In the same year ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Mahdī, known as Ibn Rayṭah, led the people in the pilgrimage.
That year also witnessed the death of al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (1). Al-Manṣūr had appointed him governor of Madinah for five years, but later grew angry with him, had him beaten and imprisoned, and confiscated all his wealth (2).
Khārijah ibn Muṣʿab likewise passed away.
Among the deceased was also ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥuṣayn ibn Abī al-Ḥurr al-ʿAnbarī (3), who succeeded Sawwār as the judge of Basra. He heard ḥadīth from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, Dāʾūd ibn Abī Hind, and Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, and Ibn Mahdī narrated from him. Renowned for his reliability and legal acumen, he held a number of distinctive views—unusual in both legal theory and application. On one occasion he was asked a question and gave an incorrect answer. When someone corrected him, saying, “The ruling in this matter is such-and-such,” he lowered his head for a moment and replied, “Then I retract in humility; to be a follower in the truth is dearer to me than to be a leader in falsehood.” He died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of this year, though another report places his death ten years later—Allah knows best.
Ghawth ibn Sulaymān ibn Ziyād ibn Rabīʿah (4), Abū Yaḥyā al-Ḥaḍramī (5), the judge of Egypt, also died. He was counted among the finest magistrates, holding authority over the Egyptian provinces three separate times during the reigns of al-Manṣūr and al-Mahdī.
Finally, Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān (6) passed away in this same year.
(1) His biography appears in Tabaqāt Ibn Saʿd (Supplementary Section), p. 386. In the Q manuscript his name is miswritten as “al-Hasan ibn Yazid ibn Hasan.”
(2) In the Q manuscript there is an interpolated addition in square brackets—and likewise in the B manuscript—which does not occur in H and is incorrect, since the biography of Hammad ‘Ajrad was already given on p. 357 (deaths in 155) of the Q manuscript for this volume. The spurious addition reads:
“Hammad ‘Ajrad was a witty, dissolute poet, companion of al-Walid b. Yazid, lampooner of Bashar b. Burd; he came to al-Mahdi, settled in Kūfa, and was accused of heresy. Ibn Qutayba reports in Tabaqāt al-Shu‘arā’: ‘Three men named Hammad in Kūfa were charged with heresy: Hammad al-Rāwī, Hammad ‘Ajrad, and Hammad b. al-Zibrqān al-Naḥwī; they exchanged poetry and obscene verses.’”
(3) In the first recension his name appears as “ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn ibn Abī al-Hasan al-Baṣrī,” but this genealogy has been corrupted in the isnāds and many sources. The correct form is established in:
• Tabaqāt Ibn Saʿd (vol. 7, p. 285)
• al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (vol. 5, p. 312)
• Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār (p. 159)
• al-Thiqāt of Ibn Ḥibbān (vol. 7, p. 152)
• Tārīkh Baghdād (vol. 10, p. 306)
• al-Ikmāl of Ibn Mākūlā (vol. 1, p. 28)
• Rijāl Muslim (vol. 2, p. 10)
• Lisān al-Mīzān of Ibn Ḥajar (vol. 7, p. 296)
• Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb (p. 370)
(4) His biography appears in:
• Tabaqāt Ibn Saʿd (vol. 7, p. 517)
• al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr of al-Bukhārī (vol. 7, p. 111)
• al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (vol. 7, p. 57)
• Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār (p. 191)
• al-Thiqāt of Ibn Ḥibbān (vol. 7, p. 30)
(5) In the Q manuscript it appears as “al-Jarmi,” which is a scribal error. The correct reading is attested in B, H, and in the biographical sources.
(6) The name is conjoined with that of ʿUbayd Allah ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn mentioned above.