Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

ʿAlī were one due to them both being Hashimids. Hence the affliction of one was
the affliction of the other. In the following poem he describes what he had done
to the Umayyads:
تناولت ثأري من أمية عنوة
وألقيت ذل من مفارق هاشم
وحزت تراثي اليوم عن سلفي قسرا
وألبستها عزا وأعليتها قدرا
I forcefully took my revenge from the Umayyads, and I forcefully attained
my legacy today from those who preceded me.
I done away with humility from the foreheads of the Hashimids and I
adorned them with pride and I elevated them in rank. 1
His uncle, Dāwūd 2 , who delivered a sermon after him in Kūfah, had expressed
similar sentiments. He said:
إنما أخرجتنا النفة من انتزاع حقنا،‏ والغضب لبني عمنا
Our indignation over the usurpation of our right and our anger for our
cousins is what propelled us to come out to the fore. 3
This is despite the fact that the Abbasids had not suffered any harassment at the
hands of the Umayyads.
Thirdly, the harshness which he displayed and the bloodbath that he brought
about against the various groups who rebelled against him, in fact even with the
1 Al-Wāfī bi al-Wafayāt 17/232; Fawāt al-Wafayāt 1/567.
2 Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās al-Hāshimī, Abū Sulaymān al-Shāmī. The governor of
Makkah and Madīnah. He was eloquent and profound in oratory. Al-Saffāḥ had appointed him as
the governor of Kūfah at first. Thereafter he sent him to Makkah and Madīnah and appointed him
as governor there. He performed the Ḥajj with the people, the first Ḥajj under the Abbasid rule. He
also killed all the Umayyads in the two cities. He did not live for long for he passed away in 133 A.H.
His narrations appear in Sunan al-Tirmidhī and al-Adab al-Mufrad of al-Bukhārī. See: Tārīkh Madīnah
Dimashq 17/156; al-Muntaẓam 7/322; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 3/168; al-Tuḥfah al-Laṭīfah 1/328.
3 Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 4/347; al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 5/67; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/41.
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