Shaylama ibn Sahl

Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Sahl, known as Shaylama. He was with the leader of the Zanj until the last of his days, then joined Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq under a pledge of safe-conduct. It was reported to al-Muʿtadid that he was calling people to a man whose name had not been identified, and that he had corrupted a group of people. Al-Muʿtadid seized him and interrogated him, but he did not confess. When he was asked about the man to whom he was calling, he said: "Were he under my foot, I would not lift my foot from him." He was killed and crucified on the seventh day of Muharram in the year 280 AH. ¹

His words "Were he under my foot, I would not lift my foot from him" became a well-known saying of loyalty: a man who went out from the Zanj camp to the safe-conduct of al-Muwaffaq, then refused to point to the one who had trusted him, and gave his life as the price of keeping the secret. ¹