if the slave given in compensation is white, whether boy or girl.
He inferred this from the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—words: “A ghurra: a male or female slave.” (1) Had any slave whatsoever been meant, the Prophet would not have qualified it with the term ghurra, for ghurra in Arabic denotes whiteness.
Ibn Khallikān said, “This is unusual, and I do not know whether any of the mujtahid Imams concur with it or not.”
It is reported of him that once the month of Ramaḍān began he would not recite a single line of poetry until it ended; instead, he occupied himself with reading the Quran. It is also said that every day he would buy a new earthenware jug and fresh basil. Al-Aṣmaʿī kept his company for about ten years.
He died in this year; some say in 156 AH, others in 157 AH—Allah knows best. He had nearly reached ninety years of age, and some say he surpassed it—Allah knows best. His grave is in al-Shām, though some say in Kūfa—Allah knows best.
Ibn ʿAsākir (2) relates, in the biography of Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-ʿAbbās, from his father, from his grandfather ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, in a marfūʿ report: “For one of you, after the year 154 AH, to rear a puppy is better for him than to rear a child from his own loins.” This report is exceedingly problematic, and there is weakness in its chain. He cited it through the route of Tammām, from Khaythama ibn Sulaymān, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf al-Ḥimṣī, from Abū al-Mughīra, from ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Samṭ, from Ṣāliḥ. This ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Samṭ is unknown to me, and our teacher, the ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī, mentioned him in his work al-Mīzān (3) saying, “He transmitted a fabricated ḥadīth from Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī.”
[Then came the year 155 AH]
In it, Yazīd ibn Ḥātim entered the lands of Ifrīqiyah and reconquered them anew. He killed those Khārijites who had seized control there, slew their leaders, captured their grandees, abased their nobles, rubbed their noses in the dust, scattered their multitudes, and exchanged the fear of the people of those lands for safety and security, and their humiliation for honor.