stricken by the plague. [Allah granted him no respite after the affair of Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī save for about a year and two-thirds, so he and ʿAbd Allāh met their fate] (1).

The cause of his demise by the plague was that he had written to Muʿāwiyah, saying, “I have kept Iraq firmly under your control with my left hand, while my right hand is free—so reward me for that.” By this he was hinting that he should also be appointed over the Ḥijāz. When the people of the Ḥijāz heard of it, they went to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and complained, fearing that Ziyād might rule them and oppress them as he had oppressed the people of Iraq. Ibn ʿUmar therefore faced the qiblah and invoked a curse upon Ziyād, while the people said “Āmīn.” Ziyād was then stricken with the plague in his hand while in Iraq, and the affliction distressed him greatly. He sought the counsel of Shurayḥ the judge about amputating the hand.

Shurayḥ replied, “I do not think you should do that to yourself. If your appointed term is near, you will meet Allah maimed, having cut off your hand out of fear of meeting Him; and if your life is still long, you will remain among the people maimed, and you and your children will be reproached for it.” Thus he dissuaded him.

When Shurayḥ left, some people reproached him, saying, “Why did you not let him cut off his hand?” He answered, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘The one who is consulted is entrusted.’” (2)

Another report relates that Ziyād kept saying, “Shall I sleep while the plague and I share one bed?” He resolved to amputate his hand, but when the cauterizing irons and other tools were brought, fear overcame him and he abandoned the idea.

It is further said that he assembled one hundred and fifty physicians to treat the intense internal heat he felt, among them three who had served Khosrow ibn Hurmuz. Yet neither they nor he could avert the inevitable decree and the consuming destiny. He died on the third of Ramadan in that same year, after having governed Iraq for five years. He was buried at al-Thawiyyah (3) outside Kūfah. He had already set out from there intending to assume the governorship of the Ḥijāz as well, [in addition to his authority over Iraq, Khurāsān, and other regions] (4).

When news of his death reached ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, he said, “Away with you, son of Sumayyah! This world has not remained for you, nor have you attained the next.”

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: My father narrated to me, from Hishām ibn Muḥammad; Yaḥyā ibn Thalabah Abū al-Muqawwam (5) al-Anṣārī narrated to us, from his mother ʿĀʾishah, from her mother (6), from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Sāʾib al-Anṣārī, who said: “Ziyād gathered the people of…"