an umm walad whose name was Salamah. (1) He had an elder brother, also called ʿAli, who was slain together with their father. ʿAli—Zayn al-ʿAbidīn—narrated hadith from his father, from his uncle al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAli, and from Jābir, Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Miswar ibn Makhramah, Abu Hurayrah, as well as from Safiyyah, ʿĀʾishah, and Umm Salamah, the Mothers of the Believers. A number of scholars transmitted from him, among them his sons Zayd, ʿAbd Allah, and ʿUmar; Abu Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAli al-Bāqir; Zayd ibn Aslam; Tawus—his contemporary; al-Zuhrī; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī; Abu Salamah—likewise his contemporary; and many others.

Ibn Khallikān (2) states that Salamah was the daughter of Yazdegerd, the last king of the Persians.

Al-Zamakhsharī relates in Rabiʿ al-Abrār (3) that Yazdegerd had three daughters who were taken captive during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb. One came into the possession of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar and bore him Sālim; another to Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and bore him al-Qāsim; and the third to al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAli and bore him this ʿAli, Zayn al-ʿAbidīn—so all three men were maternal cousins.

Ibn Khallikān (4) further narrates that when Qutaybah ibn Muslim killed Fīrūz ibn Yazdegerd, he sent the latter’s two daughters to al-Ḥajjāj. Al-Ḥajjāj kept one for himself and sent the other to al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik; by her, al-Walīd fathered Yazīd al-Nāqiṣ.

Ibn Qutaybah reports in al-Maʿārif (5) that the mother of Zayn al-ʿAbidīn was a Sindhi woman named Salamah—some call her Ghazālah. He was with his father at Karbalāʾ but was spared because of his youth, or, some say, because he was ill; he was twenty-three years old, perhaps older. ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād intended to kill him, yet Allah turned him away from that. Certain reprobates likewise urged Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah to put him to death, but Allah protected him—praise and thanks be to Him. Thereafter Yazīd treated him with honor and respect, seated him beside him, and would not eat unless ʿAli was present; he then sent the family back to Medina, where ʿAli was held in high esteem and veneration.

Ibn ʿAsākir (6) remarks that the mosque in Damascus bearing his name is well known.

I add: it is the shrine of ʿAli to the east of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān later summoned him once more to Damascus, seeking his counsel on how to answer the Emperor of Byzantium concerning matters of coinage and the official insignia on state documents.