Kitab al-Fitan · Nu'aym ibn Hammad

If a village in Damascus is eclipsed, and a group to the west of its mosque falls, then the Turks and the Romans will gather together and fight, and three flags will be raised in the Levant, and then the Sufyani will fight them until they reach Qarqisiya. Those who ride the openwork ones will fall on the hills of the Peninsula and the Levant and take their women captive, to the point that a man will see the white of his wife’s anklets and will not be able to defend her.

Al-Hakam bin Nafi’ told us, on the authority of Jarrah, on the authority of Artat, who said: “If the Turks and the Romans meet, and a village in Damascus is eclipsed, and a group to the west of its mosque falls, three flags will be raised in the Levant: Al-Aqba’, Al-Ashab, and Al-Sufyani. A man will be besieged in Damascus and he will be killed and those with him, and two men from Banu Abi Sufyan will come out, and the victory will be for the second. If Al-Aqba’s army arrives from Egypt, Al-Sufyani will appear on them with his army, and the Turks will be killed. And the Romans in Qarqisia until the lions of the earth are satisfied with their meat.”

Al-Sufyani enters Kufa and takes it captive for three days, and kills sixty thousand of its people. Then he stays there for eighteen nights, dividing its wealth. He enters Kufa after fighting the Turks and Romans in Qirqisa. Then he splits a gap on them from behind them, and a group of them returns to Khurasan. He kills the horses of Al-Sufyani and demolishes the forts until he enters Kufa. He seeks the people of Khurasan, and a people calling for the Mahdi will appear in Khurasan. Then he sends Al-Sufyani to Medina. Then he takes a group of people from the family of Muhammad until he returns them to Kufa, then Al-Mahdi and Mansour leave Kufa on the run, and Al-Sufyani sends in search of them. When Al-Mahdi and Mansour reach Mecca, the Sufyani’s army descends on Al-Bayda and overwhelms them. Then Al-Mahdi goes out until he passes through Medina and rescues those who were in it from Bani Hashim. The black flags come forward until they descend on the water, and the Sufyani’s companions in Kufa inform of their landing and they flee, then he descends on Kufa to rescue those in it from Bani Hashim, and a people called the Asab emerge from the black of Kufa. They have no weapons except a few, and among them is a group of the people of Basra. They overtake the companions of the Sufyani and rescue what is in their hands from the captives of Kufa, and the black banners send out the pledge of allegiance to the Mahdi.

Al-Hakam bin Nafi’ told us, on the authority of Jarrah, on the authority of Artat, who said: “There will be a truce between the Mahdi and the Romans, then the Mahdi will perish, then a man from his family will follow him, and he will be just a little, then he will draw his sword on the people of Palestine, and they will revolt with it, and he will seek help from the people of Jordan, and he will stay among them for two months, and will be just as the Mahdi is, then he will draw his sword on them, and they will revolt with it, and he will escape until he descends on Damascus. Have you seen the ceilings that At the gate of al-Jabiya, where the coffins are located, there is a round stone below it, on five cubits, on which he slaughters and the remembrance of his blood will not be extinguished until it is said: The Romans have established therein between Tire and Acre, for they are the epics.”

Naim told us, Al-Hakam bin Nafi told us, on the authority of Jarrah, on the authority of Artat, who said: “If the companion of Al-Adham appears in Alexandria and the land of Egypt, the Arabs will follow Yathrib and the Hijaz, and will emerge from the Levant, and each tribe will follow its people, and Allah will send an army to them. When they finish between the two islands, their herald calls: Let every honest person or intruder who is among us among the Muslims come out to us. The loyalists will become angry, and they will pledge allegiance to a man called Saleh bin Abdullah bin Qays bin Yasar, and he will come out. And the Roman army meets them and kills them, and death occurs among the Romans, while they are in Jerusalem that day, and they have captured it, so they die like locusts, and the owner of Al-Adham dies, and Salih descends with the governors in the land of Syria, and enters Ammuriyah, having stayed there, and descends on Qamuliya, and conquers Zantia, and the voices of his army there in calling for monotheism are loud, and he divides its money among them with utensils, and he appears in Rome, and extracts from it the Gate of Zion, and an onyx coffin, in which is an earring. Eve, and Adam’s garment, meaning his garment, and Aaron’s garment (peace be upon them), so between us they are like that when news comes to him and it is false and he returns.”

There will be a reconciliation between the Mahdi and the Roman tyrant after he is killed by the Sufyani, and Kalb is plundered, until your merchants differ to each other and their merchants to you, and they take three years to master the craftsmanship of their ships. Then the Mahdi perishes, and a man from his family reigns and does justice a little, then he is tyrannical, and he is killed, and his memory will not be extinguished until the Romans anchor between Tire and Akka. These are the epics.