Al-Zuhrī said: “The scholars are four: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib in the Ḥijāz, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in Baṣrah, al-Shaʿbī in Kūfah, and Makḥūl in Syria.” (1)

Someone remarked: “He was unable to pronounce qul (‘Say’); he would only say kul. Yet he enjoyed such esteem among the people that whatever he ordered was at once carried out.”

Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz observed: “He was the foremost jurist of Syria, more learned even than al-Zuhrī.” (2)

Several authorities said: “He died in this year—others say after it—and Allah knows best.” (3)

Then the year 114 AH began.

In that year Muʿāwiyah ibn Hishām led the left-wing summer expedition, while the right wing was under Sulaymān ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik; both were sons of the Commander of the Faithful Hishām. During the same campaign ʿAbd Allah al-Baṭṭāl encountered the Byzantine ruler they call Kustantīn (Constantine), the son of Heraclius the First to whom the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—had written. Al-Baṭṭāl captured him and sent him to Sulaymān ibn Hishām, who then brought him to his father.

That year Hishām removed Ibrāhīm ibn Hishām ibn Ismāʿīl from the governorship of Mecca, Madinah, and al-Ṭāʾif, appointing in his place his brother Muḥammad ibn Hishām. According to one report, Muḥammad led the people in the ḥajj that year, while al-Wāqidī and Abū Maʿshar maintained that the leader of the pilgrimage was Khālid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. Allah knows best. (4)