Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

centred around advancing the merits of ʿAlī I and his virtues, and on claiming
that the Sharʿī Khilāfah has always been the right of ʿAlī. They would further aver
that if it was usurped from him, then the Alawids were his heirs. The Umayyads
were not unaware of this, as is clear from what ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān 1 told his
son ʿUmar one day:
يا بني،‏ إن الذين حولنا لو يعلمون من علي ما نعلم تفرقوا عنا إلى أولده
O my son, if those around us come to know that regarding ʿAlī I which
we know, they would leave us and join the ranks of his sons. 2
Because the motive of the Umayyads was to prevent the people from developing
an inclination toward ʿAlī I so that it not be exploited by his children, they
would choose the times in which people would gather, like the ʿIds and the days of
Ḥajj, to disparage him and revile him. ʿᾹmir ibn ʿAbd Allah 3 would say:
انظروا إلى ما يصنع بنو أمية يخفضون عليا ويغرون بشتمه
Look at what the Umayyads do! They disparage ʿAlī and incite people to
revile him… 4
1 ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Umawī, Abū al-Aṣbagh al-Madanī. Remained the
governor of Egypt for twenty years. He was the first person to mint gold coins during his tenure. He
was appointed to office after ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, but he passed away before him. Ibn Saʿd has
said, ‘He was reliable and narrated a few narrations.” He passed away in 85 A.H. His narration appears
in Sunan Abī Dāwūd. See: Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 36/345; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 18/197; al-Bidāyah wa al-
Nihāyah 8/280; al-Tuḥfah al-Laṭīfah fī Tārīkh al-Madīnah al-Sharīfah 2/188.
2 Al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 4/315.
3 ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām al-Qurashī, Abū al-Ḥārith al-Madanī. A reliable
scholar who an ascetic and highly appreciated. Al-Khalīlī has said regarding him, “All his narrations
can be used as proof.” He passed away in 124 A.H. His narrations appear in the six books. Al-Jarḥ wa
al-Taʿdīl 6/325; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 14/57; al-Kāshif 1/523; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 5/64.
4 Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 13/68.
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