Al-Ḥajjāj’s rhetoric of intimidation and humiliation

This article discusses the strategy of intimidation and humiliation in Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafῑ’s most famous speech delivered in the city of Kufa in Iraq in the seventh century. The linguistic devices used by Al-Ḥajjāj are analyzed by applying the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis. This approach reveals his rhetoric of intimidation, humiliation, and emotional manipulation, reflecting Al-Ḥajjāj’s intention to act with extreme cruelty against the Kufa rebels. In this speech, he strove to normalize and legitimize violence against the rebels, for example, by likening the inhabitants of Kufa to animals, thereby framing the beheading and slaughtering of them as normal, in the way that animal slaughter is perceived as normal behavior.