commander! Not one of your officers has escaped receiving a letter like this. If you will listen to me, have their heads struck off.”
Muṣʿab replied, “Were I to do that, their clans would never again give us sincere counsel.”
The man said, “Then put them in irons and send them to the White Palace of Kisrā; keep them imprisoned there. If victory [al-nuṣrah] is yours, you may then behead them; and if it turns against you, they will be released afterward.”
Muṣʿab answered, “O Abū al-Nuʿmān, I am too occupied for that.” Then he added, “May Allah have mercy on Abū Baḥr—meaning al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays. He used to warn me about the treachery of the people of Iraq, as though he were looking upon what we face this very moment.”
The two armies then confronted one another at Dayr al-Jāthaliq (1) near Maskin. Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashtar, commander of Muṣʿab’s Iraqi vanguard, charged Muḥammad ibn Marwān, commander of the Syrian vanguard, and drove him from his position. ʿAbd al-Malik reinforced him with ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah; they fell upon Ibn al-Ashtar and his men and ground them down. Ibn al-Ashtar was killed—may Allah have mercy on him [and pardon him]—together with a number of other commanders. ʿAtāb ibn Waraqāʾ, who led Muṣʿab’s cavalry, [fled] as well and sought refuge with ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. ʿAbd al-Malik then sent a guarantee of safety to Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr, who stood in the centre, urging the standard-bearers on and rousing the brave and valiant to advance against [the enemy], but not a man stirred (2).
He kept repeating, “O Ibrāhīm—but I have no Ibrāhīm today!” The situation grew grave, the fighting intensified, the men broke ranks, circumstances tightened, and the clashes multiplied.
Al-Madāʾinī (3) relates—through Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī al-Muhājir, from his father—that ʿAbd al-Malik sent his brother Muḥammad ibn Marwān to offer Muṣʿab safe-conduct, but he refused, saying, “One such as I will not leave this place except as victor or vanquished.”
They further report that Muḥammad ibn Marwān called out to ʿĪsā ibn Muṣʿab: “Nephew, do not destroy yourself; you have safe-conduct.”
Muṣʿab said to him, “Your uncle has granted you safety; go to him.”
He replied, “The women of Quraysh shall never say that I abandoned you to death.”
Muṣʿab said, “My son, mount the fastest horse and ride to your uncle; tell him what the Iraqis have done, for I shall be killed here.”
He answered, “By Allah, I will never report anything of you to anyone, nor will I be killed except alongside you. But if you wish, I will mount your horse and we shall ride to Basra, for they are still united.”
Muṣʿab said, “No, by Allah—flight is no habit of mine. I shall fight; and if I am killed, the sword is no disgrace. By Allah, Quraysh shall not say that I fled from battle.”
He then said to his son, “Advance before me so that I may seek reward through you.” The son advanced and fought until he was killed.
Muṣʿab was severely wounded by arrows. Zāʾida ibn Qudāma saw him thus, charged and stabbed him while crying, “Vengeance for al-Mukhtār!” and felled him. Then a man named ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād ibn Ẓabyān al-Tamīmī dismounted upon him, finished him off, severed his head, and brought it to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān.
ʿAbd al-Malik prostrated in gratitude and ordered that the man be given one thousand gold dinars, but he refused to accept them, saying, “I did not kill him…"