The Abu Tutayna Affair

قصة ابن الأهثم أبي طينة

Abdallah ibn al-Ahtham, Abu Haqan, Qutayba's Marw deputy during campaigns, wrote al-Hajjaj denouncing him. Bashir of the Ahtham warned Qutayba — 'you've opened to a treacherous envious man' — dismissed as cousin-envy, though Bashir begged it stand as his excuse. When al-Hajjaj forwarded the letter and the courier rode past the Sakka without stopping, Ibn al-Ahtham sensed the trap and fled to Syria: years peddling wine and flax round his neck, then rag and cotton over one eye, styled Abu Tutayna the oilman — until al-Walid died and Sulayman rose, when he cast off the disguise and preached congratulations to Sulayman with attacks on al-Hajjaj and Qutayba — 'Abu Tutayna the oilman, the most eloquent of men'. Reading the letter, Qutayba struck the Banu Ahtham, killing nine; Bashir said 'remember my excuse' — 'you put one foot forward and held the other back, enemy of God' — and killed them all. Waki' ibn Abi Sud, deposed from Tamim's command for a Dabbi, swore then, missed zhuhr and asr, and when asked answered: 'how should I pray to a Lord who killed our best as boys and was not angered for them?'