al-Haytham ibn 'Adi al-Ta'i

Al-Haytham ibn Adi al-Ta'i, one of the akhbaris whom al-Mas'udi relies on for the numbers of the dead and the battles. ²

He went with al-Sharqi ibn al-Qutami and Abu Mikhnaf in holding that the dead at Siffin from both sides were seventy thousand: forty-five thousand from the people of Syria and twenty-five thousand from the people of Iraq, among them twenty-five men of Badr. ² He relates that Muhammad ibn Talha was called Abu al-Qasim, contrary to al-Waqidi. ² Al-Bahlul ibn al-Abbas related from him, from Yazid al-Raqashi, the evening tales of al-Saffah, and the report of the Tanukhi and the slave-girl who satirised the tribes. ³

He died in 206 AH, and he was disparaged about his lineage, so verses were said on that subject. ⁴ He related from his father that Uthman sent him as a collector among the Banu Udhra, and he found Urwa ibn Hizam a young man in a tent, chanting, who died in his presence while his mother was an old woman. ⁵

Ibn al-Nadim relates from Ishaq al-Mawsili his words about a tale concerning al-Haytham ibn Adi and Hisham al-Kalbi. ⁶