just as ʿUthmān was slain while his wives and children looked on.
Ibn ʿAbbās then said, “You have delighted Ibn al-Zubayr by leaving the Ḥijāz to him. By the One besides whom there is no god, if I knew that by seizing you by your hair and forelock until the people gathered around you and me you would heed me and stay, I would certainly do so.”
He left al-Ḥusayn’s presence, met Ibn al-Zubayr and said, “Has your eye been cooled, O son of al-Zubayr?!” Then he recited:
Ah, you little lark of Maʿmar—
The sky is yours alone, so lay your eggs and chirp!
Peck to your heart’s content,
For your hunter lies dead today—rejoice!
Ibn ʿAbbās went on, “Here is al-Ḥusayn (1) marching to Iraq and leaving you the Ḥijāz (2).”
More than one transmitter (3) relates: Shabābah ibn Sawwār said: Yahyā ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Sālim al-Asadī narrated to us, saying, “I heard al-Shaʿbī report from Ibn ʿUmar that he was in Makkah when news reached him that al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī had set out for Iraq. He caught up with him after three days’ journey and asked, ‘Where are you heading?’ He replied, ‘To Iraq,’ and with him were ṭawāmīr (4) and letters. Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘So these are their letters and their pledges of allegiance?’ He answered in the affirmative. Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘Do not go to them,’ but he refused. Ibn ʿUmar then said, ‘Let me tell you a report: Gabriel came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and offered him the choice between this world and the Hereafter; he chose the Hereafter and did not desire this world. You are a part of the Messenger of Allah. By Allah, none of you will ever hold this authority, and Allah has averted it from you only for what is better for you.’ Yet he still refused to return. Ibn ʿUmar embraced him, wept, and said, ‘I entrust you to Allah, doomed one.’
Yahyā ibn Maʿīn (5) said: Abū ʿUbaydah narrated to us, Sālim ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn Minā who said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr say, ‘Al-Ḥusayn hastened his destined end. By Allah, if I had met him, I would not have allowed him to leave unless he overpowered me. This affair was opened by the Banū Hāshim and it will be sealed by the Banū Hāshim; when you see a Hāshimī holding authority, the age has come to an end.’
I say: Together with Ibn ʿUmar’s report, this shows that the Fāṭimid rulers were lying claimants, not descendants of Fāṭimah, as more than one leading scholar has affirmed. We shall discuss this in its proper place, if Allah wills.