Yahya ibn Maʿin said: Jarir narrated to us, from Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad, who said, “Husayn was killed when I was fourteen years old. The wars (safflower dye) that lay in their camp turned to ashes, the horizons of the sky grew red, and they slaughtered a she-camel in their camp, but flames could be seen inside its flesh.” (1)

Ibn ʿUyaynah said: My grandmother related to me, saying, “I myself saw the wars reduced to ashes, and I saw the meat as though fire were in it when Husayn was killed.” (2)

Hammad ibn Zayd said: Jamil ibn Murrah narrated to me: “They seized some camels from Husayn’s camp on the day he was killed and cooked them, but the meat turned as bitter as colocynth.”

Qurrah ibn Khalid said: I heard Abu Rajaʾ al-ʿAtaridi say, “We had a neighbor from the tribe of Bahlujaym who traveled to Kufah and came back saying, ‘What do you make of this evildoer, the son of an evildoer—may Allah kill him,’ meaning Husayn. Allah struck him with two meteors from the sky, and his sight was blotted out.” (3)

ʿAtaʾ ibn Muslim al-Halabi said that al-Suddi recounted: “I went to Karbalaʾ on business. An elderly man from the tribe of Tayy prepared food for us, and we took supper with him. We spoke about Husayn’s killing, and I said, ‘No one shared in his death without meeting an evil end.’ He replied, ‘How false you are! I was among those who took part in it.’ We had not even left when he went over to the lamp, which was burning with naphtha, and tried to pull out the wick with his finger. The fire caught hold of it; when he tried to extinguish it with his saliva, the flames leapt onto his beard. He fled, hurled himself into the water, and I saw him turn black like a charred ember.” (4)