Verbal violence in the biography of Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf Thaqafī(case study: Iraq sermons)

With the establishment of the Umayyad rule, the use of rhetoric and threats with a violent approach became one of the most important components of ensuring the security of the Umayyad rule. It is important to identify the mechanisms that were relied on to influence the audience at that time. This article seeks to answer the question of why Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf used violent sermons (khuṭbah) when facing the Iraqi people with the descriptive-analytical method. Findings of the research indicate that Ḥajjāj used words with a negative psychological effect in her sermons (khuṭbah) such as villain, maidservant (handmaiden), hypocrite, sedition seeker, and deceiver. Also, by slandering, threatening to kill, mocking, demeaning, and calling people and likening them to animals, he destroyed his audience in terms of character and instilled a sense of inferiority in them, being undervalued, hopelessness, and fear in order to dominate them until that strengthen himself and prevent the possibility of rebellion and uprising of the opponents.