This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
396
THE ORIGINS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

promise of security and reduced the fort by force, slaughtering and carrying away captives. Here he found certain persons in a church whom he took captives. Among these captives was (1) Ḥumrân ibn-Abân ibn-Khâlid at-Tamri. Others say his father's name was Abba. This Ḥumrân was the freedman of ʿUthmân. He first belonged to al-Musâiyab ibn-Najabah-l-Fazâri from whom ʿUthmân bought him, and then released him. ʿUthmân later sent him to al-Kûfah to make inquiry regarding the conduct of his ʿâmil there, on which occasion Ḥumrân did not tell the truth. So ʿUthmân denied him the rights of protection [Ar. jiwâr] and Ḥumrân went and settled in al-Baṣrah. Among other captives were (2) Sîrîn, father of Muḥammad ibn-Sîrîn,[1] whose brothers were Yaḥya ibn-Sîrîn, Anas ibn-Sîrîn, and Maʿbad ibn-Sîrîn, Muḥammad being the eldest brother, and all being the freedmen of Anas ibn-Mâlik al-Anṣâri; (3) abu-ʿAmrah, a grandfather of ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAbd-al-Aʿla, the poet; (4) Yasâr, a grandfather of Muḥammad ibn-Isḥâḳ—the author of as-Sîrah[2]—and a freedman of Ḳais ibn-Makhramah ibn-al-Muṭṭalib ibn-ʿAbd-Manâf; (5) Murrah abu-ʿUbaid, a grandfather of Muḥammad ibn-Zaid ibn-ʿUbaid ibn-Murrah (Nafis ibn-Muḥammad ibn-Zaid ibn-ʿUbaid ibn-Murrah, the owner of the citadel [ḳaṣr] near al-Ḥarrah [volcanic tract of al-Madînah] was a son of this Muḥammad. His descendants give the name of their ancestor as ʿUbaid ibn-Murrah ibn-al-Muʿalla-l-Anṣâri and later az-Zuraḳi); (6) Nuṣair, the father of Mûsa ibn-Nuṣair, the governor of al-Maghrib. This Nuṣair was a freedman of the banu-Umaiyah, as it is asserted by freedmen in the frontier towns descended from slaves whom he

  1. Bakri, p. 199.
  2. The biography of the Prophet from which ibn-Hishâm's was abridged.