About important events in Basra

O Ahnaf! It is as though I see him advancing with an army which has neither dust nor noise, nor rustling of reins, nor neighing of horses. They are trampling the ground with their feet as if they are the feet of ostriches.

Sayyid ar-Radhi says the following: Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) pointed to the Chief of the Blackes, (Sahibu’z-Zanj).1 Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) said,

Woe to you (the people of Basra’s) inhabited streets and decorated houses which possess wings like the wings of vultures and trunks like the trunks of elephants. They are the people from among whom if one is killed he is not mourned and if one is lost he is not searched for. I turn this world over on its face, value it only according to its (low) value, and look at it with an eye suitable to it.

A portion of the same sermon:

Referring to the Turks (Mongols)

I² can see a people whose faces are like shields covered with roughly-scraped skins. They dress themselves in silken and woolen clothes and hold dear excellent horses. Their killing and bloodshed shall take place freely till the wounded shall walk over the dead and the number of runners-away shall be less than those taken prisoner.

One of his companions said to him, A O Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S), you have been given knowledge of hidden things. Whereupon Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) laughed and said to the man who belonged to the tribe of Banu Kalb,

A O brother of Kalb! This is not knowledge of hidden things ( A ilmul-ghayb),³ these matters have been acquired from him (namely in Prophet (P.B.U.H. and His Household)  ) who knew them. As regard knowledge of hidden things, that means knowledge of the Day of Judgment, and the things covered by Allah in the verse;

Verily, Allah is He with Whom is the knowledge of the Hour. (Holy Qur’an, 31:34)

Therefore, Allah alone knows what is there in the wombs, whether male or female, ugly or handsome, generous or miserly, mischievous or pious, and who will be the fuel for Hell and who will be in the company of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. and His Household)  s in Paradise. This is the knowledge of the hidden things which is not known to anyone save Allah. All else is that whose knowledge Allah passed on to His Prophet (P.B.U.H. and His Household)  and he passed it on to me, and prayed for me that my bosom may retain it and my ribs may hold it.

1. Ali ibn Muhammed was born in the village of Warzanin in the suburbs of Ray, and belonged to the Azariqah sect of the Kharijites. He claimed to be a Sayyid (descendant of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H. and His Household)  ) by showing himself the son of Muhammed ibn Ahmed al-Mukhtafi ibn A Isa ibn Zayd ibn Ali ibn al-Husain ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib, but the experts on genealogy, as well as biographers, have all rejected his claim to being a Sayyid and have given his father’s name as Muhammed ibn A Abd ar-Rahim instead of Muhammed ibn Ahmed. The former was from the tribe of A Abdul-Qays and had been born of a Sindi maid-slave.

Ali ibn Muhammed (P.B.U.H. and His Holy Household) rose as an insurgent in 255 A.H. in thereign of al-Muhtadi Billah and associated with him the people from the suburbs of Basra on promise of money, wealth and freedom. He entered Basra on the 17th Shawwal, 255 A.H. killing and looting, and in only two days he put to death thirty thousand individuals, men, women and children, and displayed extreme opposition, bloodshed, savageness and ferocity. He dismantled houses, burnt mosques, and after continuous killing and devastation for fourteen years, was killed in the month of Safar, 270 A.H. in thereign of Muwaffaq Billah. Then people got rid of his devastating deeds.

Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib’s prophecy is one of those prophecies which throw light on his knowledge of the unknown. The details of his army given by Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) namely that there would be neither the neighing of horses nor the rustling of weapons therein is a historical fact. The historian al-Tabari has written that when this man reached near al-Karkh (a sector of Baghdah) with the intention of instruction, the people of that place welcomed him, and a man presented him a horse for which no rein could be found despite a search. At last he rode it using a rope for therein. Similarly there were at that time only three swords in his force-one with himself, one with Ali ibn Aban al-Muhallabi, and one with Muhammed ibn Salm but later they collected some more weapons by marauding.

2. This prophecy of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) is about the attack of the Tartars (Mongols) who were inhabitants of the Mongolian desert in the north west of Turkey. These semi-savage tribes lived by marauding, killing and devastating. They used to fight among themselves and attack neighboring areas. Each tribe had a separate chief who was deemed responsible for their protection. Chingiz Khan (Temujin) who was one of the ruling chiefs of these tribes and was very brave and courageous had risen to organize all their divided tribes into one, and, despite their opposition he succeeded in overpowering them through his might and sagacity. Collecting a large number under his banner he rose in 606 A.H. like a torrent and went on dominating cities and ruining populations till he conquered the area up to North China.

When his authority was established he offered his terms of settlement to A Ala’ud-Din Khwarazm Shah, ruler of the neighboring country of Turkey, and through a deputation concluded an agreement with him that Tartar traders would be allowed to visit his country for trade and their life and property would not be subject to any harm. For some time they traded freely without fear but on one occasion A Ala’ud-Din accused them of spying, seized their goods and had them killed by the Chief of Atrar. When Chingiz Khan learned of the breach of the agreement and the killing of Tartar merchants his eyes cast forth flames and he began trembling with rage. He sent word to A Ala’ud-Din to return the goods of the Tartar merchants and to hand over to him the ruler of Atrar. A Ala’d-Din, who was mad with power and authority, did not pay any heed, and acting short-sightedly killed even the plenipotentiary of Jenkiz Khan. Now Chinzing Khan lost all patience and his eyes filled with blood. He rose with his sword in hand, and the Tartar warriors leapt towards Bukhara on their speedy stallions. A Ala’ud-Din came out with four hundred thousand combatants to face him but could not resist the incessant assaults of the Tartars, and having been vanquished only after a few attacks ran away to Nishabur across the river Jaxartes (Sihun). The Tartars smashed Bukhara and razed it to the ground. They pulled down schools and mosques, burning the houses to ashes and killing men and women without distinction. The next year they assaulted Samarqand and devastated it completely. After the fight of A Ala’ud-Din, his son Jalalu’d-Din Khwarazm Shah had assumed thereins of government. The Tartars chased him also, and for ten years he fled from one place to the other but did not fall in their hands. At last he crossed over the river out of the boundaries of his realm. During this time the Tartars did their utmost to ruin populated lands and to annihilate humanity. No city escaped their ruining and no populace could avoid their trampling. Wherever they went they upset the kingdom, overthrown governments, and in a short time established their authority over the northern portion of Asia.

When Chingiz Khan died in 622 A.H. his own son Ogedei Khan succeeded him. He searched out Jalalu’d-Din in 628 A.H. and killed him. After him Mongka Khan, the son of the other son of Chingiz Khan, occupied the throne. After Mongka Khan, Qubilai Khan succeeded to a part of the country and the control of Asia fell to the share of his brother Hulagu Khan. On the division of the whole realm among the grandsons of Chingiz Khan, Hulagu Khan was thinking of conquering Muslims area when the Hanafite of Khurasan in enmity with the Shafi’ite invited him to attack Khurasan. He therefore led an assault on Khurasan, and the Hanafite, thinking themselves to be safe from the Tartars, opened the city gates for them. But the Tartars did not make any distinction between Hanafite and Shafi’ite and killed whoever fell to their hands. After killing most of its population they took it in occupation. These very differences between the Hanafite and the Shafi’ite opened for him the door of conquest up to Iraq. Consequently, after conquering Khurasan his courage increased and in 656 A.H. he marched on Baghdad with two hundred thousand Tartars, al-Musta’sim Billah’s army and the people of Baghdad jointly faced them, but it was not in their power to stop this torrent of calamity. The result was that the Tartars entered Baghdad on the day of A Ashura’ carrying with them bloodshed and ruin. They remained busy in killing for forty days. Rivers of blood flowed in the streets and all the alleys were filled with dead bodies. Hundred of thousands of people were put to the sword while al-Musta’sim Billah was trampled to death under foot. Only those people who hid themselves in wells or underground places and hid from their sight could survive. This was the devastation of Baghdad which shook of A Abbasid Kingdom to its foundation, so that its flag could never fly thereafter.

Some historians have laid the blame of this ruin on ibn al- A Alqami (Abu Talib, Muhammed ibn Ahmed al-Baghdadi), the minister of al-Musta’sim Billah, by holding that, moved by the general masses of the Shi’as and the ruin of al-Karkh sector (of Baghdad), he invited Hulagu Khan through thelatter’s minister, the great scholar Nasir’d-Din Muhammed ibn Muhammed at-Tusi, to march on Baghdad. Even if it be so, it is not possible to ignore the historical fact that before this the A Abbasid Caliph an-Nasir Lidini’llah had initiated the move for the attack on the Muslim areas. When the Khwarazm Shahs declined to acknowledge the authority of the Caliphate he had sent word to Chingiz Khan to march on Khwarazm, from which the Tartars had understood that there was no unity and cooperation among the Muslims. Thereafter the Hanafite had sent for Hulagu Khan to crush the Shafi’ite as a consequence of which the Tartars secured control over Khurasan, and prepared the way to march towards Baghdad. In these circumstances to hold only ibn al- A Alqami responsible for the ruination of Baghdad and to ignore the move of an-Nasir Lidini’llah and the dispute between the Hanafite and the Shafi’ite would be covering up the facts, when in fact the cause for the ruin of Baghdad was this very conquest of Khurasan, whose real movers were the Hanafite inhabitants of the place. It was by this conquest that Hulagu Khan had the courage to march on the center of Islam. Otherwise it cannot have been theresult of a single individual’s message that he assaulted an old capital like Baghdad, the awe of whose power and grandeur was seated in the hearts of a large part of the world.

3. To know hidden things on a personal level is one thing, while to be gifted by Allah with knowledge of any matter and to convey it to others is different. The knowledge of the future which the prophets and vicegerents possess is gained by them through Allah’s teaching and informing. Allah alone has knowledge of events which are to happen in the future. Of course, He passes this knowledge on to whoever He wills. Thus He says the following:

(He alone is) the A Knower of the unseen, neither doth He reveal His secrets unto any (one else) save unto that one of the Messengers whom He chooses.( Holy Qur’an, 72:26-27)

In this way Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) also received knowledge of the future through the instructions of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. and His Household)  or inspiration from Allah, for which these words of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (A.S) stand evidence. Of course, sometimes it is not proper or expedient to disclose certain matters and they are allowed to remain under a veil. Then no one can be acquainted with them as Allah says,

Verily, Allah is He with Whom is the knowledge of the Hour and He sendeth down the rain, and knoweth He what is in the wombs; and knoweth not any soul what he shall earn the morrow, and knoweth not any soul in what lands he shall die: Verily Allah is All-knowing, All-aware. (Holy Qur’an, 31:34)