سفيان الثوري

Sufyan al-Thawri, imam of the people of Kufa in hadith, who was classified in the first era of codification. al-Suyuti reports that he said: "The caliphs are five: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz" ².

al-Mansur ordered his deputy in Mecca to imprison him together with Abbad ibn Kathir in the year 158 AH. People feared that they would be killed when the pilgrims arrived, but al-Mansur died before that ³.

al-Mas'udi reports that he entered upon al-Mahdi and greeted him with the greeting of the common people, and did not greet him as caliph. al-Mahdi asked him: "Are you not afraid that we will judge you by our whims?" He answered that if a powerful king judged him, then a powerful king would judge al-Mahdi too. al-Mahdi wrote him a commission to the judgeship of Kufa; he took it, went out and threw it into the Tigris, and fled ⁴.

According to Ibn al-Nadim, he was Sufyan ibn Sa'id ibn Masruq al-Thawri, of the descendants of Thawr ibn Abd Manat. He died in Basra, hidden from the sultan, and was buried at night ⁵. Among the books attributed to him, the Fihrist mentions: al-Jami' al-Kabir, al-Jami' al-Saghir, and al-Fara'id ⁵.

The sources differ on his age. al-Mas'udi reports that he died in the year 161 AH at the age of sixty-three, while Ibn al-Nadim says sixty-four, and his birth in the year 97 AH. al-Shirazi says he was born in the year 96 AH, or it is said 97, and died in the year 161 AH ^{4 5 6}.