Abū al-ʿĀliya, Rufayʿ b. Mihrān al-Baṣrī (d. ca. 93/712), was a client of the Banū Riyāḥ and a notable of the first rank amongst the tābiʿūn (‘followers’, the generation following that of the Companions). The date of his birth is unclear: Abū Nuʿaym reckoned that he was four years old at the time of the Prophet's death (1/314); however, this is at variance with the report that he became a Muslim two years after the Prophet's death (al-Bukhārī, 2(1)/326). The majority of sources place his death in the year 90/709 or 93/7…