It was in that same year, and he was then fifty-five years old (1), for he had been born in the “Year of Unity,” 40 AH. Others said he was born a year later, and others a year earlier. He died in Wāsiṭ, and his grave was concealed; water was run over it so that it would not be exhumed and burned (2). Allah knows best.
Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “How astonishing al-Ḥajjāj’s case is—he left nothing but three hundred dirhams.”
Al-Wāqidī said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Farq narrated to me; my uncle narrated, saying: “They claim that when al-Ḥajjāj died he left only three hundred dirhams, a muṣḥaf (copy of the Quran), a sword, a saddle, a pack-saddle, and one hundred endowed coats of mail (3).”
Shihāb ibn Kharāsh said: My uncle Yazīd ibn Ḥawshab told me that Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr sent for me and said, “Tell me the bequest of al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf.” I replied, “Excuse me, Commander of the Believers.” He said, “Relate it to me.” So I said:
“In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. This is what al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf bequeaths: he testifies that there is no god but Allah alone with no partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger; that he recognizes no allegiance except obedience to al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik—upon that he lives, upon that he dies, and upon that he will be raised; and he bequeaths nine hundred iron coats of mail: six hundred for the hypocrites of Iraq to campaign in, and three hundred for the Turks.”
Abū Jaʿfar then lifted his head toward Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Ṭūsī—who was standing beside him—and said, “By Allah, these are the Shīʿa, not your Shīʿa.”
Al-Aṣmaʿī, on the authority of his father, said: “I saw al-Ḥajjāj in a dream and asked, ‘What has Allah done with you?’ He answered, ‘He killed me for every killing with which I had killed a person (4).’ I saw him again a year later and said, ‘Abū Muḥammad, what has Allah done with you?’ He replied, ‘O you who sucks his mother’s clitoris, did you not ask about that last year?’”
Qāḍī Abū Yūsuf said: “I was with Hārūn al-Rashīd when a man entered and said, ‘Commander of the Believers, I saw al-Ḥajjāj last night in a dream.’ He asked, ‘In what garb did you see him?’ He replied, ‘In an ugly garb.’ I then said, ‘What has Allah done with you?’ He retorted, ‘What concern is that of yours, O sucker of his mother’s clitoris!’ Hārūn said, ‘By Allah, you have spoken the truth; you really did see al-Ḥajjāj, for Abū Muḥammad would never abandon his coarseness, alive or dead (5).’”
Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq said: Hārūn ibn Maʿrūf narrated to us, Ḍumrah narrated to us, Ibn Shawdhub narrated to us, from Ashʿath al-Ḥudānī (6).