Amir Marjan al-Zafiri

Summary

Amir Marjan ibn Abd Allah al-Zafiri, who built the dome of al-Idarus in Aden, where he is buried beside it ¹.

The scholar Ba-Harq said of him: "The amir supported by God's grace and care, whose inner sight God opened with the light of faith, whose inner heart God purified from bad belief, who came to be counted among the saints and who had a large share, among rulers and governors, of humility before God and kindness to the poor and needy." ¹

He died around the year 923 ¹.

Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)

Diwan is a Persian loan-word meaning a collection of sheets and writings, in which the army and those given grants were written; for the jurists it is the register in which the names of those in state service who receive a stipend from the public treasury are recorded, and the office that keeps it. Umar ibn al-Khattab was the first to set up the diwan, according to two accounts. The people of the diwan are of several kinds: soldiers, on conditions that are regulatory, such as puberty, freedom, Islam, health and fitness for fighting; holders of office, such as governors, judges, scholars, collectors, imams and muezzins; and the needy. The Companions differed on preference in distribution: Abu Bakr and Ali made it equal, while Umar and Uthman preferred by precedence in Islam, and Umar added kinship to the Prophet; Abu Hanifa and Ahmad followed the latter view.

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Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)