al-Aswad al-Ansi

Overview

Abhala ibn Ka'b, nicknamed al-Aswad al-Ansi and "Dhu al-Khimar" — a Yemeni soothsayer who claimed prophethood, ruled San'a' and most of Yemen for a few weeks, then was killed by those who had first served him.

Life

Al-Aswad rose late in the Prophet ﷺ's life claiming revelation; he drove the Prophet's agents out of Yemen and took San'a' and what lay under it — the first seeds of the Ridda and the closest to the Prophet's death ¹.

Then the Persian Abna' of Yemen agreed with his household and his emissaries against him; Fayruz al-Daylami and his people came upon him by night and killed him — the account places his death nights before the Prophet's death ¹ ².

Significance

He ruled Yemen for weeks and left neither religion nor state — a fair example of how Ridda movements flared and died out in proportion to the leader who gathered around him, not to their creed.

For young visitors

A man ruled Yemen a few weeks claiming prophethood — then those nearest to him came and killed him in the night.

The Killing of al-Aswad al-Ansi

In al-Baladhuri: al-Aswad ibn Ka'b ibn Awf al-Ansi soothsaid and claimed prophecy, Ans and others followed him, and he styled himself Rahman of Yemen as Musaylima styled himself Rahman of al-Yamama; he had a trained donkey which would kneel and prostrate at his command whence he was called Dhu al-Mar — others say Dhu al-Khimar for being ever veiled and turbaned, and some Yemenis told al-Baladhuri his face was black, hence al-Aswad, his name being Ayhala; the Prophet sent Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajali to him in the year of his death calling him to Islam — some transmitters deny the mission — and he came to San'a, took it and expelled the Prophet's agent Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As (al-Nu'man ibn Yazid of the Abna' says Aban ibn Sa'id), who withdrew toward Ziyad ibn Labid; he humiliated the Abna' — the sons of the Persians whom Kisra had sent to Yemen with Ibn Dhi Yazan under Wahriz — used them as labour and wronged them, and married the Marzbana, Badham their king's widow; the Prophet sent Qays ibn Hubayra al-Makshuh al-Muradi — so called for a cautery on his waist from an ailment — ordering him to win over the Abna', and sent with him Farwa ibn Musayk al-Muradi; reaching Yemen as the Prophet's death was reported, Qays feigned accord with al-Aswad until he entered San'a with a company of Madhhij, Hamdan and others, then won over Fayruz ibn al-Daylami of the Abna', who had embraced Islam, and the two came to Badham, chief of the Abna' — some say Badham was already dead and a successor named Dadhawayh converted and met Qays and won him over, spreading his missionaries among the Abna' until they converted; so they all agreed to kill and assassinate al-Aswad, and secretly informed his wife the Marzbana who, hating him, showed them a water-channel into his house — some say they pierced a hole in the wall of his chamber of vinegar — and entered on him at dawn while he lay drunk asleep, and Qays slaughtered him, his bellowing like a bull's startling the guards who asked 'what ails the Rahman of Yemen?' — his wife answered 'revelation descends on him' and they calmed; Qays cut off his head, stood on the city wall at dawn, magnified God and testified that al-Aswad was a liar and God's enemy, and when his followers gathered he cast the head to them and they scattered save a few, the sword falling on the remnant until none escaped but those who embraced Islam; some transmitters say Fayruz ibn al-Daylami killed him with Qays only striking off the head, and when Qays and Fayruz both claimed the killing in Medina Umar said 'this lion killed him' meaning Fayruz; some scholars date the killing five days before the Prophet's death — the Prophet saying in his illness 'God has killed al-Aswad al-Ansi; the righteous man Fayruz ibn al-Daylami killed him' — with the report reaching Abu Bakr ten nights into his caliphate; Qays was then accused of killing Dadhawayh and it reached Abu Bakr that he meant to expel the Abna' from San'a, which angered him, so he wrote to al-Muhajir his agent there to bring him, made him swear fifty oaths at the Prophet's minbar that he had not killed Dadhawayh, then released him and sent him to Syria.

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The Killing of al-Aswad al-Ansi