It was conveyed to us both that al-Barbahārī said: ‘I have been informed that there is reciter who is known as Khilb who eulogizes. Seek her out and kill her!’”

Notes: Khilb means ‘veil of the heart’. She was probably a slave-girl. Al-Barbahārī (d. 329) was a well-known Ḥanbalī preacher who attempted to impose his version of amr bil maʿrūf/naḥy anil munkar in the city of Baghdad through rousing the rabble at which he was very good. It is not known whether his fatwa led to Khilb’s murder or not.

Reference: Nishwār al-Muḥāḍara wa Akhbār al-Mudhākara ed. ʿAbbūd al-Shāljī, (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1995), v. 2, p. 233, n. 124