It was also recorded by al-Bukhārī, through Abū al-Yamān.
Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir relates: I read in the book of Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Rāzī—meaning the father of Tammām—who said, “I heard a number of people say:
When word reached Abū Aḥmad al-Wāthiq that Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn had deposed him in Damascus, he ordered that Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn be cursed from the pulpits. When the news reached Aḥmad, he in turn ordered that al-Muwaffaq be cursed from the pulpits of Egypt and Syria. Among those who deposed al-Muwaffaq—meaning, removed him from the succession—and cursed him was the judge Abū Zurʿah Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān. He stood by the pulpit in Damascus and cursed him, saying, ‘We are the people of Syria; we are the people of Ṣiffīn, and among us were those who attended the Camel. We are the ones who rise against anyone who opposes the people of Syria. I call you to witness that I have cast off Abū Aḥmaq—that is, Abū Aḥmad—just as a ring is pulled from a finger. So curse him, may Allah curse him.’
Al-Rāzī continues: I was told by Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ, who said: When Aḥmad ibn al-Muwaffaq returned to Damascus from the Battle of al-Tawāḥīn ⦗1⦘, after fighting Khumarawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn—this was after his father Aḥmad had died, in the year 271 AH—he said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Wāsiṭī, ‘Look into anyone who has reached you and holds enmity toward us; let him be brought in.’
Accordingly, Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī, and the judge Abū Zurʿah ibn ʿUthmān were brought, shackled, until they were conveyed in chains to Antioch. One day, as Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Muwaffaq—who later became al-Muʿtaḍid—was travelling, he caught sight of the litters carrying those men.
He asked al-Wāsiṭī, ‘Who are these?’
‘The people of Damascus,’ he replied.
‘Are they still alive? When we halt, remind me about them.’
Ibn Ṣāliḥ narrates: Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī told us, “When he dismounted, we were brought before him after our shackles had been removed, and we were made to stand, terrified.
He said, ‘Which one of you said, “I have stripped Abā…’”