and he only accompanied them under duress, as we have already mentioned, and al-Hasan used to say: “It is nothing but a punishment, so do not try to repel the punishment of Allah with the sword. Your duty is patience, composure, and earnest supplication.” (1)

Ibn Durayd reported—through al-Hasan ibn al-Khaḍr, from Ibn ʿĀʾisha—that a man from the Khārijites came to al-Walid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. He was asked, “What do you say about Abu Bakr and ʿUmar?” and he praised them. He was then asked, “And ʿUthman?” and he praised him as well. [It was said to him, “What do you say about ʿAli?” He commended him too; the caliphs were mentioned to him one after the other, and he spoke well of each in a manner suited to him] (2) until he was asked, “What do you say about ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan?” He replied, “Now comes the real question: what can I say about a man for whom al-Hajjaj is but one of his sins?” (3)

Al-Aṣmaʿi narrated—from ʿAli ibn Muslim al-Bāhili—that al-Hajjaj was brought a woman from the Khārijites. He began to speak with her, but she neither looked at him nor answered him. One of the guards said, “The governor is addressing you, yet you turn away from him?” She replied, “I am ashamed before Allah to look at someone to whom Allah does not look.” Al-Hajjaj thereupon ordered her execution. (4)

We have already, under the events of the year 94 AH, detailed how al-Hajjaj killed Saʿid ibn Jubayr and the exchange that took place between them. Abu Bakr ibn Abi Khaythamah said: Abu Ẓafar narrated to us, Jaʿfar ibn Sulayman narrated to us, from Bustām ibn Muslim, from Qatādah, who said that Saʿid ibn Jubayr was asked, “Did you rise up against al-Hajjaj?” He replied, “By Allah, I did not rise up against him until he became a disbeliever.” (5)

It is also said that after him al-Hajjaj killed no one except a single man named Māhān, though before that he had slain multitudes—most of them those who had joined Ibn al-Ashʿath.

Abu ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhi (6) said: Abu Dawud Sulaymān ibn Salam (7) al-Balkhi narrated to us, al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl narrated to us, from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, who said: “They counted those whom al-Hajjaj executed in custody, and they numbered one hundred and twenty thousand.”

Al-Aṣmaʿi said: Abu ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from ʿAbbād ibn Kathir, from Qaḥdham, who said: “Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik released, in a single morning, eighty-one thousand prisoners. When the prisons were inspected after al-Hajjaj’s death, they found in them thirty-three thousand more, none of whom was liable to amputation or crucifixion.” (8)