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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Tragedy of al-Zahra’: Doubts and Responses Part 9: “I Know Not About The Nail...” The Nail The following paragraph appears in a book attributed to “Shibl al-Dawla” Muqatil ibn ‘Atiyyah known as “Conference of Baghdad’s Scholars,” When Fatima (sa) came from behind the door in order to send ‘’Umar and his party back, ‘’Umar squeezed her hard between the wall and the door, causing her to miscarry, and a nail was planted in her chest.

Fatima (sa) then screamed, “O Father! O Messenger of Allah!”[^1] The philosopher-researcher Grand Ayatollah Shaikh Muhammed Husayn al-Isfahani, may Allah sanctify his resting place, composed the following verses of poetry: No, I cannot tell the tale Of the report of the nail. So ask her very chest: And leave out the rest; It is the storing chest Of every secret.

We cannot either confirm or deny this matter although we are discussing the attribution of the book titled Mu’tamar ‘Ulama’ Baghdad (Conference of Baghdad’s Scholars) to “Shibl al-Dawla,” and we think it is possible that someone who came after him wrote it. But this does not mean that its textual contents, be they historical or otherwise, are inaccurate. The author of this book (referred to above) may have derived his information from sources with which we are not familiar.

Our discussion of the accuracy of attributing a book to him does not mean that the book’s contents are subject to debates and doubts. It has a good deal of accurate information definitely supported by confirmed and authentic narratives. Yet we have to distinguish between what is lean and what is fat, what is accurate and what is not, according to the criteria of scholarly research and its fundamentals.

Here we would like to state our bases for doubting the book being his; so, let us say the following: The Book in the Balance The author of the book detailing the conference of Baghdad’s scholars has stated that his book, or booklet, is the summary of a theological debate which he says took place between ten senior Sunni and Shi’i scholars in Baghdad who responded to the invitation of the Seljuk Sultan Malik-Shah and his vizier, Nizam al-Malik; both men attended and participated in it.

In this debate, which lasted for three days, it is proven that Shi’ism is right, so Sultan Malik-Shah embraced Shi’a Islam and so did his vizier, Nizam al-Malik, as well as a number of army commanders and prominent government officials.