Yet for all that, no mashhad (shrine) for al-Ḥusayn ever appeared in ʿAsqalan. Had his head truly been in ʿAsqalan, the earlier generations would have been far more aware of it than the later ones. When every incentive, motive, and practical ability was present and still nothing of the sort came to light, the claim is exposed as a fabricated falsehood—like a man who pretends to be a sharīf ʿAlawī (a noble descendant of ʿAlī) even though none of his forefathers ever advanced such a claim, although they would undoubtedly have done so had it been true. By the same reasoning we recognize the falsity of anyone who alleges a nass (an explicit textual designation) in favour of ʿAlī, or makes any other assertion that people had every reason and opportunity to transmit but never did.

Second, the scholars who gathered the reports concerning al-Ḥusayn and his martyrdom—such as Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā, Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī, and others—do not mention anywhere that the head was taken to ʿAsqalan, let alone to Cairo.

Abū ’l-Khaṭṭāb Ibn Dihyah makes the same point in his book al-ʿIlm al-Mashhūr fī Faḍāʾil al-Ayyām wa ’l-Shuhūr. He writes that all who authored works on the death of al-Ḥusayn are unanimously agreed that the head never left its homeland (1). He says this after declaring that the shrine in Cairo is a fabricated lie with no basis in fact, and he develops the discussion at length, as he also does when speaking of matters connected to the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ.

Third, the testimony of the dependable scholars and historians is that the head was carried to Medina (2) and buried beside his brother.