That same year also witnessed the death of Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar (1), nicknamed Ghundar. He transmitted ḥadith from Shuʿbah, Saʿīd b. Abī ʿArūbah, and many others, and a number of scholars—among them Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal—narrated from him. He was reliable, eminent, and precise, though anecdotes are told about him that reveal a certain naïveté in worldly matters. He died in Basra in this very year, although some said it was the year before and others the year after. The title “Ghundar” was borne by several scholars, both early and later.

In the same year Hārūn, the Commander of the Faithful, also passed away; his biography has been given above.

Abū Bakr b. ʿAyyāsh (2) likewise died. He was among the leading imams: he heard from Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, al-Aʿmash, Hishām b. ʿUrwah (3), and many others, while crowds of transmitters—including Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal—related from him.

Yazīd b. Hārūn said: “He was righteous and outstanding; for forty years he never laid his side upon the ground.” Others reported that he spent sixty years completing a full recitation of the Qurʾān every single day and that he fasted eighty Ramadans. He died at the age of ninety-six. When the pangs of death came upon him his son wept, and he said, “My son, why do you weep? By Allah, your father has never committed an indecency.”

[Then came the year 194 AH]

In this year the people of Ḥimṣ deposed their governor. Al-Amīn dismissed him and appointed ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿīd al-Ḥarashī over them. Al-Ḥarashī executed a number of the city’s leading figures and burned parts of the town. The inhabitants sought a guarantee of safety, which he granted, but they revolted again, so he beheaded many of them as well.