ʿAbd al-Malik then said, “By Allah, he was exactly as he portrayed himself, and he told the truth. He was among the people I loved most, the warmest toward me in companionship and affection; yet kingship is barren (1).”
Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān narrated, on the authority of Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, from Ghassān ibn Muḍar, from Saʿīd ibn Yazīd, that Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyād ibn Ẓabyān killed Muṣʿab at Dayr al-Jāthaliq on the bank of a river called Dujayl in the district of Maskan. He severed his head, carried it to ʿAbd al-Malik, and the latter prostrated in gratitude to Allah.
Ibn Ẓabyān was a vicious brigand, and he kept lamenting, “If only I had killed ʿAbd al-Malik when the chance presented itself that day, I would have slain the king of the Arabs.”
Yaʿqūb added, “That was in the year 72 AH.”
I say: So reported ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Madaʾinī, whereas Ibn Jarīr and others judged the more likely date to be 71; Allah (2) knows best.
Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār recorded three opinions regarding Muṣʿab’s age when he was killed: thirty-five, forty, and forty-five years [Allah knows best].
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (3) related that Muṣʿab’s wife, Sukaynah bint al-Ḥusayn, was with him in this battle. When she became certain he would be slain, she cried out, “Alas for Muṣʿab!”
Muṣʿab said, “Had I heard such words before today, I would never have taken this stand”—that is, she had never shown him her love, and when he learned of it he regretted pressing on toward death.
After he was killed she searched among the dead until she recognised him by a birth-mark on his thigh. She approached and said, “You were indeed an excellent husband for a Muslim woman.
By Allah, what Antarah said has overtaken you:
I left the wooer of a wanton maid laid low upon the plain,
unremembered, his armour unmarred;
I pierced his hide with a long-shafted spear—
no noble is immune to the thrust of lances.”
Al-Zubayr (4) also said that ʿAbd Allah ibn Qays al-Raqiyyāt lamented Muṣʿab with the verses:
He (5) bequeathed to the two garrison cities a legacy of grief (6) and humiliation—
the slain man who lies at Dayr al-Jāthaliq;
Bakr ibn Wāʾil offered no sincere counsel to Allah (7),
nor did Tamīm stand true (8) on the day of encounter.