Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī 1 has alluded to this reality when he sent his
campaigners to the various cities saying:
أما الكوفة وسوادها فهناك شيعة علي وأولده،‏ والبصرة وسوادها فعثمانية
As for Kūfah and its people, there lives the partisans of ʿAlī and his children.
And as for Baṣrah, there are the partisans of ʿUthmān I. 2
Actually, mere affiliation to Baṣrah was considered a sign of being free
from Shīʿism. Hence it was one of the proofs Abū al-ʿAynāʾ3 had used before
the Khalīfah al-Mutawakkil 4 when he said to him, “It has reached me that
you are a Rāfiḍī,” to which he replied by saying:
يا أمير المؤمنين،‏ وكيف أكون رافضيا وبلدي البصرة
1 Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Hāshimī. The father of the Abbasids, the first
person to raise the slogan of the Abbasid dynasty, and the first person on whose hands people were
invited tp pledge allegiance. This was in 89 A.H. during the Khilāfah of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. It is
said that he was only fourteen years younger than his father and resembled him the most. He passed
away in 125 A.H. See: Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 4/215; al-Muntaẓam 7/244; al-ʿIbar fī Khabar man Ghabar 1/160;
al-Zarkalī: al-Aʿlām 6/271.
2 Al-Muntaẓam 7/56; Muʿjam al-Buldān 2/352.
3 Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn Khallād al-Baṣrī, Abū al-ʿAynāʾ al-Ḍarīr. A linguist and a historian. He
was born in Ahwāz and grew up in Baṣrah. In Baṣrah he studied ḥadīth and literature. He was the most
intelligent of people, the most eloquent and a person with the most retentive memory. He earned
acclaimed due to the interesting tales which were narrated from him, just as he became popular for
his silencing answers. He died in 283 A.H. after having reached ninety. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 3/17; Siyar
Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 13/309; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 11/73; Shadharāt al-Dhahab 2/180.
4 Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtaṣim ibn al-Rashīd al-Hāshimī, Abū al-Faḍl al-Mutawakkil. The Abbasid Khalīfah
who was born in 205 A.H. He was acknowledged as the Khalīfah after his brother al-Wāthiq in 232.
After assuming power he proclaimed the Sunnah and it was discussed in his gathering. He wrote to
all the places that the inquisition be eliminated and he spread the Sunnah and revered its people. He
was loved by his subjects. He was killed on Wednesday night on the fourth of Shawwāl in 247 A.H. in
al-Mutawakkliyyah. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 7/165; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 12/30; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah
10/349; Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ p. 346.
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