He lived during the lifetime of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him). He transmitted hadith from a group of the Companions (ṣaḥāba), among whom was ʿAbdullāh b. Qays b. Maḥrama. He served as the judge (qāḍī) of Medina. He was among the jurists and scholars of Quraysh. His father, ʿAdī, was killed as a disbeliever (kāfir) in the Battle of Badr.
In this year, Mersad b. ʿAbdillāh Abū'l-Khayr al-Yazanī also passed away.
In this year, a group of reciters (qurrāʾ) and scholars who were with al-Ashʿath also died. Some of them fled, some were killed in battle, some were taken captive and executed by al-Ḥajjāj, and some were pursued by al-Ḥajjāj, eventually caught and killed.
Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ listed the names of some of these notable figures as follows:
Muslim b. Yasār al-Muzanī,
Abū Mirāna al-ʿIjlī (killed),
ʿUqba b. ʿAbd al-Ghaffār (killed),
ʿUqba b. Wishāḥ (killed),
ʿAbdullāh b. Khālid al-Jahdamī (killed),
Abū'l-Jawzāʾ al-Ribʿī (killed),
Nadr b. Anas,
ʿImrān (father of Abū Ḥamza al-Dābiʿī),
Abū'l-Minhāl Sayyār b. Salama al-Rayyāḥī,
Mālik b. Dīnār (Murr b. Zubāb al-Ḥaddādī),
Abū Najīd al-Jahdamī,
Abū Sabīj al-Hanāʾī,
Saʿīd b. Abī'l-Ḥasan,
Saʿīd's brother, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.
Ayyūb said: It was said to Ibn al-Ashʿath: "If you wish that people fight and are killed around you as they fought and were killed around the litter of ʿĀʾisha during the Battle of the Camel, then take al-Ḥasan with you to the front."
Upon hearing people say this to him, he took al-Ḥasan with him to the front.
In the eighty-third year of the Hijra, among the famous men of Ibn al-Ashʿath who were killed in the battle against al-Ḥajjāj were:
Saʿīd b. Jubayr of Kufa,
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Laylā,
ʿAbdullāh b. Shaddād,
al-Shaʿbī,
Abū ʿUbayda b. ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd,
Maʿrūr b. Suwayd,
Muḥammad b. Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ,
Abū'l-Bakhtarī,
Ṭalḥa b. Maṣrif al-Yamāmī,
Zabīd b. Ḥāris al-Yamāmī,
ʿAṭāʾ b. Sāʾib.
Ayyūb said: Every one of the men who fought with Ibn al-Ashʿath and was killed tried to flee from the place where he would be killed. Whoever among them escaped, praised Allah for saving him from death.
Among the notable figures killed by al-Ḥajjāj was also ʿImrān b. Iṣām al-Dābiʿī, the father of Abū Ḥajza. He was among the scholars of Basra, a righteous and devout man. He was taken captive and brought before al-Ḥajjāj. Al-Ḥajjāj said to him: "Testify to your own disbelief so that I may release you." He replied: "By Allah, since I have believed in Him, I have never denied Allah." So al-Ḥajjāj ordered his execution.
Another of the notable figures killed by al-Ḥajjāj was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Laylā. He transmitted hadith from the group of Companions (ṣaḥāba). His father, Abū Laylā, was a Companion. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān learned the Qur'an from ʿAlī. He went to battle with Ibn al-Ashʿath, was captured, and brought before al-Ḥajjāj. He was killed in front of him, his hands and arms bound.