Moreover, in Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq’s Book of Expeditions—specifically in the supplementary material transmitted by Yūnus ibn Bukayr—we read the following chain of narration from Abū Khalda Khālid ibn Dīnār, who reported from Abū al-ʿĀliyah:
“When we conquered Tustar, we found in the state treasury of Hormuzān a bier on which a dead man was lying. At his head lay a manuscript. We took the manuscript and brought it before ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—who summoned Kaʿb to translate it into Arabic. I became the first Arab to read it, reciting it just as I recite this Qur’an.
I asked Abū al-ʿĀliyah, ‘What did it contain?’ He replied, ‘It spoke of your history, your affairs, the nuances of your speech, and what will come to pass thereafter.’
I then said, ‘What did you do with the man?’ He answered, ‘During the day we dug thirteen scattered graves; at night we buried him in one of them and leveled all the graves so that people would not discover his resting place and exhume him.’
I asked, ‘What benefit did they hope to gain from him?’ He said, ‘Whenever the sky withheld rain from them, they would bring him out…’
(1) Yunus ibn Bukayr ibn Wasil al-Shaybani, Abu Bakr, known as al-Jammal al-Kufi. Ibn Maʿin judged him reliable and, on another occasion, “truthful.” Al-Nasaʾi said he was “not strong,” yet most critics consider him trustworthy, though prone to error. Muslim and others transmit from him. He died in 199 AH. See: Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 11:434–36, no. 844; Taqrib al-Tahdhib 2:384, no. 472.
(2) Rafiʿ ibn Dinar—his biography has appeared earlier; see the Index of Persons.
(3) Tustar is a city in the province of Khuzistan that Abu Musa al-Ashʿari conquered during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab. See: Yaqut, Muʿjam al-Buldan 2:29–31.
(4) MS (At) reads: “the property of the house of al-Hurmuzan.”
(5) Al-Hurmuzan was a Persian commander who fought the Muslim armies in Iraq and ruled Ahwaz. Defeated at the fall of Tustar, he was sent by Abu Musa to ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab, embraced Islam, and remained in Medina until Ubayd Allah ibn ʿUmar killed him on the charge of plotting ʿUmar’s assassination. See: Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya 7:85–88.
(6) This is Kaʿb al-Ahbar; his biography has already been given—see the Index of Persons.
(7) The printed edition reads: “what they were hoping to obtain from him.”