H—Mention of His Pledge of Allegiance (Peace be Upon Him) andthe Duration of His Appearance

The beginning of his affair (Peace be Upon Him) was that Kha lid ibn
ʿAbdulla h al-Qasrī claimed a sum of money against Zayd ibn ʿAlī , Muhammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī T a lib, Da wu d ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdulla
h ibn al-ʿAbba s, Saʿd ibn Ibra hī m ibn ʿAbd al-Rah ma n ibn ʿAwf, and
Ayyu b ibn Salamah ibn ʿAbdulla h ibn al-Walī d ibn al-Mughī rah al-
Makhzu mī . So Yu suf ibn ʿUmar ibn Muh ammad ibn al-H akam—the
governor of Hisha m over Iraq—wrote concerning them to Hisha m.
Zayd ibn ʿAlī and Muh ammad ibn ʿUmar were at that time at al-Rus a
fah. When the letters of Yu suf reached Hisha m, he summoned them
and mentioned to them what Yu suf had written; they denied it. Hisha
m said to them: “We shall send you to him so that he may bring you
together with him.” Zayd said: “I adjure you by Allah and by kinship
not to send us to Yu suf.” Hisha m said to him: “What is it that you fear
from Yu suf?” He said: “I fear that he will transgress against us.” So
Hisha m summoned his scribe and wrote to Yu suf: “To proceed: When
Zayd and so-and-so and so-and-so arrive to you, then bring them
together with him. If they acknowledge what he has claimed against
them, then send them back to me. And if they deny it, then ask him for
proof; if he does not establish it, then administer to them an oath after
the afternoon prayer, by Allah—there is no god but He—that they
were not entrusted with a deposit, nor does he have any claim against
them; then release them.” They said to Hisha m: “We fear that he will
overstep your letter.” He said: “No; I shall send with you a man from
the guards to hold him to that until he finishes and hastens.” They said:
“May Allah reward you well on behalf of kinship.” So he sent them on
to Yu suf, who was at that time in al-H ī rah. They avoided Ayyu b ibn
Salamah due to his kinship with Hisha m, and he was not seized in
anything of that matter. When they arrived before Yu suf, they entered
upon him and greeted him. He seated Zayd near himself and dealt
gently with him in questioning. Then he asked them about the money,
and they denied it. So Yu suf brought the claimant out to them and
said: “This is Zayd ibn ʿAlī and Muh ammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī against
whom you claimed what you claimed.” He said: “I have against them
neither little nor much.” Yu suf said to him: “By my father, were you
mocking me and the Commander of the Faithful?” Then he punished
him with a punishment such that it was thought he had killed him.
Then, after the afternoon prayer, Yu suf brought Zayd and his
companions out to the mosque and administered the oath to them. Yu
suf wrote to Hisha m informing him of that, and Hisha m wrote back to
him: “Release them.” So Yu suf released them. After his departure from
Yu suf, Zayd remained in Ku fah for some days. Yu suf began urging
him to leave, and he would excuse himself with
preoccupation and with things he was purchasing. He pressed him
until he left and went to al-Qa disiyyah.
Then the Shī ʿa met him and said: “Where are you departing from us—
may Allah have mercy on you—while with you are one hundred
thousand swords from the people of Ku fah, Bas rah, and Khura sa n,
with which they would strike the Banu Umayyah on your behalf, and
there is before us from the people of al-Sha m only a small number?”
He refused them. They continued imploring him until he returned,
after they gave him pledges and covenants. Muh ammad ibn ʿUmar ibn
ʿAlī said to him: “I remind you by Allah, O Abu al-H usayn, when you
joined your family and did not accept the word of any of those who call
you—for they will not be faithful to you. Are they not the companions
of your grandfather al-H usayn ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him)?” He said:
“Yes.” Yet he refused to turn back. The Shī ʿa and others then came to
him in succession, pledging allegiance to him, until his register
counted fifteen thousand men from the people of Ku fah alone—
excluding the people of al-Mada ʾin, Bas rah, Wa sit , al-Maws il, Khura
sa n, al-Rayy, and Jurja n. He remained in Ku fah for several months. He
sent his callers to the regions and districts, calling the people to his
pledge of allegiance. He sent al-Fud ayl ibn al-Zubayr to Abu H anī fah.
Al-Fud ayl said: I came to him and conveyed to him the message of
Zayd. He fell silent, not knowing what to reply to me; then he said:
“Woe to you—what do you say?” I said: “If he is supported, then
striving with him is right.” He said: “And who comes to him in this
matter from the jurists of the people?” I said: “Salamah ibn Kuhayl,
Yazī d ibn Abī Ziya d, Ha ru n ibn Saʿd, Abu Ha shim al-Rumma nī , H
ajja j ibn Dī na r, and others.” He recognized them and said to me: “Gotoday, and when tomorrow comes, then come to me; do not speak to
me a word—only come and sit in a corner, for I shall rise with you; and
when I rise, then stand behind me.” So, I came to him the next day.
When he saw me, he stood and I followed him. He said: “Convey to him
my greeting, and say to him: As for going out with you, I am not able to
do so”—and he mentioned an illness he had—“but you have with me
assistance and strength for striving against your enemy, so seek aid
with it—you and your companions—in mounts and weapons.” He sent
it to Zayd, and with it he strengthened his companions. It is said that it
was thirty thousand dirhams, and it is said: dinars.
Al-Sayyid Abu al-ʿAbba s—may Allah have mercy upon him—said: Ibn
Shubrumah pledged allegiance to him, as did Misʿarah ibn Kida m, al-
Aʿmash, al-H asan ibn ʿUma rah, Abu H us ayn, and Qays ibn al-Rabī ʿ.
Those from his family who were present with him at the encounter
were: Muh ammad ibn ʿAbdulla h ibn al-H asan al-H asan (al-Nafs al-
Zakiyyah), ʿAbdulla h ibn ʿAlī ibn al-H usayn (Peace be Upon Him), his
son Yah ya ibn Zayd, and al-ʿAbba s ibn Rabī ʿah from Banu ʿAbd al-Mut
t alib. When the time of the uprising of Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon
Them Both) drew near, he ordered his companions to prepare and
make themselves ready. Those who wished to be faithful began
preparing, and this became widely known. Then Sura qah al-Ba riqī
went to Yu suf ibn ʿUmar and informed him of the affair of Zayd (Peace
be Upon Him). Yu suf sent for
Zayd by night, but he was not found at the house of the two men whom
the informant had claimed he was with. So Yu suf brought the two
men, and when he questioned them, the matter of Zayd and his
companions became clear to him. Yu suf ordered concerning them, and
their necks were struck. The news reached Zayd and his companions,
so he feared that the road would be seized against him. He therefore
hastened the uprising before the appointed time that had been set
between him and the people of the regions. Zayd’s emergence thus
became settled. He had promised his companions the night of
Wednesday, the first night of S afar, in the year one hundred andtwenty-two. Yet he went out before the appointed time. This reached
Yu suf ibn ʿUmar, so he sent al-H akam ibn al-S alt, ordering him to
gather the people of Kufa into the Grand Mosque and confine them
there. Al-H akam sent to the tribal chiefs, the police, the guards, and
the fighters, and they brought them into the mosque. Then his herald
proclaimed: “Any man of the Arabs or the clients whom we find on a
journey this night—protection is disavowed from him. Come to the
Grand Mosque.” The people came to the mosque on Tuesday, before
the emergence of Zayd. They searched for Zayd in the house of Muʿa
wiyah ibn Ish a q, but he went out by night—on the night of
Wednesday, with seven nights remaining of Muh arram—on a night of
intense cold, from the house of Muʿa wiyah ibn Ish a q. They raised
fires in the haradī, and they called out with their slogan, the slogan of
the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them
peace): “Ya Mansur, amit.” They continued thus until morning. When
morning came, Zayd sent al-Qa sim ibn so-and-so al-Tubbaʿī and
another man to proclaim their slogan. Yah ya ibn S a lih ibn Yah ya ibn
ʿAzī z ibn ʿUmar ibn Ma lik ibn Khuzaymah al-Tubbaʿī named the other
man and mentioned that he was S adda m. Saʿī d said: He also met me,
and I was a loud-voiced man calling out their slogan. Ibn al-Ja ru d—
Ziya d ibn al-Mundhir al-Hamda nī —raised a haradī from their
minaret and proclaimed the slogan of Zayd. When they were in the
open lands of ʿAbd al-Qays, Jaʿfar ibn al-ʿAbba s al-Kindī encountered
them and attacked him and his companions. He killed the man who
was with al-Qa sim, and al-Qa sim was gravely wounded. He was
brought to al-H akam ibn al-S alt, who spoke to him but he did not
reply. His neck was struck at the gate of the palace, and he was the first
of them to be killed. His daughter mourned him, saying:
O eye, pour forth for Qasim ibn Kathīr
Torrents of abundant tears.
The swords of ignoble men overtook him,
From the people of idolatry, ruin, and destruction.
I shall weep for you as long as the dove sings
Upon a fresh and verdant branch.
Yu suf ibn ʿUmar, while in al-Hira, said: “Who will go to Kufa, draw near
to these people, and bring us their news?” ʿAbdulla h ibn ʿAyya sh al-
Mantu f al-Hamda nī said: “I will bring you their
news.” He rode out with fifty horsemen, went until he reached the
cemetery of Sa lim, gathered information, then returned to Yu suf and
informed him. When morning came, Yu suf went out to a hill near al-H
ī rah, and Quraysh and the notables of the people descended with him.
The commander of his police that day was al-ʿAbba s ibn Saʿd al-
Muzanī .
He said: I sent al-Rayya n ibn Salamah al-Balawī with about two
thousand horsemen and three hundred foot soldiers from the Qayqa
niyyah, armed and ready. Zayd ibn ʿAlī and all who joined him that
night numbered two hundred and eighteen foot soldiers. Zayd ibn ʿAlī
said: “Subh a n Alla h! Where are the people?” It was said: “They are
confined in the mosque.” He said: “No—by Allah—this is no excuse for
those who pledged allegiance to us.”
He said: Nas r ibn Khuzaymah came forward to Zayd, but ʿUmar ibn
ʿAbd al-Rah ma n—the chief of police of al-H akam ibn al-S alt—met
him with horsemen from Juhaynah near the house of al-Zubayr ibn Abī
H akī mah, on the road leading to the Mosque of Banu ʿAdī . Nas r
called out: “Ya Mans u r, amit,” but ʿUmar did not reply. Nas r attacked
him and his companions, killed him, and those with him fled. Zayd
advanced until he reached the cemetery of al-S a ʿidiyyī n, where there
were five hundred men from the people of al-Sha m. Zayd charged
them with his companions and routed them. He then advanced until
he reached al-Kana sah and attacked a group of the people of al-Sha m,
defeating them. He then drove them back until he emerged at the
cemetery, while Yu suf ibn ʿUmar was upon the hill watching Zayd and
his companions as they scattered the people. Had Zayd wished to killYu suf, he could have done so. Then Zayd turned to the right toward
the prayer-place of Kha lid ibn ʿAbdulla h until he entered Kufa.
Some of his companions said to others: “Shall we not go toward the
cemetery of Kindah?” No sooner had the man spoken than the people
of al-Sha m appeared before them. When they saw them, they entered
a narrow alley and passed through it. One man from among them
lagged behind and entered the mosque, prayed two rakʿahs, then came
out to them and struck them with his sword. They struck him with
their swords. Then one of them—a horseman, masked in armor—
called out: “Remove the helmet from his head and strike his head with
a pole.” They did so and killed the man. His companions charged them,
drove them away from him, and the people of al-Sha m seized one man
from among them. That man went until he entered upon ʿAbdulla h ibn
ʿAwf ibn al-Ah mar; they captured him and took him to Yu suf ibn
ʿUmar, who killed him. Zayd ibn ʿAlī turned to Nas r and said: “O Nas r
ibn Khuzaymah, do you fear for the people of Kufa that they will act in
a H usaynī manner?” He replied: “May Allah ransom me for you—by
Allah, I shall strike with this sword of mine alongside you until I die.”
Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) then led them forward toward the
mosque. ʿUbaydulla h ibn al-ʿAbba s al-Kindī came out to him with the
people of al-Sha m, and they met at the gate of ʿUmar ibn Saʿd.
ʿUbaydulla h ibn al-ʿAbba s and his companions fled until they reached
the Gate of the Elephant. The companions of Zayd began raising their
banners over the gates,
saying: “O people of the mosque, come out!” Nas r ibn Khuzaymah was
calling out to them: “O people of Kufa, come out from humiliation to
honor, and to religion and the world.” The people of al-Sha m were
throwing stones at them from atop the mosque. That day there was
skirmishing in Kufa and its surroundings, and it was also said: in the
cemetery of Sa lim.
And Yu suf ibn ʿUmar sent al-Rayya n ibn Salamah with cavalry to Da r
al-Rizq. They fought Zayd (Peace be Upon Him) with fierce fighting,and many of the people of al-Sha m were wounded. The companions of
Zayd drove them back from Da r al-Rizq until they reached the Grand
Mosque. The people of al-Sha m withdrew on the evening of
Wednesday in the worst state of morale.
When it was the morning of Thursday, Yu suf ibn ʿUmar summoned al-
Rayya n ibn Salamah and rebuked him, saying to him: “Fie upon you as
a commander of cavalry!” He then summoned al-ʿAbba s ibn Saʿd al-
Muzanī , the commander of his police, and sent him to the people of al-
Sha m. He marched with them until they reached Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace
be Upon Him) at Da r al-Rizq. Zayd ibn ʿAlī came out to meet him, with
Nas r ibn Khuzaymah and Muʿa wiyah ibn Ish a q on his right flank.
When al-ʿAbba s saw them, he called out: “O people of al-Sha m—
dismount!” Many of them dismounted, and fierce fighting ensued in
the battlefield. Among the people of al-Sha m was a man from Banu
ʿAbs called Na ʾil ibn Farwah. He said to Yu suf: “By Allah, if I can set my
eyes upon Nas r ibn Khuzaymah, I will surely kill him—or he will kill
me.” Yu suf said to him: “Take this sword,” and he handed him a sword
that would cut through anything it passed. When the companions of
al-ʿAbba s ibn Saʿd met the companions of Zayd, Na ʾil caught sight of
Nas r ibn Khuzaymah and struck him, severing his thigh. Nas r struck
him in return and killed him; and Nas r—may Allah have mercy upon
him—died.
Then Zayd (Peace be Upon Him) routed them, and they withdrew that
day in the worst condition. When it was the late afternoon, Yu suf
reassembled them and then dispatched them again toward Zayd. They
advanced until they met, and Zayd (Peace be Upon Him) charged them,
scattering them, then pursued them until he drove them out to the salt
flats. He pressed them again until he drove them out from among Banu
Sulaym. Then they took the route of al-Masanna t. Zayd (Peace be
Upon Him) appeared among them between Ba riq and Banu Rawa s
and fought them with intense fighting. The bearer of his banner was a
man from Banu Saʿd ibn Bakr called ʿAbd al-S amad.
Saʿī d ibn Khuthaym said: We were with Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon
Him) numbering five hundred, while the people of al-Sha m were
twelve thousand. Yet more than twelve thousand had pledged
allegiance to Zayd (Peace be Upon Him), but they betrayed him—when
a man from the people of al-Sha m, from Kalb, rode out on a splendid
horse and did not refrain from reviling Fa t imah, the daughter of the
Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them
peace). Zayd (Peace be Upon Him) began to weep until his beard was
soaked, and he kept saying: “Is there no one who will become angry
for Fa t imah, the daughter of the
Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them
peace)? Is there no one who will become angry for the Messenger of
Allah (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace)? Is
there no one who will become angry for Allah—Exalted is He?” mThe
man from al-Sha m then dismounted from his horse and mounted a
mule. The people were in two groups: onlookers and fighters. Saʿī d
said: I went to a client of mine and took from him a cloak I had with
me, then concealed myself behind the onlookers. When I came up
behind him, I struck his neck while firmly gripping the cloak. His head
fell before the mule, then I threw his corpse from the saddle. His
companions charged at me until they nearly overwhelmed me, but the
companions of Zayd cried out “Alla hu akbar” and charged them,
rescuing me. I came to Zayd (Peace be Upon Him), and he began
kissing me between the eyes, saying: “By Allah, you have exacted our
vengeance. By Allah, you have attained the honor of this world and the
Hereafter and their treasure. Take the mule—I grant it to you as
spoils.”
He said: The cavalry of al-Sha m could not stand firm against the
cavalry of Zayd (Peace be Upon Him). Al-ʿAbba s ibn Saʿd sent to Yu suf
informing him of what he was facing from the Zaydī s and asked him to
send archers. He sent to him Sulayma n ibn Kaysa n with the Qayqa
niyyah—who were Bukha rans—and they were archers. They began
shooting at the companions of Zayd. Muʿa wiyah ibn Ish a q al-Ans a rīfought that day with fierce fighting and was killed in front of Zayd
(Peace be Upon Him). Zayd stood firm among his companions until,
when it was near the onset of night, Zayd was struck by an arrow that
hit his left forehead. The arrow penetrated into the brain. He
withdrew, and his companions withdrew with him. We do not think
the people of al-Sha m withdrew except because of the darkness of the
night.