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political islam 351As for al-Zaburq§n b. Badr, we hear nothing about his apostasyin al-#Asqal§nÊ, but we know that he lived until the reign ofal-Mu#§wiya because of the following account by al-J§Èií:#Al-Zaburq§n went to Ziy§d b. AbÊhi—whose eyesight had weakened—andgreeted [him] lightly. Ziy§d made him come closer andsit next to him. He said: “O Abå #Abb§s! The people are laughingabout your harshness.” He said: “Even if they laugh, by God, thereis no man among them whose wishes I have not fathered due to[my] charm or [my] wisdom.” 21Is it possible that Abå Bakr and the other caliphs would have beenallowed to kill apostates in the way it is reported—assuming for amoment that the accounts are accurate—purely because thesepeople abandoned a specific belief? Or put differently, how likelyis it that their harsh (persecution and decapitation) and often inconsistent(marriage to relatives, release from prison) treatment ofapostates could have been possible—and this includes the reportedcruelty by Kh§lid b. al-WalÊd against M§lik b. Nuwaira and hispeople 22 —if such shameful and disgraceful acts would today beenough to send its perpetrators to the International War CrimesTribunal in The Hague? Just to make it clear, we are not attemptingto set up a court and charge people for their crimes during thispart of Islam’s history—similar to the inquisitional style of caliphssuch as #Abd al-Malik b. Marw§n or Abå Ja#far al-Manßår 23 —since21Abå #Uthm§n #Amr Al-J§Èií, al-Bay§n wa’l-tabyÊn li’l-J§Èií (Beirut: D§ral-Kutub al-#Ilmiyya, 1998), vol. 1, 128.22Kh§lid b. al-WalÊd (d. 21/642), one of the most successful military commandersin the history of the Islamic conquests who defeated with his troops within onlyten years after MuÈammad’s death the Byzantine armies in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.And yet, during the so-called apostasy wars under the caliph Abå Bakr he wasaccused of having used unnecessary force and cruelty against M§lik b. Nuwayra andhis clan of the Banå Yarbå", and this because of his selfish desire to marry IbnNuwayra’s wife, Layla bint al-Minhal. Faced with these accusations and under pressurefrom fierce criticism by #Umar and Abå Qa㧷a, al-WalÊd claimed that hisorders had been misunderstood by his guards (thus, indirectly conceding that hiskillings were wrong); a feeble excuse that was nevertheless accepted by Abå Bakr(‘I will not sheathe a sword that Allah has drawn for His service’), see al-•abarÊ,Ta"rÊkh, vol. 2, ‘Prophets and patriarchs’, translated and annotated by William M.Brinner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), 496–502.23#Abd al-Malik b. Marw§n (25–86/646–705) was the fifth caliph of theUmayyad rule and responsible for its consolidation as a dynastic autocracy that hemercilessly enforced against all attempts of sectarian rebellion (Banå al-Azraq; Banåal-Ash#ath) or claims of rival caliphates (Ibn Zubayr); Abå Ja#far #Abdall§h b.MuÈammad al-Manßår (93–158/712–775) was the second ‘Abbasid caliph who consolidatedthe new dynasty in the new capital city (Baghdad) with equally brutal force