If You scrutinise me, then Your very scrutiny, O Lord, would be a punishment I have no power to endure;
but if You pardon, You are the Clement Lord,
forgiving a wrongdoer whose sins are as plentiful as dust. (1)
They said:
He died in Damascus on a Friday—though some say Wednesday, others Thursday—in the middle of Shawwal, while others say five days after it, (2) in the year 86 AH. His son al-Walid, his designated heir, led the funeral prayer over him. At his death he was sixty years old, according to Abu Maʿshar, a view judged sound by al-Waqidi; al-Madaʾini put it at sixty-three, while another report gives fifty-eight. (3) He was buried at the Small Bāb al-Jābiyah Gate.
Ibn Jarir (4) said, listing his children and wives: among them were al-Walid, Sulayman, Marwan the Elder—who died young— (5) and ʿAʾishah; their mother was Wallādah bint al-ʿAbbas ibn Jazʾ ibn al-Harith ibn Zuhayr ibn Jadhīmah ibn Rawāhah ibn Rabiʿah ibn Maʿzan ibn al-Harith ibn Qutayʿah ibn ʿAbs ibn Baghīd.
Also Yazid, Marwan the Younger, Muʿawiyah—who likewise died young—and Umm Kulthum; their mother was ʿĀtikah bint Yazid ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Abi Sufyan.
And Hisham, whose mother, according to al-Madaʾini, was Umm Hisham ʿAʾishah bint Hisham ibn Ismaʿil al-Makhzumi.
And Abu Bakr—whose personal name was Bakkār—whose mother was ʿAʾishah bint Musa ibn Talhah ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Taymi.
And al-Ḥakam—who died young—whose mother was Umm Ayyub bint ʿAmr ibn ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan al-Umawi.
And Fatimah, whose mother was Umm al-Mughīrah bint al-Mughīrah ibn Khalid ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Hishām ibn al-Mughīrah al-Makhzumi.
And ʿAbd Allah, Maslamah, al-Mundhir, ʿAnbasah, Muhammad, and Saʿd (6) al-Khayr, and al-Hajjaj, each by different concubine mothers. (7)
[Altogether he had nineteen children, male and female. His caliphate lasted twenty-one years: nine of them concurrent with Ibn al-Zubayr, and thirteen years, three months and a half as the sole caliph. His chief judge was Abu Idris al-Khawlani; his secretary was Ruh ibn Zinbaʿ; his chamberlain was his freedman Yusuf; the keeper of the treasury and the seal was Qabisa ibn Dhuʾayb; and his commander of police was Abu al-Zuʿayzaʿah. We have already mentioned his provincial governors above.] (8)