Abu Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ relates: “Muhammad ibn Bakr al-Shaʿrani, in Jerusalem, narrated to us; he said: Ahmad ibn Sahl al-Harawi narrated to us, saying:

‘I was living next door to Bakkar ibn Qutaybah. After the night prayer I returned home and found him reciting: “O David, We have made you a vicegerent upon the earth; so judge between people in truth and do not follow desire, for it will lead you astray from the path of Allah” (Sad 38:26).

‘Later, in the pre-dawn hours, I came down again and found him still reciting the same verse, weeping. I realised that he had been repeating it since the beginning of the night.’

Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kindī said: “Bakkar assumed the judgeship and held it until he died; Egypt then remained without a judge for seven years, after which Khumarawayh appointed Muhammad ibn ʿAbdah to the office.”

He also said: “Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn tried to compel Bakkar to curse al-Muwaffaq—the crown prince—but he refused. Ahmad therefore imprisoned him until his own death; the judge Bakkar was then released, lived only a short while, and died. He was washed at night; so many people attended that he was not buried until the ʿAsr prayer.”

I say: He enjoyed immense respect and commanding dignity; he was one of the scholars who acted on their knowledge. The ruler himself would come down to him and attend his sessions. Abu Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī reports that Bakkar ibn Qutaybah regarded it as a grave matter when the verdict of al-Ḥārith ibn Miskīn was annulled in the lawsuit of Ibn al-Sāʾiḥ—after al-Ḥārith had ruled against him. Bakkar therefore removed the Dār al-Fīl from Ibn al-Sāʾiḥ’s control, and Ibn al-Sāʾiḥ departed for Iraq to seek redress against Ibn Miskīn.

Al-Ṭaḥāwī adds: Al-Ḥārith had ruled according to the school of the people of Medina. Yunus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā kept interceding with Judge Bakkar and pressing the matter until he relented and returned the house to Ibn al-Sāʾiḥ’s two sons.

I cannot count how often Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn would come to Bakkar’s assembly while he was dictating and the gathering was filled to capacity. The chamberlain would step forward and announce, ‘Let no one move from his place.’

Only then would Bakkar notice Ahmad sitting beside him, whereupon he would say, ‘O amir, could you not have left me? I was in the middle of issuing judgments…’