over the believers—invested with authority, free to hurl abuse unjustly and to subdue people by your power.”

She added, “By Allah, it seemed as though he felt ashamed, and he fell silent.

The same man then rose and said, “O Commander of the Believers, grant me this girl!” (1)

Yazid replied, “Be gone! May Allah grant you an unavoidable, decisive death.”

Yazid next ordered al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashir to send the women back to Madinah under the escort of a trustworthy man accompanied by troops and horses, with ʿAli ibn al-Ḥusayn travelling alongside them. He lodged the women among his own household in the caliphal palace, where the women of the family of Muʿāwiyah came out weeping and lamenting for al-Ḥusayn; they kept up the mourning for three days.

Yazid would not take his midday or evening meal unless ʿAli ibn al-Ḥusayn and his little brother ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥusayn were with him. One day he said—jesting with the very young ʿUmar—“Will you fight this boy?” meaning his own son Khālid ibn Yazid. ʿUmar replied, “Give me a knife and give him a knife so that we can fight.”

Yazid pulled him close and said, “A trait I recognise from Akhzam (2); does the serpent beget anything but a serpent?”

When he bade them farewell Yazid said to ʿAli ibn al-Ḥusayn, “May Allah disgrace Ibn Sumayyah! By Allah, had the matter of your father been in my hands, he would not have asked me for a single request without my granting it, and I would have driven death from him with everything I could—even at the cost of some of my own children. But Allah decreed what you have seen.” He then provided for him, bestowed a large sum of money, clothed them, entrusted them to the courier, and told the man: “Write to me concerning every need that arises for you.”

That envoy travelled at a short remove from them, keeping them within sight yet off their path, always at their service until they reached Madinah.

Fāṭimah bint ʿAli relates: I said to my sister Zaynab, “This man who was sent with us has treated us well; shall we reward him?” She replied, “By Allah, we have nothing with which to reward him except our jewellery.” I said, “Then let us give him our jewellery.” So I took my two arm-rings and my upper-arm bracelet (3), and she took her arm-ring and her bracelet, and we sent them to him, apologising: “This is a token of gratitude for the kindness you have shown us.” He replied, “Had what I did for you been for worldly gain, what you have sent would please me and more. But, by Allah, I acted only for Allah Most High and because of your kinship to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” (4)

It is also reported that when Yazid saw al-Ḥusayn’s head he said, “Do you know what misled the son of Fāṭimah, what impelled him to do what he did, and what brought him to the fate that befell him?” They answered, “No.” He said, “He claims that his father is better than my father; that his mother, Fāṭimah daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, is better than my mother; that his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah, is better than my grandfather; and that he himself is better than I and more entitled to this authority than I! As for his statement that his father is better than my father—my father and his father contended before Allah—exalted is He—and the people know which of the two was favoured. As for his saying that his mother is better than my mother—by my life, Fāṭimah daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is indeed better than my mother. And as for his saying that his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah, is better than…"