yet he was delayed on the way by some of the people of al-Jazīrah who were with him—men opposed to those who had sworn allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr (1).

Not long afterwards, Ibn al-Ashter came out against him with seven thousand troops, while Ibn Ziyād commanded many times that number. Nevertheless, as we have already noted, Ibn al-Ashter gained the upper hand and killed him in the most brutal fashion, taking him completely unawares (2) on the bank of the Khāzir River, about five stages’ march from Mosul.

Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim said, “That happened on the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ (3) [I say: the very day on which al-Ḥusayn was slain].”

Ibn al-Ashter then sent his head—together with the heads of Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr, Shuraḥbīl ibn Dhī’l-Kilāʿ, and a number of the leading men among their followers—to al-Mukhtār.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (4) said: Yūsuf ibn Mūsā ibn Jarīr narrated to us, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, who said, “When the head of Ibn Marjānah and his companions was brought and thrown down before al-Mukhtār, a slender snake appeared. It slithered among the heads until it entered Ibn Marjānah’s mouth and came out of his nostril, then went in through his nostril and came out of his mouth, continuing to enter and exit his head among the other heads.”

Al-Tirmidhī (5) transmitted the account through another chain and with different wording. He said: Wāṣil ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā told us, from Abū Muʿāwiyah, from al-Aʿmash, from ʿImārah ibn ʿUmayr, who said, “When the head of ʿUbayd Allah and his companions was brought, they were arranged (6) in the mosque in al-Raḥbah. I came upon them while people were saying, ‘It has come! It has come!’—and there was a snake weaving among the heads until it entered the nostril of ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād. It stayed there for a while, then came out and went off until it disappeared. Again they said, ‘It has come! It has come!’ and it did that two or three times.” Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “This hadith is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.”

Abū Sulaymān ibn Zabr (7) said: “In the year 66, they say Ibn Ziyād and Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr were killed; their slayer was Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashter, who sent their heads to al-Mukhtār, and he in turn sent them to Ibn al-Zubayr, whereupon they were displayed in Mecca and Medina.” Ibn ʿAsākir (8) likewise reported from Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim and others that this took place in the year 66; Abū Aḥmad added that it was on the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, while Ibn ʿAsākir remained silent on the exact date. The more widely accepted view, however, is that it happened in the year 67, as stated by Ibn Jarīr and others. Even so, the claim that the heads were sent to Ibn al-Zubayr (9) in that year is hard to credit, because hostility was