and entered the palace after the prayer, accompanied by a large number of the chiefs. They urged al-Mughīrah to restrain this Hujr for the boldness he was showing toward the ruler, for splitting the community’s ranks, and for rising up against the governors; they provoked him and pressed him to mete out severe punishment. Yet al-Mughīrah forgave him and treated him with forbearance.
Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd relates that Muʿāwiyah wrote to al-Mughīrah asking him to send a sum of money from the public treasury. Al-Mughīrah therefore dispatched a caravan carrying funds, but Hujr intercepted it, seized the rein of the lead camel, and said, “No, by Allah, not until every entitled person receives his due.” The young men of Thaqīf said to al-Mughīrah, “Shall we bring you his head?” He replied, “I would never do that to Hujr.” So he let him go. When Muʿāwiyah heard of this, he dismissed al-Mughīrah and appointed Ziyād in his place.
The sounder account, however, is that al-Mughīrah remained governor until his death. When he died, Muʿāwiyah united the governorships of Kūfa and Basra under Ziyād. Ziyād entered Kūfa to find groups of ʿAlī’s partisans clustering around Hujr, strengthening his cause, bolstering his hand, reviling Muʿāwiyah, and disavowing him. In the first sermon Ziyād delivered in Kūfa he concluded by praising ʿUthmān’s virtues and condemning those who had killed him or assisted in killing him. Hujr rose—just as he used to do in al-Mughīrah’s days—and spoke the same words he had addressed to al-Mughīrah, but Ziyād did not confront him.
Ziyād then set out for Basra, intending to take Hujr with him so that he would not instigate any trouble. Hujr said, “I am ill.” Ziyād retorted, “By Allah, you are sick in religion, heart, and mind; and, by Allah, if you cause any disturbance I shall appeal to Muʿāwiyah about you.” Ziyād proceeded to Basra, but word reached him that Hujr and his companions had denounced his deputy in Kūfa—ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth—and had pelted him with pebbles while he was on the pulpit one Friday. Ziyād hurried to Kūfa, dismounted at the palace, then went out to the pulpit wearing a cloak of fine sindus silk and a red brocade mantle, his hair neatly parted. Hujr was seated there, surrounded by more supporters than ever before ⦗1⦘—about three thousand of his followers, armed and armored, sat around him in the mosque.
Ziyād delivered a sermon, praising and glorifying Allah, and then said:
“To proceed: the aftermath of oppression and error is ruinous. These people, thinking me secure, have dared to defy me. By Allah, if you do not straighten up, I shall treat you with your own remedy.”
He went on: “I am worth nothing if I do not clear the courtyard of Kūfa of Hujr and leave him a deterrent for those who come after him. Woe to your mother, O Hujr! Night has overtaken you at Sirḥān.”
Then he recited:
‘Convey to Naṣīḥah that the herder of her camels …
Night has overtaken him at Sirḥān.’ ⦗2⦘
While preaching, Ziyād kept repeating, “Part of the right of the Commander of the Faithful…” Hujr shouted, “You are lying!” Ziyād fell silent, looked at him, and then resumed, “Part of the right of the Commander of the Faithful, part of the right of the Commander of the Faithful…” ⦗3⦘ — meaning