Hisham ibn Urwa

Abu al-Mundhir Hisham ibn Urwa ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (may God be pleased with him), the Qurashi Asadi, son of Urwa ibn al-Zubayr; one of Medina's famous Successors who transmitted abundantly, counted among the senior scholars and eminent Tabi'in, ranked in the fourth generation of the people of Medina. ¹

He heard his uncle Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr and Ibn Umar, and saw Jabir ibn Abdallah al-Ansari, Anas ibn Malik (may God be pleased with him) and Sahl ibn Sa'd — though it was also said he saw Ibn Umar without hearing from him. Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari, Sufyan al-Thawri, Malik ibn Anas, Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani, Ibn Jurayj, Ubaydallah ibn Umar, al-Layth ibn Sa'd, Sufyan ibn Uyayna, Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan, Waki' and others transmitted from him; he came to Kufa in the days of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur and the Kufans heard from him. ¹

He was born in 61 AH; it was said that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Hisham, al-Zuhri, Qatada and al-A'mash were all born in the nights when al-Husayn ibn Ali (may God be pleased with him) was killed on Ashura in 61. He came to Baghdad to al-Mansur; al-Khatib relates in Tarikh Baghdad that al-Mansur asked him to recall the day he and his brothers entered upon him as boys while he drank sawiq, and how their father told them "honour this shaykh, for he will remain a remnant among your people"; Hisham denied remembering, then admitted it when told the caliph himself recalled it, saying: I did remember it, and God never returns me to honesty but with good. It is also reported that he asked al-Mansur to pay off a hundred-thousand debt he had incurred arranging marriages for the young men of his people; the caliph baulked at the sum, then granted him ten thousand. ¹

He died in Baghdad in 146 AH — it was also said 145 or 147 — and al-Mansur prayed over him. Scholars disputed his grave: some placed it in al-Khayzuran cemetery on the eastern side, others on the western side outside the market toward Bab Qatrabbul beyond the moat at the Bab Harb graves, where an inscribed plaque bears his name; others said the western grave belongs to Hisham ibn Urwa al-Marwazi, the companion of Abdallah ibn al-Mubarak. He has descendants in Medina and Basra. ¹