al-Layth. Rāfiʿ then mobilised his forces, enlisted the help of a number of local rulers, and confronted ʿAmr in 283 AH. ʿAmr defeated him, pursued him for several days, and pressed him so hard that his army scattered. Rāfiʿ was killed in Shawwāl of that same year, and his head was sent to al-Muʿtaḍid.

It is also said that Harthama was not his father; rather, Harthama had merely married his mother, and that he was in fact Rāfiʿ ibn Nūmard.

Al-Buḥturī (1) composed a laudatory ode for him, whereupon Rāfiʿ forwarded one thousand dinars to the poet in Baghdad.

He was a generous ruler of lofty ambition, presiding over extensive territories; after his death the Ṣaffārids re-established their control.

197 – Al-Birtī, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā*

The judge, erudite scholar, ḥadith master, and trustworthy authority—Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Azhar al-Birtī, a devout Ḥanafī from Baghdad.

He was born a few years after 190 AH.

He heard hadith from Abū Nuʿaym, al-Qaʿnabī, ʿAffān, ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū Salamah, Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, Abū Ḥudhayfah al-Nahdī, Abū ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī, Abū Ḥudhayfah, and Abū Ghassān Mālik ibn