just as one slips a ring off a finger. So revile him!

A fierce engagement was then fought at Ramla between the ruler Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn and the son of al-Muwaffaq. In that battle Aḥmad ibn al-Muwaffaq—who later assumed the caliphate under the title al-Muʿtaḍid—carried the day. Once victorious he entered Damascus and seized this man, Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, and Abū Zurʿah al-Naṣrī the ḥadith master, shackling us all. He later summoned us on the road and said, “Which of you is the one who said, ‘I have removed Abū Ahmaq’?”

Our tongues froze, and we despaired of life.

The ḥadith scholar said, “I was struck dumb (1), and Yazīd, who already stammered, became mute.”

Ibn ʿUthmān was the youngest of us, so he said, “May Allah set the amir aright.”

The amir’s secretary retorted, “Stand back until someone older than you speaks.”

I replied, “May Allah set you aright—he is speaking for all of us.”

He said, “Speak.”

So Ibn ʿUthmān declared, “By Allah, there is not among us a pure Hāshimī, a genuine Qurashī, nor an eloquent Arab; we are merely people who have been subjugated—that is, overpowered.

“He then cited ḥadiths on hearing and obeying the ruler, and others on clemency and beneficence.

“He was, in fact, the very one who had uttered that statement.

“And I now call the amir to witness that my wives are divorced, my slaves are free, and my wealth is forbidden to me if anyone among these men uttered that word. Behind us are womenfolk and dependants; the people have already heard of our doom. You now wield power, and pardon is only praiseworthy after power has been secured.”

The amir turned to his secretary and said, “Release them—may Allah not increase their like.”

He continued, “Yazīd and I then took refuge in the pleasure-grounds of Antioch with ʿUthmān ibn Khurrāzādh, while he (Ibn ʿUthmān) had already gone on to Ḥimṣ.”

Ibn Zūlāq says in his History of the Judges of Egypt: “Abū Zurʿah assumed the judiciary; he was unwaveringly loyal to the Shāfiʿī school and courted favour for it. He was chaste, exceedingly cautious in executing judgments, and possessed abundant wealth and vast estates in Syria. Opinions about him varied. It was said that during the rule of Hārūn ibn Khumārawayh—then governor of Egypt—the decree stated: ‘The judiciary is assigned to Abū…’”