik during his caliphate; the caliph said, “I doubt Abū Khubayb—meaning Ibn al-Zubayr—heard from ʿĀʾisha what he claimed.” Al-Ḥārith replied, “Indeed, I heard it from her myself.” ʿAbd al-Razzāq, via Ibn Jurayj, adds: “Al-Ḥārith was considered truthful and never lied.”