and someone even claimed that he had seen al-Ḥallāj late that same day, riding a donkey on the Nahrawān road. He said, “You may be like those people⦗1⦘ who imagined that I am the man who was beaten and killed⦗2⦘.” In their ignorance they would go about saying, “He only put to death an enemy of al-Ḥallāj⦗3⦘.”

Some scholars of that time remarked, “If this report is true, then it is likely that a creature—namely, one of the devils—took on his form in order to mislead the people⦗4⦘, just as a faction of the Christians went astray because of the crucified one.”

Al-Khaṭīb adds: “That same year the Tigris rose to an extraordinary level, and the people said, ‘It has only risen because al-Ḥallāj’s ashes⦗5⦘ have mixed with it⦗6⦘.’ A public proclamation was made in Baghdad that no one should buy or sell any of al-Ḥallāj’s books⦗7⦘.

“Al-Ḥallāj was executed in Baghdad on Tuesday, six days remaining of Dhū al-Qaʿdah in the year 309 AH.

“Qāḍī Ibn Khallikān mentions him in al-Wafayāt, relates the differing opinions about him, and cites al-Ghazālī in Mishkāt al-Anwār as interpreting his words and giving them an acceptable sense⦗8⦘. He then reports⦗9⦘ that Imām al-Ḥaramayn used to censure him, saying, ‘He, al-Jannābī, and Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ agreed together to corrupt people’s beliefs. They then scattered: al-Jannābī stayed in Hajar and Bahrain, Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ went to the lands of the Turks, and al-Ḥallāj entered Iraq⦗10⦘.’”

Qāḍī Ibn Khallikān comments: “This cannot be correct, for Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ lived long before al-Ḥallāj; he was active in the days of al-Saffāḥ and al-Manṣūr and died in 145 AH⦗11⦘ or earlier. Perhaps Imām al-Ḥaramayn meant al-Muqannaʿ⦗12⦘ the Khurāsānī, who claimed divinity, drew the moon to himself⦗13⦘, and whose name was ʿAṭāʾ. He took his own life with poison in 163 AH, and he too could not have met al-Ḥallāj. If we wish to set Imām al-Ḥaramayn’s statement right, we would say…"