Abu Ḥanīfah.
Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said, “Dāwūd later abandoned the pursuit of jurisprudence, devoted himself to worship, and buried his books.”
ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubārak said, “Is the reality anything other than what Dāwūd al-Tāʾī was upon?”
Ibn Maʿīn said, “He was reliable; he visited al-Mahdī in Baghdad and then returned to Kūfa.”
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentioned him and said, “He died in the year 160 AH; it is also said he died in 165 AH.” (1)
I say: Our teacher al-Dhahabī recorded in his History that he died this very year—namely, 162 AH. Allah knows best.
[Then came the year 163 AH.]
In that year the heretic al-Muqannaʿ, who had appeared in Khurasan and professed tanāsukh (the transmigration of souls), was besieged. A multitude of rabble—the fools of mankind and the lowest of the commoners—had followed him in his ignorance and misguidance. That year he fled to the fortress of Kash (2), where Saʿīd al-Harashī (3) laid a tight siege to him. When al-Muqannaʿ realized that defeat was inevitable, he swallowed poison and poisoned his women as well, so they all died—upon them be the curses of Allah. The Muslim army entered the fortress, severed his head, and sent it to al-Mahdī, who was then in Aleppo.
Ibn Khallikān (4) said, “Al-Muqannaʿ’s name was ʿAṭāʾ; it is also said that it was Ḥakīm, though the first is better known. He had at first been a fuller [from Marw, and he knew something of magic and talismans (5)], after which he claimed divinity—despite being one-eyed and hideous in appearance.”
= Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’ (vol. 7, p. 422); al-Wafi (vol. 13, p. 495); Tabaqat Ibn al-Mulqin, p. 200; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (vol. 3, p. 203); Tabaqat al-Shahrani (vol. 1, p. 76); Shatharat al-Dhahab (vol. 1, p. 256).
(1) In manuscripts H and Q: the year 156 AH; the reading confirmed by manuscript B and by al-Khatib’s Tarikh Baghdad (vol. 8, p. 354).
(2) Kash (with a–sh–shīn, then doubling the shīn): a village three parasangs from Jurjan, situated on a hill. It is also called Qala‘at Kash (with s) and Qala‘at Sanama, as will be noted below. See Mu‘jam al-Buldan (vol. 4, p. 462; vol. 3, p. 191). Ibn Khallikan, in Wafayat al-A‘yan (vol. 3, p. 264), states: “I found no one who mentioned this fortress or its location until I consulted al-Shihab by Yaqut al-Hamawi, composed to identify places of the same name. In the entry ‘Sanam’ (with s), he lists four sites, the fourth being Sanam, a fortress of the Muqanna‘ al-Khariji east of the river.” See also Wafayat al-A‘yan (vol. 3, p. 265). It appears that this is indeed the fortress in question; later sources in Akhbar Khurasan confirm that it belonged to the Rustaq of Kash. God knows best.
(3) In manuscripts H and Q: al-Harithi, which is a scribal error; the correct reading is attested by manuscript B and by al-Tabari’s Tarikh al-Tabari (vol. 4, p. 566).
(4) In his biography in Wafayat al-A‘yan (vol. 3, p. 263), from which the text in brackets below is taken.
(5) “Al-nirjat, singular nirja”: a substance that resembles magic without being genuine magic, nor is it equal to magic; it is merely a kind of illusion and deception. See Lisan al-‘Arab, s.v. nirj.