the client of the Banū Sawād. He was a witty yet dissolute poet, an unabashed heretic, openly accused of impugning Islam. He lived through both the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods, but did not attain notoriety until the days of the Abbasids. There was extensive mutual lampooning between him and Bashshār ibn Burd; that same Bashshār, as will be related, was likewise executed for zandaqah and was buried beside this Ḥammād, their graves adjoining one another.

Some say that Ḥammād ʿAjrad died in 168 AH; others maintain it was 161 AH—Allah knows best.

Then came the year 156 AH.

In it al-Haytham ibn Muʿāwiyah, al-Manṣūr’s deputy over Basra, captured ʿAmr ibn Shaddād, who had been Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh’s governor in Fārs. According to one report, an order was issued: his hands and feet were severed, his neck was struck, and he was then crucified.

That same year al-Manṣūr dismissed this al-Haytham ibn Muʿāwiyah—who had carried out that deed—from the governorship of Basra and appointed its qāḍī, Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh, in his place, combining for him both the judiciary and the leadership of the congregational prayer. He put Saʿīd ibn Daʿlaj in charge of the city’s police and internal security. Al-Haytham ibn Muʿāwiyah, the slayer of ʿAmr ibn Shaddād, then returned to Baghdad and died there suddenly in that very year while lying upon one of his slave-girls. Al-Manṣūr led the funeral prayer over him, and he was buried in the cemetery of Banū Hāshim. It is said that ʿAmr ibn Shaddād, whom he had so cruelly put to death, overtook him in retribution. So let the servant beware of oppression.

The pilgrimage that year was led by al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad, the brother of al-Manṣūr. The provincial deputies remained those named for the preceding year. Fārs, Ahwāz, and the districts along the Tigris were under ʿImārah ibn Ḥamzah, while Kirmān and Sind were governed by Hishām ibn ʿAmr.

In that year there also died:

Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt (1)—according to one opinion. He was among the celebrated Quran-reciters and noted ascetics. The long vowel extensions used in his style of recitation are attributed to him, and some leading scholars criticized and disapproved of them.

Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, who, according to some, was the first to compile a Sunan collection;

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shawdhub;

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād ibn Anʿum al-Ifriqī; and

ʿUmar ibn Dharr.