Some report that ʿAlī added, “It reaches the two nostrils and the mouth.” (1)
ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ rejoiced at his death and remarked, “Allah has hosts made of honey.”
It is also said that Ibn al-Zubayr challenged al-Ashṭar to single combat. The duel dragged on so long that Ibn al-Zubayr cried out:
“Kill me with Mālik—
yes, strike down Mālik at my side!” (2)
7 – His son: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashṭar Mālik ibn al-Ḥārith al-Nakhaʿī *
A hero and nobleman like his father, he was a virtuous Shiʿī. He is the one who slew ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād ibn Abīhi at the Battle of Khāzir (3). Later he served as one of the commanders of Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr, and I know of no hadiths transmitted by him. He was killed alongside Muṣʿab in 72 AH (4).
8 – Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah **
Son of Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb ibn Umayyah, the Umayyad caliph, Abū Khālid al-Qurashī,
(1) This is one of their proverbs; another wording is “for the hands and for the mouth.” See Abu Hilal, Jamharat al-Amthal, 2/91.
(2) The expression became a proverb applied to anyone who seeks to harm his companion even at his own expense. Al-Tabari (4/520) attributes it to Abd al-Rahman b. Attab b. Asid at the Battle of the Camel. Further attestations: al-Mufaddal b. Asim, al-Fakhir, 160; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat, 7/195; Ibn Taghri Birdi, al-Nujum al-Zahira, 1/105 (variant line: “Kill me and Malik, and kill Malik with me”); al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 3/129; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 8/323.
(3) Al-Khazir is a river between Erbil and Mosul, that is, between the Upper Zab and Mosul; see Yaqut, Mujam al-Buldan.
(4) Al-Tabari’s Tarikh, 6/158, reports that he was killed, together with Musab, in AH 71 while fighting Abd al-Malik b. Marwan.
(**) Additional sources: Ibn Qutayba, al-Maarif, 351; al-Yaqubi, Tarikh, 2/215; al-Masudi, Muruj al-Dhahab, 2/567; Ibn Hazm, Jamharat al-Ansab, 103; Ibn Asakir, Tarikh, 18/195a; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi l-Tarikh, 4/126; Ibn Taymiyya, Minhaj al-Sunna, 2/237; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 3/91; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, 1/69; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 8/226; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 11/360; Ibn Hajar, Lisan al-Mizan, 6/293; al-Suyuti, al-Qalaid al-Jawhariyya, 262; Husayn Khayr al-Din, Tarikh al-Khamis, 2/300; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 1/71; al-Haytami, Raghbat al-Amil, 4/83 and 5/129.