The assault on al-Nasa'i in the mosque of Damascus over the virtues of Mu'awiya, c. Muharram 303/915

الاعتداء على النسائي بمسجد دمشق إبّان سؤاله عن فضائل معاوية، نحو المحرم ٣٠٣هـ

c. July 915 CE · c. Muharram 303 AH

Al-Nasa'i entered Damascus having composed his Khasa'is on the virtues of Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him), hoping God would guide by it those estranged from him, for dissenters from Ali were many there ¹; asked about Mu'awiya and the reports of his virtues, he answered: 'Is he not content to come out head-to-head, without being preferred?' — and in another report: 'I know of no virtue of his save «may God never fill his belly»'; whereupon they kept kicking him in the groin until he was carried out of the mosque, then borne to al-Ramla ² ³.

Depth

At a glance

Era: Abbasid Fragmentation
Region: Levant & Iraq
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In time

Abbasid Fragmentation

In space

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Summary

Al-Nasa'i entered Damascus having composed his Khasa'is on the virtues of Ali ibn Abi Talib, hoping God would guide by it those estranged from him, for dissenters from Ali were many there ¹.

What happened

Asked about Mu'awiya and the reports of his virtues, he answered: 'Is he not content to come out head-to-head, without being preferred?' — and in another report: 'I know of no virtue of his save «may God never fill his belly»'; whereupon they kept kicking him in the groin until he was carried out of the mosque, then borne to al-Ramla ² ³.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant: al-Nasa'i· Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Occurred at: Damascus

People and things also explored

The Death of Habib ibn Maslama at Damascus· Death of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan· Muawiya· the Cave of Qasyun (Jibril's Cave)· Qasr Hiraql / Qasr Shams al-Muluk· The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus· The Fitna of the Hafiz Abd al-Ghani in Damascus in 595· Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform

Sources

Tadhkirat al-huffaz — al-Dhahabi , j.2 p. 618
Tarikh al-Islam wa-Wafayat al-Mashahir wa-l-A'lam — al-Dhahabi , p. 109
Wafayat al-A'yan wa-Anba' Abna' al-Zaman — Ibn Khallikan , i p. 26

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The assault on al-Nasa'i in the mosque of Damascus over the virtues of Mu'awiya, c. Muharram 303/915”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/nasai-beating-damascus-303/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

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The Death of Habib ibn Maslama at Damascus

In al-Baladhuri: when Habib had taken what he took of Armenia's land he wrote of it to Uthman ibn Affan, whose answer reached him with Salman's death reported — Uthman near giving him all Armenia, then judging it better to make him a raider of the Syrian and Jaziran frontier for his worth in such service, and gave Armenia's march to Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman al-Absi, who repaired to Bardha'a posting his agents over what lay between it and Qaliqala and to Khizan, until Uthman's writ came ordering his return and the leaving behind of Sila ibn Zufar al-Absi who was with him — and he left him; Habib marched back to Syria raiding the Romans, camped at Hims, and Mu'awiya moved him to Damascus where he died in year 42, being thirty-five years old; Mu'awiya had earlier sent Habib at the head of an army to Uthman's aid when he was besieged, but at Wadi al-Qura word of Uthman's killing reached him and he turned back.