Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

On the other hand, in Iraq as well there were people who inherited hatred for
ʿAlī I from their fathers. 1 However, it was not as widespread as it was in Syria.
The reason being that the Syrians remained united under both the banners of the
Umayyads, i.e. the Sufyānī and the Marwānī banners, whereas the people of Iraq
were divided by conflict and disparity.
The Seventh Cause: The Effects of the Quṣāṣ (story tellers)
Quṣāṣ refers to people who would enact gatherings in the Masjids to advise the
scores of people who frequented them. Hence they would motivate, warn, and
instil enthusiasm in the hearts of people, mimicking the circles of knowledge
by doing so. But many a time they would rely upon fabricated narrations, Isrāʾīlī
reports, and eerie incidents and dreams 2 without differentiating between what
is well-established and what not, or resorting to reason in trying to separate
between that which is logically reasonable and which is not.
The phenomenon which probably made them the most effective was that they were
some of the few sources of knowledge, at times the only sources of information,
for the commoners of the time. Furthermore deploying the appealing narrative
style would draw the people to them, especially the laity. Hence:
ومن شأن العوام مالزمة القصاص ما دام يأتي بالعجائب الخارجة عن نظر العقول
The laity are such that they will latch onto the tale teller as long as he
produces strange stories which are beyond the comprehension of the
minds. 3
Likewise:
1 Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 2/204.
2 Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 3/457; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 12/29; Dirāsāt fī al-Ahwāʾ wa al-Firaq wa al-Bidaʿ p.
239.
3 Lisān al-Mīzān 1/13.
173