seventy of them at al-Kafir Kubat (1).

I went in to him, and he asked, “What is your verdict regarding the blood of the Umayyads?”

I tried to sidestep the question, but he said, “I know why you are evading it—answer me.”

(The narrator said:) I have never met anyone more eloquent than he was. I answered, “They had a covenant that bound you to them.”

He replied, “Put me and them on an equal footing with no covenant at all—what do you say about their blood?”

I said, “It is forbidden, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘The blood of a Muslim is not lawful except in one of three cases…’ (2),” and he continued with the ḥadith.

He exclaimed, “Why so—woe to you! Is not the caliphate a bequest from the Messenger of Allah, for which ʿAlī fought at Ṣiffīn (3)?”

I said, “Had it truly been a bequest, he would never have accepted the arbitration.”

He lowered his head and I lowered mine; we stayed that way for a long time. Then I said, “I need to relieve myself.”

He motioned with his hand: “Go.”

I rose, and with every step I took I thought, “My head will fall off right here.”

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĪsā said: Abū Khulayd ʿUtbah ibn Ḥammād al-Qāriʾ narrated to us; al-Awzāʿī narrated to us, saying:

“ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī sent for me, and that weighed heavily on me. I arrived, entered, and the people were lined up in two rows (4). He said, ‘What do you say about our uprising and the position we are in?’

I replied, ‘May Allah set the emir aright; there was affection between me and Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī.’

He said, ‘You will certainly tell me.’

I reflected, then resolved, ‘I will tell him the truth,’ and resigned myself to death (5). I then related to him—on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd—the ḥadith about deeds (6), while he held a staff with which he was tapping the ground. Then he said,

‘O ʿAbd al-Raḥmān! What do you say about killing the members of this Household?’

I said, ‘Muḥammad ibn Marwān narrated to me, from Muṭarrif ibn al-Shikhkhīr, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “No…’”