Among the notable figures who died in that same year were:
Ismaʿil ibn ʿAyyash al-Himsi (1): one of the celebrated hadith authorities of Syria, though there is some critical discussion about him.
Marwan ibn Abi Hafsah (2): the renowned and commended poet. He composed panegyrics for the caliphs, the Barmakids, and Maʿn ibn Zaidah (3), amassing thereby an exceedingly large fortune. Yet he was among the most miserly of men: out of sheer stinginess he would hardly eat meat, never light a lamp in his house, and wore nothing but coarse kirbas cloth (4) and thick fur. His companion was Salm al-Khasir; when Salm rode to the caliphal palace he would arrive on a fine mule, dressed in a suit worth one thousand dinars, perfume wafting from his garments, whereas Marwan would come in the shabbiest and most threadbare attire (5).
On one occasion he set out to visit the Caliph al-Mahdi. A woman from his household said, “If the Caliph grants you something, give me a share of it.” He replied, “If he gives me one hundred thousand dirhams, you shall have a single dirham.” The Caliph bestowed sixty thousand upon him, and Marwan handed her four dawaniq.
He died in Baghdad that year and was buried in the cemetery of Nasr ibn Malik.
The judge Abu Yusuf (6)—whose full name was Yaʿqub ibn Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Saʿd ibn Habtah (7) (Habtah being his mother), while his father was Bujair ibn Muʿawiyah; this Saʿd was a Companion who had been deemed too young to fight on the day of Uhud—was the foremost of Abu Hanifah’s students (may Allah have mercy on him).
He transmitted hadith from al-Aʿmash, Hisham ibn ʿUrwah, Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Yahya ibn Saʿid, and others; and from him narrated Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Yahya ibn Maʿin,