In the organisation of the tribesmen into some form of army...

In the organisation of the tribesmen into some form of army the same tribal groupings as were usually used were used again32 . This clearly indicates that no radical prepara­tion had taken place among the revolutionaries. For their numbers were not spread evenly among the tribes and their organisation should have reflected this. The mobilized Shi'a forces moved off towards the palace and found its doors locked.

There in the square in front of the palace, they remained with their numbers being constantly increased. Inside the palace 'Ubaid Allah had thirty men of the shurta, twenty of the tribal leaders and his family. While he was in this position other tribal leaders began to come to him through a side-door to the palace33 . The fact that the Shi'a forces had not barred all entry and exit to the palace shows the incompetence of the Kufan leadership of the Shi'a and the disorganisation of the ranks.

It seems that 'Ubaid Allah had won over the vast majority of tribal leaders before the revolt had begun. The way he had done this is explained by information al-Husayn received later on his way to al-Kufa. For al-Husayn was told that the bribery of the tribal leaders had been great34 . Thus it seems that 'Ubaid Allah had even bought the allegiance of those tribal leaders who had leaned towards the Shi'a. He now sum.

moned six of the tribal leaders, two of whom had been among those who had written to urge al-Husayn to come to al-Kufa. These six, 'Ubaid Allah sent out to try and bring their followers away from Muslim. But he did not trust the rest of the nobles because he thought the paucity of his support in the palace might encourage them to throw in their lot with Muslim. So he kept them in the palace with him.

Not only were these six able to leave the palace, they were also able to return bringing with them what tribal support they could muster35 . 'Ubaid Allah, now having much stronger military strength, used the tactic of assemb­ling the tribal leaders on the palace roof to call to their tribesmen to discourage them from revolt. The major persuasion used was to warn them of the punishment they would receive when the Syrian army came and to make them believe that the Syrian army was not far away.

The ploy worked and the leaderless mob began to be afraid and one by one they began to slip away. The false rumours about the approaching Syrians must have spread rapidly through al-Kufa for the women now came out into the streets and urged their men to come away.