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.

The Sufyani will fight the Turks, then their eradication will be at the hands of the Mahdi, and it is the first brigade that the Mahdi will convene and send to the Turks.

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.

The first brigade that the Mahdi will convene is that he will send it to the Turks and defeat them, and take their captives and wealth, then he will go to the Levant and conquer it, then he will free every slave with him and give their companions their value.