with regard to him?’ Sinan ibn Anas al-Nakhaʿī pierced his collar-bone, then struck him again in the chest; he toppled, and Khawli al-Asbahī severed his head—may Allah show him no mercy.
Ibn Saʿd reports, through his own chains of transmission: Husayn had sent Muslim ahead, instructing him to stay with Hani ibn ʿUrwah and to write back with news of the people. Muslim entered Kufa in secret; the Shiʿa gathered around him, he accepted their pledge, and he wrote to Husayn: ‘So far eighteen thousand have given me their allegiance. Hurry—nothing stands between you and Kufa.’
Husayn therefore pressed on until he reached Zabālah (1). Envoys from Kufa brought him a register containing the names of one hundred thousand supporters. At that time al-Nuʿman ibn Bashir was governor of Kufa, and Yazid feared that al-Nuʿman would not move against Husayn.
Yazid wrote to ʿUbayd Allah, who was then in Basra, adding Kufa to his command and telling him, ‘If you have wings, then fly to Kufa!’
ʿUbayd Allah set off at once, turbaned and incognito, and passed through the marketplace. The rabble, thinking he was Husayn, surged before him and called out, ‘O grandson of the Messenger of Allah! Praise be to Allah who has allowed us to see you!’ They kissed his hand and foot, and he remarked, ‘How badly these people have gone astray.’
He entered the mosque, prayed two units, mounted the pulpit, removed his veil, and captured Husayn’s envoy—ʿAbd Allah ibn Buqṭur—whom he then killed.
Accompanying ʿUbayd Allah was Sharik ibn al-Aʿwar, a Shiʿa partisan. He lodged with Hani ibn ʿUrwah and fell ill, and ʿUbayd Allah used to visit him. They arranged thirty men to assassinate ʿUbayd Allah, but the plot came to nothing.
Sensing the danger, ʿUbayd Allah leapt up and left. A servant of Hani informed on them, so he summoned the elderly Hani and said, ‘What made you grant protection to my enemy?’
Hani replied, ‘Nephew, a right has arisen that outweighs your right.’
ʿUbayd Allah lunged at him with a short spear, driving its head into the wall beside him.
When the news reached Muslim, he went out with about four hundred men; by the time he reached the palace they were roughly sixty. The sun had set, battle was joined, and the forces of ʿUbayd