of al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf’s death. The news subdued him, so he led the troops back to the city of Marw, reciting these verses of a poet:

By my life, what a fine man is the son of Jaʿfar—
In Ḥawrān he sits, entangled in snares.
If you live on, I shall ⦗1⦘ never weary of my own life;
But should you die, ⦗2⦘ my life thereafter holds no worth.

That same year al-Walīd wrote to Qutaybah, instructing him to persevere in confronting the enemy, promising him ample reward, and commending him for his striving in jihad, his opening of new lands, and his battle against the stubborn disbelievers ⦗3⦘.

Al-Ḥajjāj had appointed his son ʿAbd Allāh to lead the prayers. After al-Ḥajjāj’s death, al-Walīd placed Yazīd ibn Abī Kabsha in charge of the prayer and the army in the two garrison capitals—Kufa and Basra—and entrusted their revenue administration to Yazīd ibn Abī Muslim. Some said that these two had already been acting as al-Ḥajjāj’s deputies, and al-Walīd merely confirmed them. All of al-Ḥajjāj’s other governors remained in their posts.

Al-Ḥajjāj died five nights—or, according to another report, three nights—before the end of Ramaḍān; still another opinion is that he died in Shawwāl of this same year.

That year the pilgrimage was led by Bishr ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, as related by Abū Maʿshar and al-Wāqidī.

In the same year al-Waḍḍāḥī was killed in Byzantine territory along with a thousand of his companions ⦗4⦘.

Also in this year Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās—was born.

Here begins the biographical notice of al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī and the account of his death ⦗5⦘.

He is al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Abī ʿAqīl ibn Masʿūd ibn ʿĀmir ibn Muʿattib ibn Mālik ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿAmr ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAwf ibn Thaqīf—Thaqīf is Qasī ibn Munabbih ibn Bakr ibn Hawāzin—Abū Muḥammad al-Thaqafī ⦗6⦘.

He heard hadith from Ibn ʿAbbās and transmitted from Anas, Samura ibn Jundab, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, and Abū Burda ibn Abī Mūsā.