al-Mutawakkil and others. He was the one who led the funeral prayer for Ahmad ibn Hanbal when he died. This Ishāq [ibn Ibrāhīm] (1) served as their deputy during the reigns of al-Mu‘tasim and al-Wāthiq and for part of al-Mutawakkil’s reign. All of these men belonged to Khuzā‘a, not Tayy, and they were [the members of] (2) a renowned household (3).
As for the legal opinion he mentioned—that al-Mutawakkil vowed that, if he recovered, he would give (4) a large sum of dirhams in charity; that he asked the jurists about this but found no answer among them; and that Alī ibn Muhammad instructed him to give eighty-three dirhams in charity, on the basis of Allah’s words:
“Allah has certainly helped you in many battlefields,” [Surat al-Tawba: 25]
and that the battlefields amounted to [this total, since the Prophet—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—fought] (5) twenty-seven military campaigns (6) and [dispatched] fifty-six (7) expeditions—this account is likewise related about
(1) “Ibn Ibrāhīm” is omitted from N and M.
(2) “Ahl” is an addition found only in B.
(3) Ibn al-Imād states in Shadharāt al-Dhahab, 2/84, among the deaths of the year 235: “In that year, the emir Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Musab al-Khuzāī, the paternal cousin—the correct relation is nephew—of Tāhir ibn al-Husayn, also died. He governed Baghdad for more than twenty years and was known as Sāhib al-Jisr (Master of the Bridge). He was resolute, politically astute, and prudent. It was he who sought out the scholars and examined them at al-Mamūn’s command. He died at the end of the year.” See also al-Ibar, 1/420; Ibn al-Athīr’s al-Kāmil, 7/17; and al-Alām, 1/283–284. Ishāq’s paternal cousin was Abd Allāh ibn Tāhir ibn al-Husayn ibn Musab ibn Zurayq, governor of Khurāsān, who died in 230. See his biography in Wafayāt al-Ayān, 2/271–275; Tārīkh Baghdād, 9/483–489; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, 2/68; and al-Alām, 4/226–227.
(4) “If he recovers, he shall give charity”: thus in H and R. The remaining manuscripts read: “He vowed to give charity.”
(5) The text between square brackets appears only in A and B.
(6) A and B read: “a military campaign.”
(7) “And he dispatched six…”: thus in A and B. The remaining manuscripts read: “and six….”