Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Every nation has a highbred and the highbred of the Umayyads is ʿUmar
ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. He will be raised as a nation by himself on the Day of
Judgment. 1
And Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥusayn 2 would say:
لو كان بقي لنا عمر بن عبد العزيز ما احتجنا بعده إلى أحد
If ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz remained for us we would not need anyone after
him. 3
2. The Role of the Governors
The doings of the Umayyad governors was a reflection of the political tactics
of the Khulafāʾ in Damascus and their fears. They were, overall, unique in their
harshness, iron grip and excessive transgression. Especially in specific periods
and specific locations which witnessed a fair amount of upheaval and unrest. 4
These people had made the tasks assigned to them their ultimate goal. Hence
they deployed all such measures which they thought would secure stability for
the Umayyads against their opponents, amongst who were the Alawids. One such
measure was obliterating the mention of ʿAlī I and his merits, and ultimately
1 Ḥilyah al-Awliyāʾ 5/254; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 21/439; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 5/120; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb
7/419.
2 Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Hāshimiyyah. A reliable successor. She was amongst
those who were sent to Damascus after the martyrdom of her father. She was the sister of ʿAlī Zayn
al-ʿᾹbidīn. She passed away after 110 A.H. at the age of ninety. Her narrations appear in the Sunans of
Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah. See: Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 70/10; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl
35/254; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 6/81; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 12/469.
3 Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 45/196; al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 4/330.
4 ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz had alluded to this in his statement, “Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik in Shām, Ḥajjāj
ibn Yūsuf in Iraq, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf in Yemen, ʿUthmān ibn Ḥayyān in Madīnah, and Qurrah ibn
Sharīk in Egypt! By Allah the earth has been filled with oppression.” See: Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq
38/343; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 19/361.
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