"When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-H Đusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muh Đammad, 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 g inn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs' blood, was the Karbala ' event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmid øi , stellar pupil of al-Buh ʼa ri , and Ibn 'Asa kir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn T Đa ơu s and Egyptian polymath al-Suyu t Đi . But this was not Umm Salama's only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-H Đusayn's fate disturb her nights. This is their story"--

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