As for those stories repeated by people who lack the intelligence to weigh their own words and have no acquaintance with reliable reports—claims that the Prophet’s Household were paraded as captives, forced to ride on bakhtī camels (the Bactrian breed), and that from that day those animals miraculously grew two humps—such talk is manifest, shameful falsehood. A bakhtī affords no screen for a woman, nor were the Prophet’s Household ever taken prisoner, nor was any woman among them seized. It is on the same level as the allegation that al-Ḥajjāj killed them.
All scholars of transmission know that al-Ḥajjāj did not kill anyone from Banū Hāshim, in keeping with the instructions he had received from the Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik. Indeed, when al-Ḥajjāj married the daughter of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, the Umayyads and other Qurayshites took offense, deeming him unfit for her, and they pressed the matter until the two were separated.
In fact, the Marwānid branch of the Umayyads never killed anyone from Banū Hāshim—neither the descendants of ʿAlī nor the descendants of al-ʿAbbās—except Zayd ibn ʿAlī (1), who was pursued and killed at Kanāsat al-Kūfa, together with his son Yaḥyā.
Fifth consideration: even supposing the head had been taken to Yazīd, what purpose would be served by burying it in ʿAsqalān, a frontier town then garrisoned by volunteers for ribāṭ? If the aim were to obliterate all trace of it, a place like ʿAsqalān would only publicize the matter, given the numbers who came there for border duty. And if the aim were to seek blessing from the spot, how could that be imagined of someone said to be his sworn enemy, who deemed his blood lawful and strove for his death? Plainly, burial near his mother and brother in al-Baqīʿ would be far better.
Sixth consideration: burial in al-Baqīʿ conforms to the people’s established custom, for in times of civil strife, whenever they killed someone who did not belong to them, they would hand both head and body over to his family—just as al-Ḥajjāj did with Ibn al-Zubayr: after killing and crucifying him, he delivered him to his relatives.
It is also well known that al-Ḥajjāj’s pursuit of Ibn al-Zubayr and the wars between them were far more intense than anything that lay between al-Ḥusayn and his opponents. Ibn al-Zubayr claimed the caliphate after al-Ḥusayn’s death; the majority of people pledged allegiance to him, and Yazīd fought him until Yazīd died, while his army continued to fight Ibn al-Zubayr even after the incident of al-Ḥarrah.
(1) Zayd ibn ʿAlī