had anyone taken from this the rule that a martyr who dies in a state of major ritual impurity (junub) should be washed, it would have been a sound inference.

Those who narrated from ʿAbd Allāh include: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Khatmī—his travelling companion—, Ibn Abī Mulaykah, Damdam ibn Jaws, and Asmāʾ bint Zayd al-ʿAdawiyyah.

He himself related reports from ʿUmar and from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār as well.

He was the chief of the rebels against Yazīd during the incident of al-Ḥarrah (1).

He had seen the Prophet ﷺ circling the Kaʿbah while mounted on a camel; its chain of transmission is sound.

He was the son of Jamīlah bint ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl.

He travelled with his eight sons to Yazīd, who presented them with two hundred thousand and robes of honour. When he returned, the notables of Madinah asked, “What news do you bring?”

He replied, “I have come from a man whom—were I to find no supporters but my own sons—I would fight with them against him.”

They said, “Yet he honoured you and gave you gifts!”

He answered, “I accepted only so that I might gain strength against him.”

He then urged the people on, and they pledged their allegiance to him. He was placed in command of the Ansar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mutīʿ al-ʿAdawī was put over Quraysh, and Maʿqil ibn Sinān al-Ashjaʿī over the rest of the Muhājirūn; the Banū Umayyah were expelled (2).

Yazīd therefore mustered an army against them under Muslim ibn ʿUqbah—nicknamed “Musrif” al-Murrī—twelve thousand strong. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar spoke to Yazīd on behalf of the people of Madinah, whereupon he said:

“Leave me to satisfy my anger; yet I direct Muslim ibn ʿUqbah to make Madinah his route to Mecca. If they neither fight him nor obstruct him, he is to proceed to wage war on Ibn al-Zubayr. But if they fight him, he is to fight them; if he prevails, he is to kill, plunder Madinah for three days, and then march on to Ibn al-Zubayr.”