A Name List of Those Who Were Killed With al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī From Among His Children, Brothers, Family, and Followers
By: al-Faḍīl b. al-Zubayr b. ʿUmar b. Dirham al-Kūfī al-Asadī
Translated and introduced by: Syed Jaffer Abbas
The following is a brief account about Karbalāʾ written by the Zaydī companion of the fifth and sixth Imāms, al-Faḍīl b. al-Zubayr b. ʿUmar b. Dirham al-Kūfī al-Asadī, making it the oldest extant account about the tragedy. Though the work is largely just a martyrs’ name list, there are occasional notes offered which give a brief account of individual’s martyrdom. As Ali J. Hussain notes in his A Developmental Analysis of Depictions of the Events of Karbalāʾ in Early Islamic History, the author’s choosing to expand on details of some individuals reflects the significance of those individuals of the author’s construction of the history of Karbalāʾ in his writing (p. 18). It has been transmitted in its entirety in the work of the Zaydī Imām, al-Imām al-Murshid Billāh’s, al-Amālī al-Khamīsiyyah. The text used as the basis for this translation was edited and prepared by Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā al-Ḥusaynī and published by Muʾassasah Āl al-Bayt (as) Li-Ihyāʾ al-Turāth with emendations made to the text as necessary. For the purposes of this translation, I have accepted the emendations as part of the translated text. My use of benedictory prayers after the names of individuals attempts to reflect the usage of the Arabic text.
The Martyrs from Ahl al-Bayt (as):
1. Al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī , the [grand]son of the Apostle of God (ṣ). Sinān b. Anas al-Nakhaʿī killed him and his head was raised up. Al-Khawlī b. Yazīd al-Aṣbaḥī brought it.
2. Al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib (as). His mother was Umm al-Banīn bt. Ḥizām b. Khālid b. Rabīʿah b. al-Waḥīd al-ʿĀmiri. Zayd b. Ruqād al-Jabnī and Ḥakīm b. al-Ṭufayl al-Ṭāʾī al-Sinbisī killed him. Both of them were stricken by disease in their bodies.
3. Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī (as). His Mother was also Umm al-Banīn bt. Ḥizām. Hāniʾ b. Thubayt al-Ḥaḍrami killed him.
4. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī (as). His mother was also Umm al-Banīn. Khawlī b. Yazīd al-Aṣbaḥī shot an arrow at him and a man from B. Tamīm b. Ābān b. Dārim finished him off.
5. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib al-Aṣghar (the younger). A man from B. Ābān b. Dārim— different from the killer of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī— killed him. His mother was a slave woman.
6. Abū Bakr b. ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib (as). His mother was Laylā bt. Masʿūd b. Khālid b. Mālik b. Ribʿī b. Salm b. Jandal b. Nahshal b. Dārim al-Tamīmī.
7. ʿUthmān b. ʿAlī (as). His mother was Umm al-Banīn bt. Ḥizām. He was the brother of al-ʿAbbās, Jaʿfar, and ʿAbd Allāh, the sons of ʿAlī by their mother.
8. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Akbar (the elder). His mother was Laylā bt. Abū Murrah b. ʿUrwah b. Masʿūd b. Mughīth al-Thaqafī. Her mother was Maymūnah bt. Abu Sufyān b. Ḥarb. Murrah b. Munqidh b. al-Nuʿmān al-Kindī killed him. He was attacking the enemy while reciting the following poetry:
“I am ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī / We— by God’s House— are closer to the Prophet”
Until he was killed, may God’s blessings be upon him.
9. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥusayn (as). His mother was al-Rubāb bt. Imraʾ al-Qays b. ʿAdī b. Aws b. Jābir b. Kaʿb b. Ḥakīm al-Kalbī. Ḥarmalah b. al-Kāhil al-Asadī al-Wālibī killed him. He was born to al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (as) during the battle. He was brought before him while he was sitting, and he took him into his lap. He let him suckle on his saliva and named him ʿAbd Allāh. Suddenly, as he was doing this, Ḥarmalah b. al-Kāhil shot the baby with an arrow, butchering him. Al-Ḥusayn took his blood, gathering it, and threw it towards the heavens. Not a single drop returned to the Earth.
Faḍīl said: Abu al-Ward narrated to me that he heard Abu Jaʿfar say, “If a single drop fell to the earth, divine punishment would surely have been sent down.” He [ʿAbd Allāh] was the one about whom the poet said,
“A drop of our blood is with [B.] Ghanī / and another is counted and remembered with [B.] Asad.”
ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (as) was ill, and was wounded that day. He was present for some of the battle, but God protected him, and he, Muḥammad b. ʿAmr b. al-Ḥasan, and al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib (as) took up with the women.
10. Abū Bakr b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī was [also] killed. His mother was a slave woman. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUqbah al-Ghanawī killed him.
11. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī (as). His mother was a slave woman. Ḥarmalah b. al-Kāhil shot him with an arrow, killing him.
12. Al-Qāsim b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. His mother was a slave woman. ʿAmr b. Saʿīd b. Nufayl al-Azdī killed him.
13. ʿAwn b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ja’far b. Abū Ṭālib. His mother was a Jumānah bt. al-Musayyib b. Najiyyah b. Rabīʿah b. Ribāḥ al-Fazārī. ʿAbd Allāh b. Quṭnah al-Ṭāʾī al-Nabhānī killed him.
14. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar b. Abū Ṭālib. His mother was al-Khawṣāʾ bt. Ḥafṣah bt. Thaqīf b. Rabiʿah b. ʿAʾidh b. al-Ḥārith b. Taym Allāh b. Thaʿlabah b. Bakr b. Wāʾil. ʿĀmir b. Nahshal al-Taymī killed him.
He said: When news of their tragedy reached the inhabitants of Madīnah, people went to see ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar to give him condolences. As such, a number of his clients went into his presence, and one said to him, “this is what has afflicted us because of al-Ḥusayn!”
He continued: So ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar threw his sandal at him and said, “O’ son of an uncircumcised woman! Do you say this for al-Ḥusayn?! By God! Had I been present at his side, I would not have separated from him until I would be killed with him, by God! I did not leave my sons, or Abū ʿAbd Allāh, except that they were killed with my brother, elder, and cousin, as his supporters, and as warriors with him.” Then he came forward to those, sat to see him and said, “Praise is due to God for every good and bad thing. I am severely pained by the battle of Abū ʿAbd Allāh! And then I am severely pained that I could not support him. Praise is due to God in every case, my son supported him.”
15. Jaʿfar b. ʿAqīl b. Abu Ṭālib. His mother was Umm al-Banīn bt. al-Nafrah b. ʿĀmir b. Ḥiṣān al-Kilābī. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr al-Khathʿamī killed him.
16. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAqil. His mother was a slave woman. ʿUthmān b. Khālid b. Asīr al-Juhanī and Bashīr b. Ḥarb al-Hamdānī al-Qāniṣi killed him. They both shared in his killing.
17. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAqīl b. Abū Ṭālib. His mother was a slave woman. ʿAmr b. Ṣubayḥ al-Ṣaydāwī shot him [with an arrow] and killed him.
18. Muslim b. ʿAqīl b. Abū Ṭālib. He was killed in Kūfah and his mother was Ḥablah, a slave woman.
19. ʿAbd Allah b. Muslim b. ʿAqīl. His mother was Ruqayyah bt. ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib. Her mother was a slave woman. ʿAmr b. Ṣubayḥ al-Ṣaydāwī killed him. It is also said: Asad b. Mālik al-Ḥaḍramī killed him.
20. Muḥammad b. Abū Saʿīd b. ʿAqīl b. Abū Ṭālib. His mother was a slave woman. Ibn Zuhayr al-Azdī and Laqīṭ b. Yāsir al-Juhanī killed him. They both took part in his killing.
When [the news of] the killing of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (as) reached Madīnah, Zaynab bt. ʿAqīl b. Abū Ṭālib went out and was reciting the following poem:
“What will you answer when the prophet questions you / ‘what have you done, and you were the last nation, / to my progeny, my family, after my death?! / Some of them are captives and others covered in blood! / This was not my reward for having guided you / that after me you visit evil on my family.’”
The Martyrs from the Companions (ra):
21. And Sulaymān, the client of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī was killed. Sulaymān b. ʿAwf al-Ḥaḍramī killed him.
22. Munjiḥ, the client of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (as) was killed. Ḥasān b. Bakr al-Ḥanẓalī killed him.
23. Qārib al-Daylamī, the client of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, was also killed.
24. Another martyr was al-Ḥārith b. Nabhān, the client of Ḥamzah b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the lion of God and his apostle.
25. ʿAbd Allāh b. Yaqṭar, the milk brother of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī. He was martyred in Kūfah. He was thrown from the palace roof and broke. ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿUmayr al-Lakhmī went up to him, killed him, and beheaded him.
As for those from B. Asad b. Khuzaymah who were killed were:
26. Ḥabīb b. Muẓāhir. Badīl b. Ṣuraym al-Ghiffārī killed him. He had taken the allegiance for al-Ḥusayn.
27. Anas b. al-Ḥārith. He was a companion of the Apostle of God (s).
28. Qays b. Mus•hir al-Ṣaydāwī.
29. Sulaymān b. Rabīʿah.
30. Muslim b. ʿAwsajah al-Saʿdī. He was from B. Saʿd b. Thaʿlabah. Muslim b. ʿAbd Allāh and ʿUbayd Allāh b. Abū Khashkārah killed him.
And those from B. Ghiffār b. Malīl b. Ḍamrah who were killed were:
31. ʿAbd Allāh,
32. and ʿUbayd Allāh, the sons of Qays b. Abū ʿUrwah.
33. And Jawn b. Ḥuwayy, the client of Abū Dharr al-Ghiffārī.
And those from B. Tamim who were killed were:
34. Al-Ḥurr b. Yazīd. He had defected to join al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī after.
35. Shabīb b. ʿAbd Allāh, from B. Nufayl b. Dārim
And those from B. Saʿd b. Bakr who were killed were:
36. Al-Ḥajjāj b. Badr
And those from B. Taghlib who were killed were:
37. Qāsiṭ,
38. and Kurdūs, the sons of Zuhayr b. al-Ḥārith.
39. Kinānah b. ʿAtīq.
40. Al-Ḍarghāmah b. Mālik.
And those from B. Qays b. Thaʿlabah who were killed were:
41. Juwayn b. Mālik.
42. ʿAmr b. Ḍubayʿah
And those from B. ʿAbd al-Qays from the people of Baṣrah who were killed were:
43. Yazīd b. Thubayṭ
44. and his sons, ʿAbd Allāh
45. and ʿUbayd Allāh, the sons of Yazīd.
46. ʿĀmir b. Muslim
47. and Sālim, his client.
48. Sayf b. Mālik.
49. Al-Ad•ham b. Umayyah.
And those Anṣār who were killed were:
50. ʿAmr b. Qaraẓah.
51. ʿAbd al-Raḥman b. ʿAbd Rabb, who was from B. Sālim b. al-Khazraj. Amīr al-Muʾminīn (as) had raised him and taught him the Qurʾān.
52. Naʿīm b. ʿAjlān al-Anṣārī.
53. ʿImrān b. Kaʿb al-Anṣārī
54. Saʿd b. al-Ḥārith.
55. And his brother, Abū al-Ḥutūf b. al-Ḥārith. They were among the Muḥakkimah. When they heard the voices of the women and children of the family of the Apostle of God (ṣ), they discerned to join al-Ḥusayn, then attacked with their swords and fought with al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (as) until they were killed. They had killed 3 men from those who were with ʿUmar b. Saʿd.
And those from B. al-Ḥārith b. Kaʿb who were killed were:
56. Al-Ḍabāb b. ʿĀmir.
And those from B. Kathʿam who were killed were:
57. ʿAbd Allāh b. Bishr al-Aklah.
58. Suwayd b. ʿAmr b. al-Muṭāʿ. Hāniʾ b. Thubayt al-Ḥaḍramī killed him.
Also killed were:
59. Bakr b. Ḥayy al-Taymallī, from B. Taym Allāh b. Thaʿlabah.
60. Jābir b. al-Ḥajjāj, the client of ʿĀmir b. Nahshal, from B. Taym Allāh.
61. Masʿūd b. al-Ḥajjāj,
62. and his son, ʿAbd al-Raḥman b. Masʿūd.
And those from B. ʿAbd Allāh who were killed were:
63. Mujammaʿ b. ʿAbd Allāh.
64. ʿĀʾidh b. Mujammaʿ.
And those from B. Ṭayy who were killed were:
65. ʿĀmir b. Ḥassān b. Shurayḥ b. Saʿd b. Ḥārithah b. Lām.
66. Umayyah b. Saʿd.
And those from B. Murād who were killed were:
67. Nāfiʿ b. Hilāl al-Jamalī. He was among the companions of Amīr al-Muʾminīn (as).
68. Junādah b. al-Ḥārith al-Salmānī,
69. and his slave, Wāḍiḥ. al-Rūmī.
And those from B. Shaybān b. Thaʿlabah who were killed were:
70. Jabalah b. ʿAlī.
And those from B. Ḥanīfah who were killed were:
71. Saʿīd b. ʿAbd Allāh.
And those from B. Juwāb who were killed were:
72. Jundab b. Ḥujayr,
73. and his son, Ḥujayr b. Jundub.
And those from Ṣaydā who were killed were:
74. ʿAmr b. Khālid al-Ṣaydāwī
75. and Saʿd, his client.
And those from B. Kalb who were killed were:
76. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr b. ʿAyyāsh b. ʿAbd Qays
77. and Aslam, a client of his.
And those from B. Kindah who were killed were:
78. Al-Ḥārith b. Imraʾ al-Qays.
79. Yazīd b. Zayd b. al-Muhāṣir.
80. Zāhir, the companion of ʿAmr b. al-Ḥamiq. He was his companion when Muʿāwiyah was looking for him.
And those from B. Bujaylah who were killed were:
81. Kathīr b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Shaʿbī.
82. Muhājir b. Aws
83. and his cousin, Salmān b. Muḍārib.
Also killed were:
84. Al-Nuʿmān b. ʿAmr
85. and al-Ḥullās b. ʿAmr, the two Rāsibīs.
And those from B. Khirqah from B. Juhaynah who were killed were:
86. Mujammaʿ b. Ziyād.
87. ʿIbād b. Abū al-Muhājir al-Juhni.
88. ʿAqabah b. al-Ṣalt.
And those from B. al-Azd who were killed were:
89. Muslim b. Kathīr.
90. al-Qāsim b. Bishr.
91. Zuhayr b. Salīm.
92. A client from the people of Shandah, called Rāfiʿ.
And those from B. Hamdān who were killed were:
93. Abū Thamāmah ʿAmr b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣāʾidī. He was a companion of Amīr al-Muʾminīn (as). Qays b. ʿAbd Allāh killed him.
94. Yazīd b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Mashriqī.
95. Ḥanẓalah b. Asʿad al-Shabāmī.
96. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Arḥabī.
97. ʿAmmār b. Salāmah al-Dālāni.
98. ʿĀbis b. Abu Shabīb al-Shākirī
99. and Shawdhab, the client of Shākir. He was foremost among the Shīʿah.
100. Sayf b. al-Ḥārith b. Surayʿ.
101. Mālik b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Surayʿ.
102. Hamām b. Salamah al-Qāniṣī.
And those from Hamdān who were wounded were:
103. Sawwār b. Ḥimyar al-Jābirī, who then died from his wound six months after.
104. ʿAmr b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Junduʿī, he died on the new year from the wound he received.
Additionally killed was:
105. Hāniʾ b. ʿUrwah al-Murādī in Kūfah. ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād killed him.
And those from Haḍramawt who were killed were:
106. Bashīr b. ʿUmar.
107. Al-Hafhāf b. al-Muhannad al-Rāsibī went out of Baṣrah when he heard about the expedition of al-Ḥusayn (as) and set forth until he arrived at the army after al-Ḥusayn’s death. He then entered the army of ʿUmar b. Saʿd. Unsheathing his sword, he began to recite the following poetry: “O’ you army of mobilized troops! / I am al-Hafhāf b. al-Muhannad! / I wish to defend the family of Muḥammad!” And he fought them severely.
ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (as) said: “No one had seen a knight except ʿAlī kill with his hands as he did since God sent Muḥammad.” Five men challenged him and surrounded him until they killed him, may God have mercy on him.
When they reached the camp of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (as), they found ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn, who was ill and infirm, and found Muḥammad b. ʿAmr b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī, an adolescent boy, and brought them together with the family.
When they were brought to ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād, he turned his attention to ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn and said, “You have a religious responsibility to them. Send them with someone who is responsible for them and guards them.” He answered, “there is no one other than you.” So he transferred them together.
The people of Kūfah and the women of Hamdān gathered when they left and came out to them, beginning to cry. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn said, “you people cry?! Tell me, then, who killed us?”
When they were brought to the Mosque of Damascus, Marwān came to them and said to those arriving, “how did you deal with them?” They said, “eighty men from them came to us, we finished off every last one of them!” His brother, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥakam, said, “May you be veiled from the apostle of God on the Day of Judgement. By God, I will not meet with you again!” Then, getting up, he turned away.
When they came into the presence of Yazīd, he said, “Alas, o’ ʿAlī! Did you yourselves kill the slaves of the people of ʿIrāq?” ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn replied, “no misfortunate occurs on the earth nor in yourselves except that it is [recorded already] in a record before we brought it into existence. Surely, that is easy for God.” (Q.57:22) Yazīd retorted, “Whatever misfortune befalls you, it is on account of what your hands wrought. He forgives much.” (Q.42:30) Then he entrusted them, and they were made to enter a house. Then he prepared them [for travel], supplied them, and ordered their dismissal to Madīnah.
The people of Madīnah were hearing the Jinn cry over al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (as) when he was killed. A female Jinn was reciting the following poem for him:
“Truly, o’ eye, encourage me to strive / And who will cry for the masters after me?
Death leads them, together in groups, / to the Lord, in a slave’s kingdom.”
