Eshʿab b. Jubayr. His kunya was Abū l-ʿAlāʾ; it is also said that he was Abū Isḥāq al-Madanī. He was also called Abū Ḥumayd. His father was a freedman of the Zubayr family. He was killed by Mukhtār, and he was the maternal uncle of Wakidī.
Eshʿab narrated from ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar, saying: "The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to wear his ring on his right hand."
Eshʿab also transmitted narrations from Abān b. ʿUthmān, Sālim, and ʿIkrima. He was witty, humorous, somewhat informal, and greedy, which made people of his time fond of him. He sang beautifully. He visited Walīd b. Yazīd in Damascus.
According to Ibn ʿAsākir, who recounted his biography, he related truly amusing anecdotes about him. He also transmitted two hadiths from him. It is narrated that one day people asked him to recite a hadith, and he said: ʿIkrima narrated to me from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
"There are two qualities; whoever possesses them will enter Paradise." After saying this, he fell silent. When asked what those two qualities were, he replied: "ʿIkrima forgot one of them, and I forgot the other."
Sālim b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar would make light of him, saying he was a pleasant person, and would laugh and take him along to the woods. Moreover, leading figures among the people would also accompany him.
Al-Shāfiʿī said: "One day, children played with Eshʿab. Eshʿab said to them: 'There are some people distributing walnuts over there.' By saying this, he wanted to send the children away from him. The children ran off in the direction he indicated. Seeing them run, he said: 'Perhaps they really are distributing walnuts there,' and he himself ran after the children."*
Someone once asked Eshʿab the following question:
- To what extent are you greedy?
- When I saw a bride passing by in Medina, I would wish that she would come to my house, sweep it, and clean my doorstep.
One day, as he was passing by a man weaving a basket from wheat stalks, he said to him: "Make the rim one or two turns thicker, so that if one day a gift is presented in this basket, at least my gift will be plentiful."
According to the narration of Ibn ʿAsākir, one day Eshʿab recited to Sālim b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar the following verses from a poet:
"They took her away, her face was like the full moon.
Her garment was clean, and her piety was great.
Her lineage was pure, her honor well-known.
She forbade all evil.
Her chastity and honor were never stained.
No poet ever led her away from taqwa (God-consciousness) before Allah."
Sālim said to him: "You recited well, recite more." Thereupon, he added these lines to the above poem:
"On a dark night, she turned to us,
As if she were the wing of a crow scattering raindrops upon us.
I said: Has a perfumer come and settled with our caravan? I used to know Layla's scent only as the scent of attar."
Sālim said to him: "You recited well. If people were to gossip, I would give you many gifts, but you are indeed advanced in greed."
Among the notable figures who died this year are Jaʿfar b. Burkān, Ḥakam b. Abān, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Zayd b. Jābir, Qurra b. Khālid, and Abū ʿAmr b. al-ʿAlā, who was among the reciters (qurrāʾ) and learned imams. In another narration, it is said that Abū ʿAmr's real name was Raywān, but according to the correct view, both his name and his kunya were Abū ʿAmr.