Abi Waqqāṣ al-Zuhri; over the Qurʾāʾ, Jabalah ibn Zahr ibn Qays al-Juʿfī. In their ranks were Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, Kumayl ibn Ziyād—an intrepid, fearsome warrior despite his great age—Abū al-Bukhturī al-Ṭāʾī, and others besides. They fought every single day. Provisions of fodder and grain continued to reach the Iraqis from the rural districts and outlying provinces, while the Syrians with al-Ḥajjāj were in the direst straits, short of supplies; meat had vanished altogether and could not be found. The war dragged on in this state until the year drew to a close, the two sides still locked in combat day after day or every other day, the advantage belonging, on most days, to the Iraqis over the Syrians.
[Of al-Ḥajjāj’s men, Ziyād ibn Ghanm was killed, and Basṭām ibn Maṣqalah, leading four thousand, fought to the death until the guards of their swords were shattered; they had once been followers of Ibn al-Ashʿath] (1).
[In this same year occurred the death of] al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah (2)—Ẓālim, Abū Saʿīd al-Azdī, one of Basra’s nobles, leaders, strategists, and generous patrons. He was born in the Year of the Conquest. His tribe lived between ʿUmān and Bahrain, and when they apostatised ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl fought them, defeated them, and sent them to the Caliph al-Ṣiddīq, among them Abū Ṣufrah and his son al-Muhallab, then a lad not yet accountable. Al-Muhallab later settled in Basra. During the days of Muʿāwiyah he campaigned in India in 44 AH; he governed al-Jazīrah for Ibn al-Zubayr in 68 AH; and at the outset of al-Ḥajjāj’s administration he was charged with fighting the Khārijites, killing 4,800 of them in a single engagement (3), which greatly enhanced his standing with al-Ḥajjāj. He was virtuous, brave, generous, fond of praise, and eloquent in speech. Among his sayings:
“Generosity is indeed a noble trait: it veils the blemish of the well-born, wipes out the baseness of the lowly, and wins affection for one who was scorned.”
He also said:
“I delight in two qualities in a man: that I find his intellect surpassing his tongue, and that I do not find his tongue surpassing his intellect.” (4)
Al-Muhallab died while on campaign at Marw al-Rūdh at the age of seventy-six—may Allah have mercy on him.
He left ten children: Yazīd, Ziyād, al-Mufaḍḍal, Mudrik, Ḥabīb, al-Mughīrah, Qabīṣah, Muḥammad, Hind, and Fāṭimah. Al-Muhallab died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that year. He was numbered among the celebrated champions and renowned warriors, with commendable stands and well-known expeditions against the Turks, the Azāriqah, and other factions of the Khārijites and varieties of unbelievers. When death approached, he instructed