Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

• Iraq
Iraq was the epicentre of events that unfolded after the martyrdom of
ʿUthmān I. Hence lots of disputes ensued between its people. And
upon its lands were where the Shīʿah and the Khawārij born.
Iraq was not really different from Shām in terms of the causes which led to
the inception of Naṣb. Yes with the exception of the direct influence of the
Umayyad rulers. As for their governors, they were keener on consolidating
the rule of the Umayyads there and doing away with their enemies. They
would do so at times by vilifying ʿAlī I upon the pulpits 1 and at times
by tracking down his partisans. 2
The staunchest of the governors and those who were most steeped in Naṣb
were the ones who governed over Iraq, the likes of Ziyād ibn Abīhi, his son
ʿUbayd Allah, Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, and Khālid al-Qasrī.
As for the common factors, they are the following:
1.
2.
The various wars, as has been alluded to by Limāzah ibn Zabbār
al-Baṣrī. 3
Inheritance, although much less than what it was like in Shām
due to Naṣb relatively being less in Iraq. Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār 4 has
stated the following in the biography of Sāmah ibn Luʾay:
1 Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 3/170; al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 3/278; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 9/327.
2 Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 3/495.
3 Tārīkh Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ p. 186; Tārīkh Dimashq 50/306; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 24/251; Tārīkh al-Islām 6/538.
4 Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurashī al-Zubayrī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Madanī. The judge
of Makkah, a historian and a genealogist. He was born in 172 A.H. al-Dāraquṭnī has deemed him
reliable and al-Khaṭīb has praised him. Some people have without evidence criticised him. He passed
away in 256 A.H. His narrations appear in Sunan al-Tirmidhī. Some of his books are: Ansāb Quraysh wa
Akhbāruhā, Akhbār al-ʿArab wa Ayyāmuhā, Wufūd al-Nuʿmān ʿalā Kisrā. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 8/467; Siyar
Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 12/311; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 11/24; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 3/269.
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