with the rest of the company.

Muʿāwiyah then said, “Rise; I have removed him from office over you. Go and look for a governor with whom you will be satisfied.” They spent several days going back and forth to the leading men of the Banū Umayyah, asking each of them to accept the post, but none of them agreed.

Later Muʿāwiyah assembled them and said, “Whom have you chosen?” They differed among themselves while al-Aḥnaf remained silent. Muʿāwiyah asked him, “Why do you not speak?”

He replied, “Commander of the Faithful, if you intend to place one of your own household over us, then we consider none the equal of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād; but if you wish to appoint someone from outside them, then please consider the matter on our behalf.”

Muʿāwiyah said, “I have restored him to you.” He then advised ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād to treat al-Aḥnaf well and criticized his earlier decision to keep him at a distance. Thereafter al-Aḥnaf became one of ʿUbayd Allāh’s closest companions, and when civil strife later broke out, no one remained loyal to ʿUbayd Allāh except al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays.

The story of Yazīd ibn Rabīʿah, known as Ibn Mufarrigh al-Himyari, with the two sons of Ziyād: ʿUbayd Allāh and ʿAbbād

Ibn Jarīr narrated (1) from Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā and others that this man was a poet who accompanied ʿAbbād ibn Ziyād in Sijistān. ʿAbbād became pre-occupied with fighting the Turks, and fodder for the mounts grew scarce. Ibn Mufarrigh therefore composed a satirical verse ridiculing Ibn Ziyād for what had happened:

Would that beards were grass
so we could feed them to the horses of the Muslims!

ʿAbbād ibn Ziyād was famous for his extraordinarily large beard. When the verse reached him he was furious and began searching for the poet. Ibn Mufarrigh fled and composed many more lampoons about him, among them:

When Muʿāwiyah, son of Ḥarb, is gone,
proclaim to the folk of your bowl its shattering!
I testify that your deceit never touched
Abū Sufyān, lifter of the veil;
Rather, it was a matter wrapped in confusion,
in grave fear and alarm.

He also said:

Convey, O messenger, to Muʿāwiyah son of Ḥarb
a forceful word from this Yemeni man:
Do you take offense if they call your father virtuous,
yet are content if they say your father was unchaste?
I testify that your kinship with Ziyād
is like an elephant claiming the foal of a she-ass.

ʿAbbād wrote these verses to his brother ʿUbayd Allāh, who was then visiting Muʿāwiyah. ʿUbayd Allāh read them aloud before Muʿāwiyah and sought permission to put the poet to death. Muʿāwiyah replied, “Do not kill him; discipline him, but do not go so far as to take his life.”

When ʿUbayd Allāh returned to Basra he summoned the poet, who in the meantime had sought refuge with al-Mundhir ibn al-Jārūd, the father of ʿUbayd Allāh’s wife. His daughter’s name was Bajriyyah.