and the people of Iraq entered Basra; they joined their families and breathed the scent of their children. Ibn al-Ashʿath likewise entered Basra, delivered a sermon to the populace, and they pledged mutual allegiance to depose ʿAbd al-Malik and his deputy al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf. Ibn al-Ashʿath said to them, “Al-Ḥajjāj is of no account; rather, let us march to ʿAbd al-Malik and fight him.” All the inhabitants of Basra—jurists, Qurʾān-reciters, elders, and youth—agreed with him to remove them both. Ibn al-Ashʿath then ordered a trench to be dug around Basra, and it was done. This took place in the closing days of Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that same year, 81 AH.

According to al-Wāqidī and Abū Maʿshar, the pilgrimage that year was led by Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (1); Allah, exalted and majestic, knows best.

[That same year, Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, the governor of the Maghreb on behalf of ʿAbd al-Malik, campaigned in the western lands. He captured numerous cities and prosperous regions, pushing deep into the country until he reached the rivulets issuing from the all-encircling Green Sea. Allah knows best] (2).

Among the notable persons who died that year were:

– Bahīr ibn Wiqāʾ al-Ṣuraymī (3) of Basra, one of the nobles and commanders in Khurāsān. He fought Ibn Khāzim and killed him, undertook the killing of Bukayr ibn Wishāḥ, and then died in this year.

– Suwayd ibn Ghaflah ibn ʿAwsajah ibn ʿĀmir, Abū Umayyah al-Juʿfī (4) of Kūfa, who was present at Yarmūk and related hadith from a number of Companions. He was among the senior muḥaḍramūn, and it is said that he saw the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace. He is reported to have been born in the year the Prophet (5) was born and to have prayed with him, though the sound opinion is that he did not see him; others say he was born two years after him (6).