Then al-Ḥajjāj entered Kūfah and addressed the people, declaring in his sermon, “Shabīb had never before been defeated.”
Shabīb now advanced on Kūfah. A detachment from al-Ḥajjāj’s army marched out against him; they met on Wednesday and continued fighting until Friday. Commanding that detachment was al-Ḥārith ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Thaqafī with one thousand horse. Shabīb charged al-Ḥārith, routed him and his men, and killed a number of them. The townspeople fled back into Kūfah and barricaded the alleyways. Abū al-Ward, al-Ḥajjāj’s freedman, sallied out with a contingent of troops and fought until he was killed; his men then fled into the city. Yet another commander emerged, but he too was put to flight.
Shabīb next marched with his followers toward the Sawād. On the way they encountered al-Ḥajjāj’s governor over that district and killed him. He then addressed his men: “You have busied yourselves with this world and neglected the Hereafter.” Casting the money he had with him into the Euphrates, he pressed on, conquering many lands; no one who faced him survived.
One of the governors of a nearby town—formerly his friend—came out and said, “Shabīb, come out to me and I shall come out to you.” Shabīb replied, “I have no wish to kill you.” The man retorted, “But I wish to kill you. Do not be deluded by your past victories.” He charged, and Shabīb struck him on the head, crushing his skull so that brain, flesh, and bone ran together. Shabīb then shrouded and buried him.
Afterward al-Ḥajjāj poured vast sums into armies and garrisons to hunt Shabīb, but they could neither master him nor capture him. Allah instead decreed for him a death already ordained, in that very year (1).
[The death of Shabīb in this year, according to Ibn al-Kalbī]
The matter began when al-Ḥajjāj wrote to his deputy in Baṣrah—al-Ḥakam ibn Ayyūb ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī ʿAqīl, his son-in-law—ordering him to equip an army of four thousand to track Shabīb and place themselves under Sufyān ibn al-Abrad. He complied, and they set out. Ibn al-Abrad already had a large following from Syria; when the Baṣran force reached him, they and the Syrians formed a single army and marched against Shabīb (2).
They met and fought a furious battle, each side standing firm. Then al-Ḥajjāj’s troops resolved to charge the Khārijites with a fierce onslaught, although the Khārijites were few. The latter fled until they were forced to a bridge. Shabīb halted there with one hundred of his men, and Sufyān ibn al-Abrad could not budge him. After a whole day of the most violent fighting at the bridgehead, Ibn al-Abrad ordered his men to shower them with a single volley of arrows. The Khārijites broke away, then wheeled back upon the archers and killed about thirty of Ibn al-Abrad’s men. Night fell, and the two sides withdrew, each determined to renew the struggle.
At dawn Shabīb and his companions crossed the bridge. While he was on its deck, riding a stallion with a mare ahead of him, the stallion suddenly mounted her; its hoof struck the edge of a boat, and Shabīb fell into the water.