MUSLIMS: DOCTRINESwho lost his hopes for the riyasa of Kinda to Mu!:).ammad ibn al-
Ash'ath, tried unsuccessfully to provoke al-I:Iasan and then al-I:Iusayn
to revolt, led agitation for the payment of stipends at Kufa, and drove
al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, Mu'awiya's governor of Kufa, from the min-
bar by pelting him with pebbles.7^4 After al-I:Iasan died in 669, I:Iujr
led a rising in 670 of about a dozen men in the masjid against 'Amr
ibn I:Iurayth, Ziyad's lieutenant at Kufa, and drove him from the
masjid by throwing gravel at him. I:Iujr is said to have cursed Mu'awiya,
praised Abii Turab ('Ali) , and claimed that 'Ali was blameless and
that the leadership of the community belonged to his family. Ziyad
had them arrested and sent them to Mu'awiya, who executed I:Iujr
and six others when they refused to curse 'Ali.7s I:Iujr is considered
to be a Shi'i martyr, but his own personal interests had at least as
much to do with his opposition to Ziyad and Mu'awiya as did his
loyalty to 'Ali and his family. The fact that his was the only rising in
the name of 'Ali during the reign of Mu'awiya, compared to about
sixteen Khariji risings in the same period, indicates that support for
'Ali at Kufa was quite weak and that it was a relatively insignificant
vehicle to express discontent.
By the end of Mu'awiya's reign the situation had changed. For
reasons which have yet to be explained satisfactorily, during the 670s
the main focus of Kharijl activity shifted to Basra, leaving support for
the family of 'Ali as the main vehicle to express opposition to the
regime at Kufa. When Mu'awiya died in 680, a group of Kufan
notables gathered at the house of Sulayman ibn Surad and sent for
al-I:Iusayn ibn 'Ali. The ashraf and ru'asa' of Kufa who sent letters
to al-I:Iusayn included Shabath ibn Rib'i at-Tamimi, I:Iajjar ibn Abjar
al-'Ijli, Yazid ibn al-I:Iarith, Yazid ibn Ruwayn, 'Urwa ibn Qays,
'Amr ibn al-I:Iajjaj, and Mu!:).ammad ibn 'Umayr at-Tamimi. Ac-
cording to Abii Mikhnaf's account (Ar. qi$$a) of Muslim ibn 'Aqil,
in his reply to the Kufan notables al-I:Iusayn reminded them that they
had said that they had no imam, had asked him to come and promised
to unite and follow him according to guidance and truth (Ar. 'ala 1-
huda wa I-~aqq). He agreed to come if their request was truly sincere.
He told them that the only imam was one who followed the Book (of
God), behaved fairly, judged according to the truth, and devoted him-
self to the affairs of God. In a letter to the notables of Basra in which
74 Ibid., pp. 233-36.
75 Baladhuri, Ansiib, IVa, 224; Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, pp. 236-37; Tabari, Ta'rlkh,
11, 115, 131, 140.