Abu l-Khattab Muhammad b. Abi Zaynab Miqlas al-Asadi

Abu l-Khattab Muhammad b. Abi Zaynab Miqlas al-Asadi was a Kufan, a mawla of the tribe of Asad, and a Muslim heresiarch. The encyclopaedia's entry, signed by B. Lewis, gives his father as Miqlas b. Abi l-Khattab and his kunyas as Abu Isma'il and Abu l-Zubyan. In the Nusayri writings he is called al-Kahili. ¹

He was one of the chief missionaries of the Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, but fell into error and taught false doctrines, and the Imam repudiated and denounced him. Seventy of his followers, gathered in the mosque of Kufa, were attacked on the order of the governor 'Isa b. Musa and killed after a fierce struggle. Abu l-Khattab himself was arrested and brought before 'Isa, who had him crucified at Dar al-Rizq on the Euphrates with a number of his followers. Their heads were sent to the caliph al-Mansur and impaled at the gate of Baghdad for three days. ¹

The date of these events is not precisely known. A conversation recorded by al-Kashshi as taking place in 138/755 seems to refer to the recent destruction of Abu l-Khattab and his followers, but B. Lewis reads the tradition as the Imam's repudiation of him and places his death about 145/762. The best accounts of his life come from Ithna'ashari works, especially al-Kashshi's Rijal, and an Isma'ili account is in al-Qadi al-Nu'man's Da'a'im al-Islam. ¹