—a fair-skinned, blue-eyed man—looked at one of the young girls and said, “Grant her to me, Commander of the Faithful.”

Zaynab replied, “Never! No honor is yours unless you leave the religion of Allah.”

Yazid said to him, “Silence!” He then sent the captives to the quarters of his own family, supplied them, and had them conveyed to Madinah. (1)

Up to this point comes from the narration of Ahmad ibn Janab.

Al-Zubayr said: Muhammad ibn Hasan narrated to us:

When ʿUmar ibn Saʿd encamped opposite Husayn, Husayn addressed his companions, saying, “You see the situation that has overtaken us. This world has changed and turned away; its familiar comfort has departed, and its sweetness has been relished (2) until nothing remains but the dregs at the bottom of a vessel and a wretched (3) existence, like grazing on scorched pasture. Do you not see that truth is no longer practiced and falsehood no longer shunned? In such a time, the believer should long to meet Allah. I see death as nothing but happiness, and life with the oppressors as nothing but regret. (4)”

Khalid ibn ʿAbd Allah narrated, from al-Jurayri, from a man:

When the weapons closed in on Husayn he said, “Will you not accept from me what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to accept from the idolaters? Whenever one of them inclined toward peace, he accepted it.”

They said, “No.”

He said, “Then let me return.”

They said, “No.”

He said, “Then allow me to go to the Commander of the Faithful.”

A man seized his weapons and said to him, “Rejoice in the Fire!”

Husayn replied, “Rather—if Allah wills—in the mercy of my Lord and the intercession of my Prophet.”

He was then killed, and his head was brought and placed in a basin before Ibn Ziyad. Ibn Ziyad prodded it with his rod and said, “He was indeed a handsome youth.” He then asked, “Which of you killed him?”

A man stood up and said: