al-Ahnaf ibn Qays

Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays, whose name was al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Tamimi. Al-Baladhuri mentions him in "Futuh Fars", and al-Mas'udi in the account of his death. ¹

In al-Baladhuri, Abu Musa sent him to Qashan, which he took by force. Abd Allah ibn Budayl sent him to the Jews, and their people made peace with him on terms like the peace of Jay. In one report he was at the head of Abu Musa's vanguard. ¹

Al-Mas'udi relates that he lived apart from his people of Banu Tamim in the valley of al-Sibaʿ. When al-Zubayr passed by him on his way back, he said something about him, and a group of his people caught up with him and killed him. Al-Mas'udi adds that it was also said he was killed on the sending of someone among his own people. ²

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) article under the heading AHMAR, of which al-Ahnaf is the main body, gives him as Abu Bahr Dahhak b. Qays b. Mu'awiya al-Tamimi al-Sa'di, a Tamimite noble of Basra, descended through his mother from the Bahila clan of Awd b. Man. He was born before Islam and lost his father, killed by the Banu Mazin, while still young. His biographers say he was deformed from birth and had been operated on; his nickname al-Ahnaf comes from the misshapen feet. ³

Under Abu Musa al-Ash'ari he took part in the capture of Qum, Kashan and Isfahan (23/644 and 29/649–50); under 'Abd Allah b. 'Amir he conquered Kuhistan, Herat, Marw, Marw al-Rudh and other districts, and led his troops to the plains of Tukharistan. He was for a time governor of a district of Khurasan and then returned to Basra as head of the Tamim. He stayed neutral at the battle of the Camel (36/656) and fought for 'Ali at Siffin the following year. The Umayyads consulted him on the succession to Mu'awiya. He prevented bloodshed between the Rabi'a faction and the Mudar faction at Basra, and in the rising after the death of Yazid (64/683) he made a compromise favourable to the Azd. In 65/684–5 he proposed al-Muhallab for the expedition against the Azariqa, and in 67/686–7 he drove al-Mukhtar's supporters from Basra. He then led the Tamim contingent under Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr against al-Mukhtar at Kufa, and died there at an advanced age. ³

He was something of a poet, but above all known for sagacity; his aphorisms became proverbs, his forbearance was compared with Mu'awiya's, and the saying "wiser than al-Ahnaf" was current. ⁴