Omar Ibn Sa’d: Difference between revisions

Although Turco-Persian literature of Karbala has elaborated on Ibn Saʿd’s villainy, many historical features of his character have been retained down to the most recent [[taʿziya]]s, such as his eagerness to keep his post in Ray and his reluctance to kill Hussain. In the Mukhtar-nama, Ibn Saʿd is cursed by his own wife, who is the sister of the Shiʿite rebel Mukhtar, and his severed head is cursed by his Shiʿite younger son (pp. 209-11; Kashefi, pp. 262 f.). An old tradition holds that Ray, the price paid to him for Hussain’s blood, was under a divine curse (Yaqut, Boldan, Beirut, III, p. 118; C. Barbier de Meynard, Dictionnaire géographique de la Perse, Paris, 1861, p. 278). Ibn Saʿd’s chastisement is sometimes shown as particularly horrible; in the story of Mohammad b. al-Hanafiya, Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Ziad are smeared with naphtha and set on fire (Calmard, p. 267). In [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/safavids Safavid] Persia ʿOmar b. Saʿd was sometimes burnt in effigy in a ritual similar to the “killing of ʿOmar” (ʿOmarkoshan), perhaps because of a popular confusion with the caliph most hated by the Persian Shiʿites (Calmard, p. 500). In taʿziyas Ibn Saʿd is the only bad character who feels remorse for his own villainy; he is ashamed to have killed Hussain and protects ʿAli Zayn-al-ʿAbedin and the women of the [[Ahl-e Bayt]], ordering them to be taken to [[Kufa]] in covered litters (mahamel mastura; Dinavari, ed. Guirgass, p. 270; Kashefi, pp. 349-50, 360). In some taʿziyas, he even seems opposed to the killing of Hussain (Mamnoun, pp. 67 ff.). But in spite of his hesitation and belated remorse, he remains a typical villain in the eyes of Muharram mourners. His arrogance while riding his horse and addressing himself to Hussain has become proverbial (methl-e Ibn-e Saʿd; ʿA.-A. Dehkhoda, Amthal o hekam, Tehran, 1352 Sh./1973, III, p. 1403).   

*Hussain Wāʿeẓ Kāšefī, Rawżat al-šohadāʾ, ed. M. Ramażānī, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962.

*P. Mamnoum, Taʿzija. Schiʿitisch-persisches Passionspiel, Vienna, 1967.