Angels Hastening

When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-usayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions. At the core of those Delphian dreams, peopled by angels or inn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs' blood, was the Karbal event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmi, stellar pupil of al-Bur, and Ibn Askir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn s and Egyptian polymath al-Suy. But this was not Umm Salamas only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-usayns fate disturb her nights. This is their story.