rising from that basin all the way to the sky, with white birds fluttering around it. When dawn broke, he carried it to Ibn Ziyad and presented it before him.

It is also said—this being the more widely known account—that the heads of the rest of his companions were brought along with it, seventy-two in all. Whenever a man was killed they severed his head and delivered it to Ibn Ziyad, after which Ibn Ziyad sent them on to Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah in Syria.

Imam Aḥmad said:

Husayn narrated to us; Jarīr narrated to us, from Muḥammad, from Anas, who said: “ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad was brought the head of al-Ḥusayn. It was placed in a basin, and he began prodding it, saying something about how handsome it was.”

Anas replied, “He was the one among them who most resembled the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and his hair had been dyed with wasmah (a blue dye) (1).”

Al-Bukhārī recorded the report in the Book of Merits, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn (2) ibn Ibrāhīm—who is Ibn Ishkāb—from Husayn ibn Muḥammad, from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Anas… and he mentioned it (3).

Al-Tirmidhī (4) also transmitted it through Ḥafṣah bint Sīrīn from Anas, declaring it “ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.” In his wording:

“He began to tap his nose with a cane, saying, ‘I have never seen such beauty.’”

Al-Bazzār said: Mufarraj ibn Shujāʿ ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Mawṣilī narrated to us; Ghassān ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to us; Yūsuf ibn ʿAbdah (5) narrated to us, from Thābit and Ḥumayd, from Anas, who said:

“When ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad was brought the head of al-Ḥusayn he began tapping his teeth with a cane, saying, ‘Indeed he was’—I think he said—‘handsome.’ I said, ‘By Allah, I will distress you! I myself saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, kissing the very place where your cane is striking.’ At that he drew back.”

Al-Bazzār reported this exclusively through this chain, adding: “We know of no one who transmitted it from Ḥumayd except Yūsuf ibn ʿAbdah—he is a well-known Basran, and there is no harm in him” (6).

Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī (7) likewise recorded it from Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Anas… and he mentioned it. It was also narrated by Qurrah ibn Khālid, from al-Ḥasan, from Anas… and he mentioned it.

Abū Mikhnaf reported—on the authority of Sulaymān ibn Abī Rāshid, from Ḥumayd ibn Muslim—that ʿUmar ibn Saʿd summoned me and dispatched me to his family to congratulate them on the victory Allah had granted him and on his safety. When I arrived, I found Ibn Ziyad seated before the people, the newly arrived delegation already in his presence. I entered with those who entered, and there before him lay the head of al-Ḥusayn while he was prodding it.