Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

of them were compelled to go undercover. 1 Even many of the prominent Alawid
members, like Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, Mūsā al-Kāẓim 2 and others 3 were not spared from
harassment.
The most brutal thing that al-Manṣūr probably did was that when he arrested one
of their revolutionists he ordered that a pillar be hallowed, and the individual be
placed in it thereafter. Hence it was sealed upon him whilst he was alive. He was
the first person to die from those imprisoned from the children of Ḥasan I. 4
What also explains his immense fear and great caution is that he lashed and
imprisoned Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh 5 and thereafter killed him. He was the
uncle of two Alawids who revolted against him. He killed him merely due to the
fear the he would attract the affinity of the people of Shām in order to support
them, whereas the murdered man had not denounced his allegiance. 6
1 Al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Muḥriqah 2/524.
2 Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Hāshimī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-ʿAlawī (accorded the title al-
Kāẓim). He was an ascetic who was generous and forbearant and was a man of prominence. He was
born in 128 A.H. He is considered the seventh Imām of the Imāmiyyah. Al-Rashīd persuaded him to
accompany him to Baghdād. He thereafter imprisoned him and eventually he passed away in prison
in 183 A.H. His narrations appear in the Sunans of al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah. See: Tārīkh Baghdād
13/27; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 6/270; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 10/302; Shadharāt al-Dhahab 1/304.
3 Al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 5/320; al-Muntaẓam 9/88; Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 4/57; al-Kāshif 2/303;
al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/183; Simṭ al-Nujūm al-ʿAwālī 3/360.
4 Al-Muntaẓam 8/48; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 6/214.
5 Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān al-Umawī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Madanī.
A notable who was generous and a man of chivalry. He was accorded the title al-Dībāj (silk) due to
his handsomeness. Imām al-Nasāʾī has made conflicting remarks regarding him, he has deemed him
reliable and deemed not very strong. Ibn Ḥibbān has enlisted him in his al-Thiqāt. He was killed in 145
A.H. His narrations appear in Sunan Ibn Mājah. See: al-Thiqāt 7/417; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 25/516; al-Mughnī
fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ 2/597; al-Tuḥfah al-Laṭīfah 2/498.
6 Al-Muntaẓam 8/48; al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 5/145; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 6/213; Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn 3/238.
The details thereof is that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUthmānī was the uterine brother of ʿAbd
Allāh al-Maḥḍ (both of them were the sons of Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥusayn). And ʿAbd Allāh was the father
of Muḥammad and Ibrāhīm who revolted against al-Manṣūr. See: Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 4/415; al-Kāmil fī
al-Tārīkh 5/143.
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