the people of the Two Sanctuaries abundant gifts, and it is said that he also set out on jihad in that same year.

On this, the poet Dāʾūd ibn Razīn composed:
With Hārūn, light gleamed in every land,
And by the justice of his rule the path stood firm.
An imam whose chief concern, for Allah’s sake,
Is ever with warfare in His cause and with the ḥajj.
Men’s eyes grow narrow before the radiance of his face
Whenever his bright countenance is unveiled. (1)
Indeed, Hārūn—Allah’s trusted servant, lavish in bounty—
Gives the seeker many times what he hopes to receive.

That year the summer expedition (ṣāʾifa) was commanded by Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bakāʾī.

Record of those of note who died in that year

Al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr ibn Tamīm (2)
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Farāhīdī—also called al-Farhūdī, al-Azdī, al-Yahmadī—was the shaykh of the grammarians. Sībawayh, al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl, and many other leading scholars studied under him. He invented the science of prosody (ʿarūḍ), arranging it into five circles and deriving fifteen metres from them; al-Akhfash later added a sixteenth, the khabab.

A poet once said:
“Humanity’s poetry was sound
Before al-Khalīl was ever created.”

He was also versed in music theory and wrote on that subject. He began the Kitāb al-ʿAyn in lexicography; it was completed by al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl and other pupils—such as Muʾarrij al-Sadūsī and Naṣr ibn ʿAlī al-Jahẓamī—but their continuation did not match what al-Khalīl had laid down. Ibn Durustawayh later authored a book exposing the flaws that had entered their work, and he rendered valuable service thereby.

Al-Khalīl was a righteous, intelligent, dignified, and consummate man, extremely detached from worldly things and patient with the hardship and narrowness of life. He used to say, “My concerns do not extend beyond my own doorway,” and he was witty and of pleasant character.

It is related that a man once studied prosody with him but was slow of understanding. Al-Khalīl said: One day I asked him, “How would you scan this line:
If you cannot do a thing, then leave it
And turn to what you can.”
He began to scan it as best he could, then rose and left me, never to return, as though he had grasped the hint I was giving him.

It is said that, after the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—no one bore the name Aḥmad except al-Khalīl’s father. According to a report from Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythama—Allah knows best—al-Khalīl was born in 100 AH and died in Basra in 170 AH, though some say 160 AH.