When exactly was al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a) killed? Is there a view that he was killed on the ninth day, on the basis of which some dedicate the ninth day to al-ʿAbbas, or was he killed together with Imam al-Husayn (a) at exactly the same time, as is reported from al-Shaykh al-Mufid in al-Irshad and ʿAllama al-Majlisi in al-Bihar?
In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
And blessings and peace be upon the noblest of creation, our master Muhammad, and his pure Household,
The most well-known position in the martyrdom chronicles, and the one upon which the practice of the Shiʿi scholars rests, is that al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a) was killed, like the rest of the martyrs, on the tenth day of Muharram, and that his martyrdom came before that of his brother Imam al-Husayn (a). The reports concur on this, among them al-Malhuf by Sayed Ibn Tawus, al-Irshad by al-Shaykh al-Mufid, Muthir al-Ahzan, Maqtal al-Husayn by al-Khwarizmi, and others; and most of the modern martyrdom chronicles published thereafter have relied upon them.
Yes, there is a narration reported from Maqtal Abi Mikhnaf from which someone whose name was not stated inferred that the martyrdom of al-ʿAbbas was on the ninth day. The author of Tadhkirat al-Shuhadaʾ, Ayatollah al-Kashani, mentioned him, referring to him as “the contemporary,” and he held that the narration which this person had perhaps relied upon is the one which says that after the killing of al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a), Imam al-Husayn (a) turned to his companions and said to them: (O my companions, the people seek none but me; so when the night falls upon you, travel in its darkness.. until he said: (When morning came, he called the adhan and the iqama and prayed with his companions), until he said, addressing his companions: (And this night has let down its veil over you, so let each man among you take the hand of a man from my family, and disperse in the desert). Quoted from Abu Mikhnaf, p. 6.
In this report, which no other report corroborates, it is established that al-ʿAbbas was killed on the eighth day, not the ninth; and al-Kashani made an excuse for the proponent of the view that he was killed on the ninth day: that he understood it from these phrases, and that perhaps the Imam's address was at the pre-dawn hour while some of the night still remained, so that the martyrdom of al-ʿAbbas would be on the ninth day — according to what he mentioned on page 311.
However, the proponent of the view that he was killed on the ninth day did not mention his evidence, nor was his name mentioned; and al-Kashani's excuse for him cannot be accepted, because it is a sheer error, since the text explicitly states that his martyrdom was during the day, for the Imam addressed his companions with the words (so when the night falls). So it is not valid to rely on it to establish his martyrdom on the ninth day, when it explicitly indicates the eighth day.
Accordingly, we have not found any basis for the view that al-ʿAbbas was killed on the ninth day, even if an unknown person holds it.
As for the aforementioned narration, it is not acceptable, because it contradicts the well-known reliable narrations.
It is possible that an error occurred in the ordering of the account, since it contradicts all the facts established in the reliable martyrdom chronicles.
Among them is that al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a), as explicitly stated, fought on the tenth day in front of al-Husayn (a), and that he was killed after his brothers and had inherited from them. More than one of the chronicles has stated this explicitly, such as (Nasab Quraysh), which mentioned: (Then al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a) was killed after his brothers with al-Husayn (a), and al-ʿAbbas inherited from his brothers); and Sayed Ibn Tawus in al-Malhuf, in his words: (Then they cut al-ʿAbbas (a) off from him and surrounded him from every side and place until they killed him (q), and al-Husayn (a) wept intensely). Likewise Muthir al-Ahzan, Maqtal al-Husayn by al-Khwarizmi, and Ibn Shahrashub in al-Manaqib; and it is stated explicitly in Maqatil al-Talibiyyin that he was the last of his brothers to be killed.
As for the designation of the ninth day among the Iranians, it has not been verified that its basis is this view; rather, the more correct position is the opposite, because what was well known among the scholars of Persia in the past was what is well known among the majority of the Shiʿa, and the view that he was killed on the ninth day has been rejected. So how could a country be assigned a designation contrary to the positions they hold? And on the basis of the statement of a single person who contradicted the most well-known chronicles?!
The more correct view is that their dedication of the ninth day is as Ayatollah al-Kashani mentioned in Tadhkirat al-Shuhadaʾ: that it goes back to Imam al-Husayn (a) sending al-ʿAbbas (a) to the enemy army to ask them for a respite until the following morning, where he said: (The ninth day was named after al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a) not on account of his martyrdom on that day, but on account of the fact that the enemy army attacked the camp of al-Husayn (a) on the evening of the ninth day of Muharram, so he sent his brother al-ʿAbbas to them, and he asked them for a respite until the following morning, and they granted it). P. 308.
It appears that among the Arabs and the Indians the seventh day is dedicated to commemorating the tragedy of al-ʿAbbas (a), on the grounds that it was the day on which he brought water to the camp of Imam al-Husayn (a).
As for what has been said — that there is a view holding that al-ʿAbbas and Imam al-Husayn (a) were killed at the same moment — we have not come across anyone at all who holds it, and there is no doubt that attributing this view to al-Shaykh al-Mufid and ʿAllama al-Majlisi is a sheer error. What al-Mufid reported in al-Irshad is that the two fought together, but the army cut them off from each other, so Imam al-Husayn (a) returned to the camp wounded, and al-ʿAbbas remained cut off from the Imam until they killed him alone; then he mentioned the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (a) upon his return to the camp. The report was brief, so it did not contain the detail mentioned in the chronicles regarding how al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a) was killed, nor how Imam al-Husayn (a) was killed.
As for what ʿAllama al-Majlisi reported, it is the very same text found in al-Irshad, which he transmits from it as one of the texts; it was not a view of ʿAllama al-Majlisi. Moreover, it does not establish that the two were killed together at the same time and moment. So the inference drawn from these two texts — which are fundamentally a single text — is a sheer error.
It has come in the narrations that al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli (a) ransomed Imam al-Husayn (a) with his own self, as stated in the text of Ziyarat al-Nahiya: (Peace be upon Abu al-Fadl al-ʿAbbas, son of the Commander of the Faithful, who supported his brother with his own self, who took from his yesterday for his tomorrow, who ransomed him and shielded him).
This clearly indicates that al-ʿAbbas (a) was killed before his brother Imam al-Husayn (a), so that it would be true of him that he ransomed him with his own self.
All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.
Muharram al-Haram 1444 AH