a man from the Banū Baddā (1) named Mālik ibn al-Bashīr (2) came up to him and struck al-Ḥusayn on the head with his sword, wounding him. Al-Ḥusayn was wearing a hooded cloak; the blow split it and gashed his head so that the cloak was filled with blood. Al-Ḥusayn said to him, “May you never eat or drink by that hand, and may Allah gather you with the wrongdoers.” He then cast the cloak aside, called for a turban, and wrapped it around his head.

[Abū Mikhnaf said:
Sulaymān ibn Abī Rāshid related to me from Ḥumayd, who said:
A youth came toward us whose face was like a piece of the moon. He held a sword, wore a shirt and waist-cloth, and had on sandals, the thong of one—-I shall never forget, it was the left—having snapped.
‘Umar ibn Saʿd ibn Nufayl al-Azdi said to us, “By Allah, I will charge at him.”
I replied, “Glory be to Allah! What do you want with that? The killing of those men you see hemmed in is enough for you.”
He repeated, “By Allah, I will charge at him,” and he did so, striking the boy.
The lad cried out, “O uncle!”
Al-Ḥusayn thereupon charged at ‘Umar ibn Saʿd like a mutilated lion, struck him with his sword, and ‘Umar warded it off with his forearm; al-Ḥusayn severed it from the elbow. ‘Umar screamed and drew back.
The horsemen of Kūfa rushed forward to rescue him, surrounding him with their mounts, stamping and milling about. When the dust cleared, al-Ḥusayn was standing over the youth, who was kicking his legs, and al-Ḥusayn was saying, “Away with the people who have killed you! The one who will dispute with them about you on the Day of Resurrection is your grandfather.”
He added, “By Allah, it grieves your uncle that you call him and he cannot answer, or that he answers yet cannot help you. By Allah, this is a cry whose assailants are many and whose helpers are few.”
He then lifted the boy—-I can still see his feet trailing along the ground—pressing his chest to the boy’s, and carried him until he laid him beside his own son ʿAlī al-Akbar and the others of his household who had been killed. I asked about the youth, and was told, “He is al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.” (3)]

Hāniʾ ibn Thubayt al-Ḥaḍramī said: “I was standing on the day al-Ḥusayn was killed with nine others, every one of us mounted, when a youth from al-Ḥusayn’s family came out, clinging to a stave from one of the shelters. He wore a waist-cloth and shirt and was terrified, looking right and left; it was as though I could see two pearls in his ears that swung whenever he turned. A horseman galloped up; when he drew near, he wheeled aside, seized the youth, and cut him down with his sword.”
Hishām al-Sakūnī said: “Hāniʾ ibn Thubayt himself was the one who killed the boy; he concealed his name for fear of blame.” (4)

He continued: Al-Ḥusayn then grew weary and sat at the entrance of his tent. A small son of his, named ʿAbd Allah, was brought to him. He seated the boy in his lap, kissing him, smelling him, bidding him farewell, and giving his family his last counsels. A man from the Banū Asad—called the son of the Fire-Kindler (5)—shot an arrow and slew the child. Al-Ḥusayn caught the blood in his hand, flung it toward the sky, and said: