except weakness. So come, let us go down and fight until nightfall, until we die with honor.” They lost heart, whereupon he declared, “As for me—by Allah—I shall never surrender with my own hand.” He then bathed, perfumed himself, applied embalming spices, and went out; he and those with him fought until they were all killed. (1)
A number of his armored guards (2) had advised him to enter the palace, the seat of his governorship. He entered it, censured and blamed, and the inexorable decree was soon to overtake him. Musʿab besieged him there with all his followers until they were afflicted by a thirst whose severity only Allah knows. He blocked every path and objective, all avenues of stratagem were cut off, and there was not among them a prudent or forbearing man. Al-Mukhtār kept turning the matter over in his mind and consulted those present from among the mawālī and slaves (3), while the voice of destiny and the Law called out to him: “Say: ‘The Truth has come, and falsehood can neither originate anything nor restore it.’” [Sabaʾ 34:49]
His resolve was then steeled by the valor ingrained within him, so that it drove him out from among those who had once pledged him allegiance. He resolved to die astride his horse, that his last breath might leave him there. Thus he sallied forth in zeal and anger, courage and ferocity, though he could find neither escape nor refuge. Only nineteen of his companions remained with him—and had he continued upon the path he had trodden, perhaps he would never have left the nineteen [appointed as keepers of Saqar].
When he emerged from the palace he said to Musʿab’s men, “I submit (4).” They replied, “Not unless it is to the judgment of the emir.” He retorted, “Never—only to my own judgment.” He then fought fiercely. Two brothers, Ṭarafah and Ṭirāfah (5) sons of ʿAbd Allah ibn Dajjājah of Banū Ḥanīfah, advanced upon him and slew him at the spot known as al-Zayyātayn outside Kufah. They severed his head and brought it to Musʿab ibn al-Zubayr, who had occupied the governor’s palace in Kufah; they set it before him just as the head of Ibn Ziyād had once been set before al-Mukhtār—[just as the head of al-Ḥusayn had been set before Ibn Ziyād, and just as Musʿab’s own head would later be set before ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān]. When al-Mukhtār’s head was placed before Musʿab, he granted the two brothers thirty thousand. (6)
Musʿab had already killed a number of the Mukhtārites and had taken five hundred of them prisoner; he beheaded every last one of them in a single day. Among Musʿab’s own leading men who were killed in the battle was Muḥammad ibn al-Ashʿath ibn Qays (7). Musʿab then ordered that al-Mukhtār’s hand be cut off and nailed beside the mosque, where it remained until al-Ḥajjāj arrived. He asked about it, and when he was told, “It is the hand of al-Mukhtār,” he ordered that it be taken down and removed—for al-Mukhtār belonged to al-Ḥajjāj’s own tribe. Al-Mukhtār was the pretender, and al-Ḥajjāj the castigating destroyer; hence al-Ḥajjāj exacted vengeance upon Ibn al-Zubayr, killing him and crucifying his body.