An aged supporter of rebels and a Shia notable of the time, a disciple of the companion of Muhammad Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari and a famous narrator of Hadith,[2] Atiyya ibn Sa'd Awfi was arrested by Muhammad bin Qasim on the orders of Al-Hajjaj and demanded that he curse Ali on the threat of punishment.
While Maclean doesn't give the details of the punishment, early historians like Ibn Hajar Al-asqalani and Tabari record that he was flogged by 400 lashes and his head and beard shaved for humiliation and that he fled to Khurasan and returned to Iraq after the ruler had been changed.
Hearing the news of what had happened, they left Medina to pay homage and reached Karbala on the 20th of the Islamic month of Safar.
[5] Al-Hajjāj ordered Muhammad bin Qasim then governor of Fars, to summon Atiyah and demand him to curse Ali, which was a practice used by the Umayyads as a test of loyalty.
[12] Friedmann writes:- Other early historians like Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani and Tabari record that he moved on to Khurasan and returned to Iraq after the ruler had been changed.