Scholarly Note and Clarification

the water, as stated in the report.

The author of al-Isha'ah said: Perhaps it is the water of the Tigris. The companions of the Sufyani who are in Kufa will learn of their camping there, so they will flee. He will then descend upon Kufa to rescue those of Banu Hashim who are in it. Then a group from the rural lands of Kufa (sawad al-Kufah), called al-Usab, will emerge; they will have few weapons, and among them will be some people of Basra who abandoned the Sufyani, and they will rescue the captives of Kufa who were in their hands. The black banners will send their pledge of allegiance to the Mahdi. The Mahdi will advance from the Hijaz, and the Sufyani from Kufa - after news of the swallowing of his army reaches him, yet that will not deter him - heading toward the Levant (al-Sham), which connects to "advances", as if the two of them, meaning the Mahdi and the Sufyani, are like two racehorses. But the Sakhri will precede him and dispatch another expedition from the Levant to the Mahdi; they will reach the Mahdi in the land of the Hijaz, pledge to him the allegiance of the Mahdi, and advance with him toward the Levant.

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It occurs in some narrations that the army which will be swallowed by the earth is dispatched from the Levant, and in others that it is from Iraq. Ibn Hajar, among others, stated this, and there is no contradiction, because the expedition was sent from Iraq, but since they were originally from the people of the Levant, they were attributed to it in the other narration.

In one narration, the Mahdi fights this second army, while the companions of the Mahdi on that day will be the number of the people of Badr. Then a voice from heaven will be heard: "Lo! Indeed the allies of Allah