to these lands and this barren plain?’

He answered, ‘These are the letters of the people of Kūfah that have reached me, and I see them as nothing but my killers. Once they do that, they will leave no sanctity of Allah unviolated; then Allah will unleash upon them someone who will abase them until they become more humiliated than the rag (1) of a slave-girl—that is, her head-covering.’

Al-Madāʾinī relates, through al-Ḥasan ibn Dīnār from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, who said:

Ḥusayn declared, ‘By Allah, they will assault me just as the Children of Israel transgressed concerning the Sabbath (2).’

Aḥmad ibn Janāb al-Maṣṣīṣī reported: Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Qaṣrī narrated to us, ʿAmmār al-Duhunī narrated:

I said to Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir, ‘Tell me about the killing of Ḥusayn.’

He said, ‘When Muʿāwiyah died, al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah, the governor of Medina, summoned Ḥusayn to pledge allegiance. Ḥusayn said, “Give me some time,” and al-Walīd dealt with him gently and deferred the matter. Ḥusayn then left for Mecca. Envoys from the people of Kūfah arrived—Kūfah was then under al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr—and Ḥusayn dispatched his cousin Muslim ibn ʿAqīl, saying, “Go and see what they have written.” Muslim took two guides and set off; they grew thirsty in the wilderness and one of the guides died. Muslim wrote to Ḥusayn asking to be excused, but Ḥusayn wrote back, “Proceed to Kūfah,” and did not release him. Muslim reached the city and stayed at the house of ʿAwsajah. The people of Kūfah slipped in to him and twelve thousand pledged allegiance to him.

Then ʿUbayd Allah ibn Muslim stood up and said to al-Nuʿmān, “You are weak!” He replied, “To be weak is dearer to me than to be strong in disobedience to Allah, and I would never tear down a veil that Allah has drawn.” ʿUbayd Allah wrote to Yazīd about his words, and Yazīd—who had been angry with ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād—replied expressing his approval of him, appointing him over Kūfah in addition to Basra, and ordering him to kill Muslim.

So ʿUbayd Allah hurried along the main roads from Basra to Kūfah with his face veiled. Whenever he passed a gathering and greeted them with salām, they replied, “And upon you …”