al-Ashṭar and had pledged to him, “I am with you, and tomorrow I shall scatter the people.” Over Ibn Ziyad’s cavalry stood Shurayḥbīl ibn Dhī al-Kilāʿ (1), while Ibn Ziyad himself walked among the foot-soldiers.
No sooner had the two armies come face to face than Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr charged with the Syrian right wing against the Kufan left, routed it, and killed its commander ʿAlī ibn Mālik al-Jushamī. His son Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (2) took up the standard after him, but he too was slain, and the left wing scattered (3) in flight. Ibrāhīm al-Ashṭar began calling out, “To me, O Shurṭat Allāh (Allah’s Special Force)! I am Ibn al-Ashṭar,” and he uncovered his head so they would recognize him. They rallied around him and re-formed.
The Kufan right wing then charged the Syrian left. Some say the latter held its ground; others say it broke and drew over toward Ibn al-Ashṭar. Ibn al-Ashṭar now charged with those at his side, saying to his standard-bearer, “Drive your banner into them!” That day he fought with prodigious valor: he never struck a man with his sword without felling him, and the dead became many.
[Others report that the Syrian left] held firm and fought fiercely [first with spears and then with swords]. Ibn al-Ashṭar renewed the assault, whereupon the Syrian host collapsed before him; he cut them down like lambs and, together with the brave men who followed him, pursued them in person.
ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyad remained steadfast in his place until Ibn al-Ashṭar rode past and killed him, not realizing whom he had struck. He then said to his companions, “Search among the slain for a man whom I struck with my sword and from whom a scent of musk reached me; his hands lay to the east and his legs to the west. He was standing alone by a standard on the bank of the Khāzir River.” They searched and discovered that it was ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyad, whom Ibn al-Ashṭar had cut in two (4). They severed his head and sent it to al-Mukhtār in Kūfah along with the good news of victory over the Syrians, and with it the heads of Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr and Shurayḥbīl ibn Dhī al-Kilāʿ. Al-Mukhtār forwarded them to Ibn al-Zubayr, and the heads were displayed in Mecca. The Kufans pressed the pursuit, killing great numbers; more of the Syrians drowned than were slain by the sword, and the victors seized everything that had been in the enemy camp [of wealth and horses].
Al-Mukhtār had already proclaimed victory to his followers before any report reached him; we do not know whether this was mere optimism, coincidence, or some kind of fortune-telling. As for the claim of his partisans that it had been revealed to him—certainly not! Whoever believes that has disbelieved, and whoever condones their claim has likewise disbelieved.
Yet he asserted that the battle had taken place at Naṣībīn; he was mistaken, for it was in the land of Mosul. This was one of the points ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī criticized in the camp of al-Mukhtār when the news reached him. Al-Mukhtār had set out from Kūfah to meet the bearer of glad tidings; he passed through al-Fadāʾin, mounted its pulpit, and while he was addressing the people the news reached him there.
Al-Shaʿbī said: One of al-Mukhtār’s companions said to me, “Did you not hear him yesterday telling us this very thing?” I replied, “Did you not hear him say that they had killed the Syrians (5) at Naṣībīn…"