RELIGI0U:S COMMUNITIESthe procedure is given in the account of the burial of 'Abdullah ibn
al-Mughaffal (d. 678-79) in Basra. This account was probably in-
tended to be exemplary because several of the Companions of Mu-
l,tammad who were living in Basra acted as undertakers. On this oc-
casion they only rolled up the sleeves of their tunics and tucked the
ends in their waistbands, and after washing him they only performed
the ritual ablution (Ar. wucjui.^91 After the body had been washed, it
was enshrouded. Someone usually prayed over it, as was the custom
at Makka in the time of Mul,tammad, and repeated the formula "God
is most great" (Ar. Allahu akbar).92
While the body was being prepared for burial, the women in the
household performed the ancient custom of formal wailing or lam-
entation for the dead,93 a custom which was also practiced at Makka
in the time of Mul,tammad.^94 It was adapted to express the feelings of
supporters of the family of 'An after the tragic death of al-I:lusayn
ibn 'An at Karbala in 680, when "the women of Kufa went out crying
and weeping," although this was probably no more than the usual
lamentation for the dead.^95 There seems to have been a change by
683, however, when the men of the tribe of Hamdan, girded with
swords, surrounded the minbar of the masjid in Kufa to voice their
objection to the choice of 'Amr ibn Sa'id as leader of the people at
Kufa after the death of Yazid I, while their women wept for al-I:lu-
sayn.^96 The next year, when Sulayman ibn ~urad led a rising at Kufa
and sought vengeance for al-I:lusayn, one of the first acts performed
by him and his followers was to weep over the grave of al-l:lusayn.^97
When a body had been prepared for burial, it was carried from the
house to the cemetery in a funeral procession. This custom, too, was
as old as civilization in Mesopotamia, and the Muslim Arabs were
introduced to it by local Christians and Jews. However, in ~he sixth
and early seventh centuries, Syrian Christians introduced the practice
of walking slowly, following the corpse with candles and incense. This
is first mentioned in Iraq at the death of Khusraw Aniishirvan in 579.
The people whom he had taken capitve at Antioch in Syria and resettled
at New Antioch assembled and honored his corpse according to Chris-
91 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, VII(l), 7-8, 129, 150.
92 Ibid., VI, 46; VII(l), 11, 16; Qur'an, 9:84; Ya'qiibI, Ta'rlkh, 11, 252.
93 Horovitz, "'Adi Ibn Zeyd," p. 46; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, VI, 68, 69, 204.
94 M. J. Kister, "On the Papyrus of Wahb ibn Munabbih," BSOAS 37 (1974), 554.
95 Ya'qiibI, Ta'rlkh, 11, 291.
96 TabarI, Ta'rlkh, 11, 459.
97Ibid, 11, 538, 546.