and he composed several works and produced a Musnad. He was knowledgeable in the lore and genealogies of the Arabs, a man of letters, and a poet. He visited the caliph al-Muʿtazz bi-Allah in 254 AH (1). Al-Muʿtazz copied from him in his own hand and examined the script carefully, whereupon he (ʿAlī) said, “Commander of the Believers, you have started sharing in the ill-omen of the ḥadīth scholars.” Al-Muʿtazz laughed and granted him some estates (2).

ʿAlī died in Shawwāl, 265 AH, in Mosul, having completed ninety years of age. His brother Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥarb led the funeral prayer over him.

His brother—the trustworthy muḥaddith, devout worshipper, and fighter in the path of God—

94 – Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb al-Ṭāʾī * (S)

He heard, together with his brother, from (3) Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Abū Muʿāwiyah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs, and their peers.

Those who transmitted from him include al-Nasāʾī—who said, “He is dearer to me than his brother” (4)—Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd, Makḥūl al-Bayrūtī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣadaqah, and others.