The same narration was also transmitted by Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr, Zāʾidah, and al-Thawrī, from Ismāʿīl al-Suddī, from Rifāʿah ibn Shaddād al-Qiṭbānī, with wording to the same effect (1).

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Abū Bakr al-Humaydī narrated to us; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, who said:
“I engaged in a contest of boasting with the people of Baṣrah and defeated them by citing the virtues of the people of Kūfah, while al-Aḥnaf remained silent. When he saw that I had prevailed, he sent a servant who returned with a letter and said, ‘Here—read this.’ I read it and found written: ‘From al-Mukhtār to so-and-so, claiming that he is a prophet.’ Al-Aḥnaf exclaimed, ‘How could the likes of this ever occur among us?!’ (2)

As for al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, the ḥadīth already cited identifies him as the ruthless youth from Thaqīf. We shall present his biography when we reach his era, for he governed Iraq on behalf of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān and then of ʿAbd al-Malik’s son al-Walīd. He was one of the most tyrannical of rulers, despite possessing a certain generosity and eloquence, as we shall relate.

Al-Bayhaqī said: al-Ḥākim narrated to us, from Abū Naṣr al-Faqīh, from ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, that Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related to him, from Shurayḥ ibn ʿUbayd, from Abū ʿAdhabah, who said:
“A man came to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and informed him that the people of Iraq had stoned their governor. ʿUmar went out in anger and led us in prayer, but he became confused in it until the congregation began saying, ‘Glory be to Allah! Glory be to Allah!’ When he finished and pronounced the salām, he turned to the people and said, ‘Who here is from Syria?’ One man rose, then another, and I rose as the third—or the fourth. He said: ‘People of Syria, prepare yourselves for the Iraqis, for Satan has laid and hatched his eggs among them. O Allah, they have confounded me, so confound them; and hasten against them the Thaqafite youth who will judge them with the judgment of the Age of Ignorance—he will accept no good from their righteous and will overlook no evil of their wicked.’ (3)

ʿAbd Allāh said: Ibn Luhayʿah related the same report to me and added, ‘Al-Ḥajjāj had not yet been born on that day.’ (4)

Al-Dārimī likewise recorded it from Abū al-Yamān, from Ḥarīz ibn ʿUthmān, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maysarah, from Abū ʿAdhabah al-Ḥimṣī, from ʿUmar, with similar wording (5).

Al-Yamān commented: ‘ʿUmar knew that al-Ḥajjāj would inevitably emerge, so when they angered him he hastened their punishment.’ (6)