and Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (1), al-Wāqidī’s secretary, the author of “The Classes” (al-Ṭabaqāt) and other compilations;

and Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Jarmī (2).

[Then the year 231 AH began]

In this year a prisoner-exchange was concluded for a number of Muslims who were being held by the Byzantines. The operation was carried out, in Muḥarram of that year, by the amir Khāqān the Chamberlain. The captives liberated from the unbelievers numbered 4,362, and to Allah belong all praise and grace.

[In the same year there occurred the killing of]

Aḥmad ibn Naṣr al-Khuzāʿī (3) — may Allah have mercy on him and ennoble his resting-place.

The reason for this was that Aḥmad ibn Naṣr ibn Mālik ibn al-Haytham al-Khuzāʿī — whose grandfather, Mālik ibn al-Haytham, had been one of the most prominent public advocates for the establishment of the ʿAbbāsid state (4) and enjoyed great respect and leadership — came from a distinguished family. His father, Naṣr ibn Mālik, was regularly visited by the scholars of ḥadith, and in 201 AH the common people pledged allegiance to him to uphold al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-n-nahy ʿan al-munkar (commanding right and forbidding wrong) when brigands and highwaymen (5) had proliferated throughout Baghdad during al-Maʾmūn’s absence from the city, as we have already detailed. Because of him the quarter of Suwayqat Naṣr (6) in Baghdad is so named.

Aḥmad himself was a man of knowledge, piety, righteous deeds, and earnest striving in goodness; one of the imams of the sunnah who commanded right and forbade wrong. He was among those who championed the doctrine that the Quran is the speech of Allah, revealed and uncreated.