the twentieth of Dhu l-Qaʿda, and the Christians claimed that such a concurrence had never occurred in the era of Islam before this year.
The summer campaign (ṣāʿifa) was undertaken by the aforementioned ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā (1). The Hajj was led by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd ibn ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, who was then governor of Mecca.
Ibn Jarīr (2) reports: In this year Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad, son of the judge Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād al-Iyādī, the Muʿtazilite, passed away.
[The author adds: Among the notable figures who also died this year were]
Dāwūd ibn Rushayd (3);
Ṣafwān ibn Ṣāliḥ (4), the muezzin of the people of Damascus;
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb (5), the renowned Mālikī jurist;
ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah, compiler of the famous works “al-Tafsīr” and the “Musnad” (6);
Muḥammad ibn Mihrān al-Rāzī (7);
Maḥmūd ibn Ghaylān (8);
and Wahb ibn Baqiyya (9).
It corresponds to the Iranian date, which falls on the 21st of March in the Gregorian calendar. The festival of Nowruz (also spelled Neyruz) is the greatest of the Persian festivals.
(1) In al-Tabari’s version: ‘Ali ibn Yaḥyā al-Armanī.
(2) al-Tabari, History, vol. 9, p. 196.
(3) Abu’l-Faḍl al-Khwarazmī al-Baghdādī, a mawla of Banū Hāshim, was a travelling transmitter, hadith narrator, muhaddith and reliable authority, counted among the “People of the Eighty” (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 11:133; al-‘Ibar, 1:429).
(4) Abu ‘Abd al-Malik al-Thaqafī al-Dimashqī, muezzin of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, was of the Ḥanafī madhhab, a muhaddith and reliable transmitter (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 11:475; al-‘Ibar, 1:430).
(5) Abu Marwān al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī al-Mālikī, an Andalusian jurist and leading scholar, was noted for his acumen in fiqh, high rank, wide renown, and numerous writings. Lacking expertise in hadith, his opinions have limited authority. His works include Kitāb al-Wāḍiḥa, among others (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 12:102; al-‘Ibar, 1:427).
(6) Uthmān ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Qāḍī Abū Shayba (Ibrāhīm ibn Uthmān), known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Abṣī al-Kūfī, was a traveller and pilgrim who authored works on tafsīr and musnad. He was recognized as reliable and trustworthy and was admired for his wit (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 11:151; al-‘Ibar, 1:430).
(7) Abu Ja‘far al-Jammāl al-Rāzī was a reliable muhaddith and itinerant transmitter who narrated from Fuḍayl ibn ‘Iyāḍ and many others (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 11:143; al-‘Ibar, 1:430).
(8) Abu Aḥmad al-Marwazī, a muhaddith from Marw known as al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḥujja and author of Kitāb al-Sunnah, was deemed reliable by al-Nasa’ī (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 12:223; al-‘Ibar, 1:431).
(9) Wahb ibn Baqiyya ibn Uthmān ibn Shābur, known as Abū Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī and sometimes as Wahbān, was a reliable transmitter who settled in Baghdad and taught there (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, 11:462; al-‘Ibar, 1:431).