Muslim b. Aqil b. Abi Talib: Difference between revisions

  | caption = The Tomb of Muslim b. 'Aqil next to the Mosque of Kufa

  | Full name = Muslim b. ʿAqil b. Abi Talib

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'''Muslim b. ʿAqil b. Abi Talib''' (d. 60/680) was a leading supporter of [[Hussain ibn Ali|Imam Hussain]]. He was sent to [[Kufa]] as a representative of Imam Husayn in order to measure the extent of Kufan support for the Prophet’s grandson and to make sure that people of Kufa are truthful in their invitation of the Imam. In a report to the Imam, he confirmed that Kufans were prepared for the Imam's arrival.   

Fearful of increasing Kufan supports of Imam Husayn, [[Yazid]] appointed  [[Obayd-Allah Ibn Ziad]] as the new governor of Kufa to frighten people and force them to leave Muslim. Finally, Muslim was arrested and executed in the day of ‘Arafa. The story of Muslim being left alone and his [[martyrdom]] in Kufa is a recurring theme of [[Rawza]] recited by the Shi'as.  

==Birth and Life Events==

By nightfall Muslim was left with only 30 men, and these too soon disappeared. He wandered despondently in the alleys of Kufa, until he finally found refuge with a woman from Kinda called Tawʿa, whose son Bilal was a mawla of Muhammad b. al-Ashʿath [q.v.]. When Bilal discovered the identity of his mother’s guest, he waited until morning and then notified Ibn al-Ashʿath, who in turn informed ʿUbayd Allah. Another version has it that the person whom Bilal informed (and who passed on the information) was Ibn al-Ashʿath’s son ʿAbd al-Rahman.<ref>This is one of several deeds for which ʿAbd al-Raḥman earned the title of “the most perfidious of the Arabs”; see Ibn Habib, al- Muhabbar , 244-6.</ref>

==Muslim’s Arrest and Martyrdom==

Muslim was brought before Obayd Allah, and the two had a heated exchange. Muslim then received permission to give his final instructions (wasiyya). In most accounts he is said to have chosen for this purpose [[Omar Ibn Sa’d|Omar Ibn Saʿd]] as the only member of his tribe (Quraysh) present. Muslim asked him to send a messenger to al-Husayn to inform him of the treachery of the Kufans and to urge him not to come; he also asked him to pay a debt of his and take his corpse for burial to prevent its being mutilated. In other reports, Muslim is depicted as receiving a promise from Ibn al-Ashʿath (rather than ʿUmar) to inform al-Husayn. Obayd Allah entrusted Muslim’s execution to Bakr b. Humran al-Ahmari, whom Muslim had wounded before being taken prisoner. Bakr led Muslim to the top of the fortress, decapitated him in sight of the populace, and threw down first the head and then the rest of the body. Haniʾ was also executed, and the two bodies were dragged through the market-streets of Kufa. Muslim is said to have been posthumously crucified, and his head was sent to Yazid in Damascus and hoisted on a pole; he was the first [[Hashimite]] to be treated in this fashion.<ref>cf. al- Masʿudi, Muruj , § 1899.</ref> An elegy on the fate of Muslim and Haniʾ which is cited in the sources is variously attributed to al-Farazdaq, to ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zabir al-Asadi and to Sulayman (or Sulaym) b. Salam al-Hanafi. Muslim’s death, which followed his uprising by one day, is said to have coincided with al- Husayn’s departure for ʿIraq.  

==Imam Husayn departs for Kufa==

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==Bibliography==

*Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaḳāt, ed. Beirut, iv, 42, ed. Turāt̲h̲unā, iii/1 (1408), 173-7, 185

   

   

*Mahmoud Ayoub, Redemptive suffering in Islām, The Hague 1978, 99-102 and index

*S.H.M. Jafri, The origins and early development of Shiʿa Islam, London and New York 1979, index

*Ibrāhīm al-Mūsawī al-Zand̲j̲ānī, D̲j̲awla fi ’l-amākin al-muḳaddasa, Beirut 1405/1985, 203-7

*R. Milstein, Miniature painting in Ottoman Baghdad, Costa Mesa 1990, 25-7, 101-6.

==Source==

*[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/muslim-b-akil-b-abi-talib-SIM_5596?s.num=637&s.start=620 Encyclopaedia Iranica]

[[Category: Historic Character]]

[[Category: Karbala Martyrs]]

[[Category: Battle of Karbala]]