125 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Bukayr ibn Yunus al-Shaybani narrated to me; he said, “My father related,” and he in turn cited Sari ibn Ismaʿil al-Hamadani, from al-Shaʿbi, who said:

“Abu Musa al-Ashʿari dispatched a delegation from Basra to ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab. Among them was al-Ahnaf ibn Qays, whom ʿUmar had never met before. When they entered, each man spoke about his own private concern, and al-Ahnaf was the last of them. He rose, praised Allah, extolled Him, and invoked blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ. Then he said:

‘Commander of the Believers, the people of Syria have occupied the dwellings of Caesar; the people of Egypt the dwellings of Pharaoh and his followers; and the people of Kufa the dwellings of Chosroes, with his canals of sweet water and his pleasant gardens—in a land as choice as the very pupil of the camel’s eye. Their fruits reach them even before harvest time. But the people of Basra have settled in a damp, saline lowland whose soil never dries and whose pasture never grows. One end of it lies in a briny sea and the other ⦗77⦘ in a barren desert. Nothing reaches us except after a journey as long as an ostrich’s stride. So raise our humble estate, do not publicize our distress, increase our men with more men and our households with more households, lighten the weight of our silver coin, enlarge the allowance of our poor, and command that a canal be dug for us so that we may obtain sweet water.’

ʿUmar said to the delegation, ‘Are you incapable of speaking as this man does? By Allah, this is the true chieftain!’

Al-Ahnaf added, ‘Ever after that I kept hearing people repeat, “By Allah, this is the true chieftain!”’