Ibrahim b. Malik al-Ashtar: Difference between revisions

Abu al-Nu’man Ibrahim b. Malik Ashtar Nakha’i (killed 72 AH/ 691 CE) was son of Malik Ashtar who made an uprising against Umayyads in support of Mukhtar b. Abu ‘Ubayd Thaqafi and take revenge for the blood of Imam al-Husayn (a).

There is no information about the life of Ibrahim before joining Mukhtar, except that he said that in the battle of Siffin, he fought together with his father in the army of Imam Ali (a) against Mu’awiya. After Mukhtar was killed, he joined Mus’ab b. Zubayr and was killed in the battles with the forces of ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan in 72 AH.

He was appointed by Mukhtar and Mus’ab as the governor of Mosul and its surrounding cities in different periods.

There is no information about the life of Ibrahim before joining Mukhtar, except that he said that in the battle of Siffin, he fought together with his father in the army of Imam Ali (a) against Mu’awiya.

== Joining the Uprising of Mukhtar Thaqafi ==

In 66 AH/ 685 CE, Mukhtar Thaqafi who considered himself the representative of Muhammad b. Hanafiyya, prepared the grounds for an uprising against Umayyads to take revenge for the martyrs of Karbala. At that time, some of the Shia of Kufa who supported Mukhtar, called Ibrahim to the uprising, because of his powerful personality and the memories they had from his father’s loyalty toward Imam Ali (a). Ibrahim accepted their request providing that they choose him as a commander, but Shia reminded him that Mukhtar Thaqafi was chosen as a commander by Ibn Hanifa. Shortly afterwards, Mukhtar himself went to Ibrahim and gave him a letter he claimed that Ibn Hanifa had written to Ibrahim. In that letter, Ibrahim was asked to help Mukhtar in his uprising against Umayyads.

At the beginning, Ibrahim doubted about the attribution of the letter to Ibn Hanifa because of a point in writing the letter, but since people such as Yazid b. Anas Asadi, Ahmar b. Shumayt Bajali and ‘Abd Allah b. Kamil Shakiri testified that they themselves saw that Muhammad b. Hanifa wrote that letter to Ibrahim, he accepted the call to the uprising and gave allegiance to Mukhtar.

Sha’bi, who was involved in joining of Ibrahim to Mukhtar and most historians have narrated the mentioned event from him, himself has doubted about the letter of Muhammad b. Hanafiyya to Ibrahim. After a lot of researches, he heard from Abu ‘Umra Kaysan, one of the witnesses of the authenticity of the attribution of the letter, that since they regarded Mukhtar trustworthy, trusted his speech about writing of the letter by Muhammad b. Hanifa.

Ibrahim and Mukhtar agreed to initiate their uprising in Kufa in the first half of Rabi’ al-Awwal 66 AH/685 CE, but they later postponed the beginning of uprising to the first Thursday after the first half of the same month.

Meanwhile, frequent going and coming of Ibrahim to Mukhtar made ‘Abd Allah b. Muti’ who was appointed governor of Kufa by ‘Abd Allah b. Zubayr suspicious and when he became aware of the plan of uprising, asked Ayas b. Mudarib, the chief of Kufa police to control the situation and he himself appointed some people on guard certain critical places of the city. On Wednesday, one day before the rendezvous, Ibrahim was going to the house of Mukhtar with a great number of his companions when they encountered Ayas b. Mudarib and his forces. A fight took place between the two groups and Ibrahim killed Ayas and soon the uprising began.

In the battles which took place between the forces of Mukhtar and Ibrahim and the forces of Ibn Muti’, he retreated to his palace and was besieged by Ibrahim. After some days, he escaped and his soldiers joined Mukhtar.

Most of the supporters of Ibrahim and Mukhtar were freed slaves who fought with wooden clubs, thus were humorously called Khashabiyya. Some called them mistakenly “Husayniyya” and considered them only supporters of Ibrahim, because at the time of the uprising, they shouted “Ya la-tharat al-Husayn (a)” [O Avengers of Husayn (a)]; but, Ibn Rasta and Ibn Qutayba regarded Khashabiyya among the solders of Ibrahim who fought with ‘Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad with wooden sticks.

After this battle, Mukhtar settled in Kufa and tried to take control of other cities of Iraq and fight with Umayyads and the murderers Imam al-Husayn (a). However, when he appointed Ibrahim to rule in Mosul and sent him to fight with ‘Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad who was sent to Iraq by ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (Dhu al-Hijjah 66 AH/ July 686 CE), some people of Kufa who apparently considered Mukhtar a priest, revolted against him. He immediately sent someone to call Ibrahim. Ibrahim quickly came back from Mada’in and together with Mukhtar suppressed the revolt during a series of battles.

== Battle with ‘Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad ==

After suppressing the revolt, Ibrahim exited Kufa to fight with Ibn Ziyad on 6th, 8th or 21st of Dhu al-Hijja with 8 to 20 thousand men most of whom were Iranian freed slaves known as al-Hamra’. On Muharram 10th, 61 AH (August, 6th, 686 CE), a battle took place between the two armies at the bank of Khazir river near Zab, 5 Farsakhs away from Mosul. According to Biladhuri, the left wing of Ibrahim’s army was defeated at the beginning of the battle and maybe due to that, the news of Ibn Ashtar’s death was spread so that Mukhtar would leave Kufa, but the soldiers of Ibrahim pushed back the army of ‘Ubayd Allah and heavily defeated them. In that battle, Ibrahim killed ‘Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, Husayn b. Numayr and Shurahbil b. Dhi al-Kila’ who was among the murderers of Imam al-Husayn (a) by his own hands and it is said that he burned their bodies.

== Presence in the Battle of Mus’ab ==

After his victory in the battle of Khazir, Ibrahim went to Mosul and sent some of his companions including his step-brother ‘Abd al-Rahman to capture and rule the cities of Nasibayn, Harran, al-Raha, Sumaysat and Sanjar. Ibrahim was still in Mosul when Mus’ab b. Zubayr attacked Kufa following the provocation of the rebels who had survived the attacks of Ibrahim b. Ashtar and Mukhtar and had joined him and killed Mukhtar in the battle (Ramadan 67 AH/ April 687 CE). He then asked Ibrahim to obey ‘Abd Allah b. Zubayr. According to Ibn Athir, also ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan had called Ibrahim to obey him, but Ibrahim was afraid of joining ‘Abd al-Malik since he had killed ‘Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad and some other chiefs of Sham in the battle with Umayyads and thus accepted the request of Mus’ab.

Mus’ab took back the government of Mosul, Jazira, Azerbaijan and Armenia from Ibrahim and sent him to the battle of Azariqa and appointed Mahlab b. Abi Safra in his place; but, later dismissed him and sent him to the battle of Azariqa and reappointed Ibrahim to ruling of those regions. Apparently, Ibrahim remained in his position until ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan attacked Iraq. Mus’ab b. Zubayr wanted to stand against him, so, he appointed Ibrahim as the commander of his army and went to Jumayri near Awana.

‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan who wanted to persuade the commanders of Kufa and Basra, wrote a letter to Ibrahim, and promised to give Ibrahim the government of Iraq, and as one report says, all the lands around Euphrates. But Ibrahim, not only took that letter to Mus’ab and rejected ‘aBd al-Malik’s request, but since he guessed that ‘Abd al-Malik had deceived other rulers of Iraq with similar promises, he also tried to make Mus’ab arrest or exile them to Mecca, but Mus’ab did not accept that and moved toward ‘Abd al-Malik and camped in Dayr al-Jathliq in Maskin.

In a battle which took place between Ibrahim b. Ashtar and Muhammad b. Marwan, one day before the major battle between ‘Abd al-Malik and Mus’ab, despite his great courage, was defeated because of betrayal of ‘Attab b. Warqa’ Tamimi who apparently had retreated due to a previous plot made by ‘Abd al-Malik and Ibrahim was killed. Then, ‘Ubayd b. Maysara, a freed slave of Bani ‘Udhra, who had killed Ibrahim, took his head the slaves of Husayn b. Numayr, who was killed by Ibrahim in the battle of Khazir, burned his body.

Historians have different opinions about the murder of Ibrahim. Although Ibn Athir and Tabari have mentioned it in 71 AH/ 690 Ce; most historians have considered 72 AH/ 691 CE and most likely Jumadi al-Akhir/ November as the correct date of the mentioned event.

After Ibrahim was killed, some poets composed elegies for him. Abu al-Faraj Isfahani has attributed some verses to Ibrahim himself. Also, Ibn Hajar ‘Asqalani quoted from Ibn Habban who considered Ibrahim among trustable transmitters of hadiths who transmitted hadiths from his father and ‘Umar and people such as his son, Malik and also Mujahid narrated hadiths from him.

The grave of Ibrahim b. Malik is located in the south of Dujayl, 8 farsakhs from Samara, near the old route of Baghdad to Samara and has been a place Shia visit. This grave was demolished in explosion by terrorist groups in 2005.

Another grave in ‘Askar island of Bahrain is attributed to Ibrahim b. Malik, which might be the grave of one of his descendants.