They, therefore, kept lowering their lanterns down its walls...
They, therefore, kept lowering their lanterns down its walls and lighting reeds then lowering them down with ropes till they reached the mosque's courtyard. They could not see anyone, so they informed Ibn Ziyad who ordered his caller to call people to assemble at the mosque. When they filled the mosque, he ascended the pulpit and said, “‘Aqil's son has caused the dissension and disunity with which you all are familiar; so, there is no security henceforth to any man in whose house we find him.
Anyone who captures him and brings him to us will be paid his blood money. O servants of Allah! Fear Allah and safeguard your obedience and oath of allegiance, and do not expose yourselves to peril.” Then he ordered al-Hasin Ibn Tamim, chief of his police force, to search homes and highways, warning him that he would kill Muslim should the latter succeed in fleeing from Kufa.[^7] Al-Hasin stationed his guards at highway crossroads and pursued the dignitaries who had supported Muslim, arresting ‘Abd al-A’la Ibn Yazid al-Kalbi and ‘Imarah Ibn Salkhab al-Azdi.
He threw them in jail then killed them. Then he jailed a group of prominent leaders as a safeguard against what they might do. Among them were al-Asbagh Ibn Nubatah and al-Harith al-A’war al-Hamadani.[^8] [^1]: al-Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 6, p. 207. [^2]: al-Balathiri, Ansab al-Ashraf, Vol. 5, p. 338. Abul-Faraj al-Isfahani, Al-Aghani, Vol. 17, p. 162. Ibrahim Ibn al-Ashtar described them as such to Mis’ab when the latter had asked the first to raise for him an army from among the people of Iraq.
[^3]: al-Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 6, p. 208. [^4]: al-Dinawari, Al-Akhbar al-Tiwal, p. 240. [^5]: al-Shareeshi, Sharh Maqamat al-Hariri, Vol. 1, p. 192, at the conclusion of the tenth maqam. [^6]: Ibn Nama, Al-Luhuf, p. 29. [^7]: al-Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 6, pp. 209-210. [^8]: On p. 169, Vol. 6, of Ibn Sa’d's Tabaqat, Sadir's edition, the author says, “Al-Harith al-A’war died in Kufa during the caliphate of ‘Abdullah Ibn al-Zubayr, and his governor over it was ‘Abdullah Ibn Yazid al-Ansari al-Khatmi.