He was carried to al-Hajjāj, who ordered that his heart be taken from his chest; it proved to be as hard as stone. Shabīb was a tall man, greying, with tightly curled hair, and he had been born on the Day of Sacrifice in the year 26 AH (1).

One of his followers (2) was captured and brought before ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. The Caliph said to him, “Are you not the one who declaimed:

If Marwān and his son are numbered among your men,
And ʿAmr, and among you are Hāshim and Ḥabīb;
Then from us are Ḥuṣayn, al-Buṭayn and Qaʿnab,
And from us—Commander of the Faithful—Shabīb (3)?”

He replied, “What I actually said was: ‘And from us is Shabīb, the Commander (4) of the Faithful.’” The Caliph found the explanation pleasing and released him. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

In this same year many battles were fought between al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah, al-Hajjāj’s deputy, and the Khārijite Azāriqa under their leader Qaṭarī ibn al-Fujāʾa. Qaṭarī, too, was among the renowned, valiant horsemen, but during this year his followers deserted him and dispersed; as for him, no one knows where he went, for he wandered the earth. Numerous skirmishes and encounters took place between the two sides whose full account would be lengthy; Ibn Jarīr records them in detail in his History (5).

Ibn Jarīr (6) also reports: “In this year Bukayr ibn Wishāḥ, who had been deputy of Khurāsān, rebelled against its governor, Umayya ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālid. Bukayr rallied the people against him, betrayed him, and killed him.” Tumultuous events passed between the two, which Abū Jaʿfar relates exhaustively in his History (7).

This year likewise saw the death of Shabīb ibn Yazīd the Khārijite, as we have already mentioned. In courage and horsemanship he was of an extraordinary caliber; since the Companions, no one had matched him—save perhaps al-Ashṭar, his son Ibrāhīm, Musʿab ibn al-Zubayr and his brother ʿAbd Allāh, and those classed with them in bravery, such as Qaṭarī ibn al-Fujāʾa of the Azāriqa Khārijites.