When dissension arose between Ibn al-Zubayr and ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, Ibn ʿAbbās and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah kept apart from the people. Ibn al-Zubayr sent for them, asking them to give him the pledge of allegiance, but they both refused. Each of them said, “We will neither pledge allegiance to you nor oppose you.” He then resolved to deal harshly with them, so they dispatched Abū al-Ṭufayl ʿĀmir ibn Wāthilah to summon their partisans in Iraq. Four thousand men arrived, shouted a single takbīr in Mecca, and moved against Ibn al-Zubayr, whereupon he fled—[clinging to the coverings of the Kaʿbah and declaring, “I seek refuge with Allah”]. They left him alone, [then turned toward Ibn ʿAbbās and Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, for Ibn al-Zubayr had piled firewood around their houses intending to burn them. The men escorted the two until they reached al-Ṭāʾif, and Ibn ʿAbbās stayed there for two years without pledging allegiance to anyone] (1) as noted above.

In the year 68 AH Ibn ʿAbbās passed away in al-Ṭāʾif. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah led the funeral prayer over him and said, “Today the scholar of this ummah has died.” (2) When they laid him down to lower him into the grave, a white bird—such as had never been seen—appeared, entered his shroud, and wrapped itself in it (3) until he was buried with it.

ʿAffān said, “They considered that a sign of his knowledge (4) [and of his deeds].” When he was placed in the burial niche, someone recited—no one knew who it was. In another version they heard from his grave: “O tranquil soul, (27) return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing; (28) and enter among My servants.” [al-Fajr 27-29]

This account of his death is the one judged sound by more than one leading scholar; it was explicitly affirmed by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Wāqidī, and Ibn ʿAsākir (5), and it is the view best known among the ḥuffāẓ (6). Others said he died in 63 AH, or in 73 AH, or in 67 AH, or in 69 AH, or in 70 AH. The first date is the soundest, while the rest are odd, isolated, and rejected—and Allah, Glorified and Exalted, knows best.

He was seventy-two years old when he died; some said seventy-one, others seventy-four. The first figure is the sounder, and Allah knows best.

Description of Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him):
He was large of build; when he sat, he occupied the space of two men. Handsome, with thick shoulder-length hair, the front of his head had turned grey, as had his long forelock (7). He used to dye his hair with henna—some said with black dye. He had a pleasant face and dressed well, and he used so much perfume that whenever he passed along a road the women would say, “That is Ibn ʿAbbās—or a man carrying musk.” He was good-looking, fair-complexioned, tall, powerfully built, and eloquent; after he lost his sight his complexion took on a slight pallor.

The sons of al-ʿAbbās were ten in number: al-Faḍl, ʿAbd-Allah,