from Medina. The Umayyads—nearly one thousand men (1)—gathered in the house of Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, while the people of Medina surrounded the building and laid siege to them.
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn kept completely apart from the populace, as did ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Neither of them removed their allegiance to Yazīd, nor did anyone from the household of Ibn ʿUmar. Ibn ʿUmar had told his family, “Let none of you renounce Yazīd, lest al-faṣl—another recension has al-ṣaylam—come between me and him.” This report, with its exact wording and chain of transmission, will be cited later in the biography of Yazīd. He also reproached the people of Medina for swearing allegiance to Ibn Mutīʿ and Ibn Ḥanẓalah unto death, saying, “We only pledged to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that we would not flee.” Likewise, none of the Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib deposed Yazīd. When Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah was consulted on the matter he refused most emphatically, debated and argued with them about Yazīd, and rebutted the accusations that Yazīd drank wine and neglected some prayers, as will be set out in detail shortly, God willing, in Yazīd’s biography.
The Umayyads then wrote to Yazīd describing the siege, the humiliation, hunger, and thirst they were suffering, and warning that if he did not send someone to rescue them from their plight (2) they would be exterminated to the last man. They sent the letter by courier. When the courier arrived, he found Yazīd seated upon his throne with his feet immersed in water to cool the gout (3) from which he suffered. After reading the letter he was shaken and said, “Woe to you! Are there not a thousand men among them?” “Indeed there are,” came the reply. “Then why did they not fight, even for an hour of the day?”
He summoned ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, read the letter to him, and consulted him about whom to dispatch, even offering to send ʿAmr himself. ʿAmr declined, saying, “Commander of the Faithful, you relieved me of that post when it was secure and its affairs were in order. Now Qurayshite blood is being shed on the plain; I do not wish to take charge of that. Let someone more distant from them than I undertake it.”
Yazīd therefore sent a swift messenger to Muslim ibn ʿUqbah al-Murrī, an elderly, frail man, who nevertheless volunteered for the task. Yazīd dispatched with him ten thousand cavalry—some say twelve thousand—and fifteen thousand infantry, giving each man one hundred dinars—others say four—then reviewed the troops while mounted on his horse.
Al-Madāʾinī states: Yazīd placed ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿadah al-Fazārī over the Damascenes; Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr al-Sakūnī over the people of Ḥimṣ; Ḥubaysh ibn Duljah al-Qaynī over those of the Jordan district; Rūḥ ibn Zunbāʿ al-Judhāmī together with Sharīk al-Kinānī over the Palestinians; Ṭarīf ibn al-Ḥasḥās al-Hilālī over the people of Qinnasrīn; and over them all he placed Muslim ibn ʿUqbah al-Murrī of Ghatafān, whom the early scholars used to call Musrif (“the Profligate”) ibn ʿUqbah.
Al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr then said, “Commander of the Faithful, entrust them to me and I will spare you the trouble”—Nuʿmān was the maternal brother of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥanẓalah, their mother being ʿAmrah bint Rawāḥah—but Yazīd replied, “No, for them there is none but…"