Biography of Uthman Ibn Affan

The sira of Dhun-Nurayn Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him :

Uthman ibn Affan ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya ibn Abd Shams, Commander of the Believers, Abu Amr and Abu Abdallah, al-Qurashi al-Umawi.

He related from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and from the two sheikhs.

Ad-Dani said : the Quran was recited to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami had him recite the Quran, as did al-Mughira ibn Abi Shihab, Abu al-Aswad and Zarr ibn Jaysh.

Those who narrated from him : his sons Aban, Sa'id and Amr, his client Hamran, Anas, Abu Umama ibn Sahl, al-Ahnaf ibn Qays, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, Abu Wail, Tariq ibn Shihab, Alqama, Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami, Malik ibn Aws ibn al-Hadathan, and others than they.

The Islam of Uthman ibn Affan

He was among the very first converts, Dhun-Nurayn (the man of the two lights), the man of the two hijras, the husband of the two daughters of the Prophet. He set out for al-Jabiya with Umar. He had married Ruqayya, daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, before the prophetic mission ; she bore him Abdallah, after whom he received his kunya, and Amr, son of Abdallah.

His mother was Arwa bint Kurayz ibn Habib ibn Abd Shams, and her mother was al-Bayda bint Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim. Ruqayya emigrated to Abyssinia, and the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him and upon her, left her behind at the expedition of Badr, that she might nurse her husband in his illness. She died a few nights after Badr ; the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, allotted him the share of Badr and its reward, then married him to the other daughter, Umm Kulthum.

His son Abdallah died, aged six years, in the year four of the Hijra.

The physical description of Uthman

Uthman was, according to what has reached us, neither very tall nor very short, of a handsome face, large-bearded, brown-skinned, with large joints, very broad between the shoulders ; he dyed himself yellow, and he had gilded his teeth.

Abu Abdallah, client of Chaddad, reported : I saw Uthman delivering a sermon, wearing an izar worth four dirhams and a worn Kufan turban ; he would say : strike the flesh, meaning he was sparing of it ; long-bearded, handsome of face.

Abdallah ibn Hazm reported : I saw Uthman, and I never saw a man or a woman of a more beautiful face than his.

Al-Hasan reported : I saw him with the marks of smallpox upon his face, and his hair covering his two arms.

As-Sa'ib reported : I saw him dye his beard yellow ; I never saw an old man more beautiful than he.

Abu Thawr al-Fahmi reported : I came to Uthman, and he said : "I have withdrawn to my Lord ten times :

I am the fourth of four in Islam ; I have never divulged a secret, nor coveted, nor placed my right hand upon my private parts since I pledged it in allegiance to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; I have never missed a Friday since my Islam without freeing a slave on it, unless I had none with me and freed one after ; and I never committed adultery, in the Jahiliyya or in Islam."

The merits of Uthman reported by the Prophet

Ibn Umar reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "We liken Uthman to our father Ibrahim, peace be upon him."

Aisha reported the like, if it is authentic.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came to Uthman at the door of the mosque and said : "O Uthman, this is Jibril telling me that Allah has married you to Umm Kulthum with a dower like that of Ruqayya, and with company like hers." Ibn Majah reported it.

It is reported from Anas, or from another, who said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Twice-made a son-in-law, twice-made a brother-in-law, who shall marry Uthman ? I have married him to my two daughters ; had I had a third, I would have married him to her ; and I married him to them only by revelation from heaven."

Al-Hasan said : Uthman was named Dhun-Nurayn because we know no one else who shut his door upon two daughters of a prophet.

Atiyya reported, from Abu Sa'id : I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with his hands raised, praying for Uthman.

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Samura reported : Uthman came to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with a thousand dinars in his garment, when the army of the Hardship was being equipped ; he poured them into the lap of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, who turned them over with his hand, saying : "Nothing that Uthman does after this day shall harm him." Ahmad reported it in "his Musnad", and others.

In "the Musnad of Abu Yala", from the hadith of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf : he equipped the army of the Hardship with seven hundred ounces of gold.

Khalid said, from al-Hasan : Uthman equipped the expedition with seven hundred and fifty camels and fifty horses : meaning, at the expedition of Tabuk.

Hibba al-Arni reported, from Ali : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "May Allah have mercy on Uthman : the angels themselves are modest before him."

Al-Muharibi reported, from Abu Mas'ud, from Bachr ibn Bachir al-Aslami, from his father : when the Muhajirun came to Medina, they found the water distasteful. A man of the Banu Ghifar owned a well called Ruma, from which he sold water to the villagers by the skinful. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to him : "Would you sell it for a well in Paradise ?" He said : "O Messenger of Allah, I have no other well : I cannot do it." It reached Uthman, who bought it for thirty-five thousand dirhams, then came to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and said : "Will you give me the like of what you promised him, a well in Paradise, if I buy it ?" He said : "Yes."

He said : "I have bought it and given it to the Muslims."

Abu Hurayrah reported : Uthman bought Paradise twice from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : the day of Ruma, and the day of the army of the Hardship.

Aisha said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was lying in his house with his thigh or his leg uncovered. Abu Bakr asked leave, then Umar, while he remained thus, and the two conversed with him. Then Uthman asked leave : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sat up and adjusted his clothes. He entered and conversed with him. When he went out, I said : "O Messenger of Allah, Abu Bakr entered and you did not sit up for him, then Umar entered and you did not cover yourself for him, then Uthman entered and you sat up and adjusted your clothes !" He said : "Should I not be modest before a man before whom the angels are modest ?" Muslim reported it.

The like is reported from the hadith of Ali, Abu Hurayrah and Ibn Abbas.

Anas said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The most compassionate of my community toward my community is Abu Bakr, the firmest of them in the religion of Allah is Umar, and the most modest of them is Uthman."

Talha ibn Ubaydallah reported : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Every prophet has an intimate companion, and my intimate companion is Uthman." At-Tirmidhi reported it.

In the hadith of al-Qif : Uthman came next, and the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Give him leave, and give him good tidings of Paradise despite the trial that shall befall him."

Chu'ayb ibn Abi Hamza said, from az-Zuhri : al-Walid ibn Suwayd said that a man of the Banu Sulaym said : "I was in a circle where Abu Dhar was, and I thought within myself that Abu Dhar bore resentment against Uthman for banishing him to ar-Rabadha. Uthman was mentioned, and some of the assembly began reviling him. Abu Dhar said : say of Uthman nothing but good : I bear witness that I saw a sight and attended a scene I never forget. I used to seek out the times when the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was alone, that I might hear from him. There came Abu Bakr, then

Umar, then Uthman. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, took pebbles, which glorified in his hand until one heard their humming like the humming of bees ; then he handed them to Abu Bakr : they glorified in his palm ; he laid them on the ground and they fell silent ; then he handed them to Umar : they glorified in his palm ; then the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, took them, laid them on the ground, and they fell silent ; then he handed them to Uthman : they glorified in his palm, then he took them from him, laid them down, and they fell silent."

Sulayman ibn Yasar said : Jahjaha al-Ghifari took the staff of Uthman with which he girded himself, broke it upon his knee, and the devourer fell into his knee.

Ibn Umar said : in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, we used to say : Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman. A group reported it from Ibn Umar.

Ash-Sha'bi said : none of the caliphs among the Companions gathered the Quran but Uthman ; and Ali departed the world without having gathered it.

Ibn Sirin said : the most knowing of them in the rites of pilgrimage was Uthman, and after him Ibn Umar.

Rub'i reported, from Hudhayfa : Umar said to me at Mina : whom do you see the people appointing after me ? I said : their eyes are upon Uthman.

Abu Ishaq reported, from Haritha ibn Mudarrib, who said : I made pilgrimage with Umar, and the camel-driver was chanting :

"The emir after him shall be the son of Affan."

I made pilgrimage with Uthman, and the camel-driver was chanting :

"The emir after him shall be Ali."

Al-Jurayri reported, from Abdallah ibn Shaqiq, from al-Aqra, the muezzin of Umar, that Umar summoned the bishop and said : "Do you find us in your books ?" He said : "I find your description and your deeds, but not your names." He said : "How do you find me ?" He said : "A horn of iron." He said : "What is a horn of iron ?" He said : "A stern emir." Umar said : "Allah is greater !" He said : "And the one after me ?" He said : "A virtuous man who prefers his kinsmen." Umar said : "May Allah have mercy

on the son of Affan." He said : "And the one after him ?" He said : "A cleft", and Hammad ibn Salama used to say : "a rust, of iron" ; Umar said : "Strike upon it, then, strike upon it !" He said : "Patience, O Commander of the Believers : he is a virtuous man, but his caliphate will be a time of the shedding of blood."

Hammad ibn Zayd said : if you say that Ali is better than Uthman, you say that the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, failed in their duty.

Ibn Abi az-Zinad reported, from his father, from Amr ibn Uthman : the inscription of the ring of Uthman was : "I believe in Him who created, then gave harmony."

Ibn Mas'ud said, when Uthman was invested : we have been commanded by the best of what remained, and we withheld nothing.

Mubarak ibn Fadala reported, from al-Hasan : I saw Uthman asleep in his waist-wrapper and cloak, his head upon them ; a man would come and sit beside him, another would come and sit beside him, as if he were one of them. And I saw him order in his sermon the killing of dogs and the slaughtering of pigeons.

Hakim ibn Ibbad reported : the first blameworthy thing that appeared in Medina was the keeping of pigeons and the casting, meaning with the sling ; Uthman ordered a man who cut them down and smashed the cotes.

It is established by sound paths that Uthman recited the whole Quran in a single bowing.

Abdallah ibn al-Mubarak reported, from az-Zubayr ibn Abdallah, from his grandmother, that Uthman fasted without interruption.

The gathering of the Quran by Uthman

Anas said : Hudhayfa came to Uthman, while he was campaigning with the people of Iraq before Armenia : in that expedition the people of Syria and the people of Iraq had come together, and they disputed over the Quran, until Hudhayfa heard from them a divergence that displeased him. He rode until he came to Uthman and said : "O Commander of the Believers, overtake this community before it diverges over the Quran as the Jews and Christians diverged over their Scriptures." Uthman was alarmed at that ; he sent to Hafsa, Umm al-Muminin : "Send me the leaves upon which the Quran was gathered." She sent them to him ; he ordered Zayd ibn Thabit, Sa'id ibn al-As, Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr and Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham to copy them into the codices, and said : "If you and Zayd differ over any word of Arabic, write it in the tongue of Quraysh : the Quran came down only in their tongue." They did so until the codices were copied ; then Uthman returned the leaves to Hafsa, and sent to every host of the Muslim armies a codex, commanding them to burn with fire every codex that diverged from the codex with which he had sent them. That was the time when the codices were burned with fire.

Mus'ab ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas said : Uthman preached to the people and said : "O people, thirteen years lie between you and the covenant with your prophet, and you dispute over the Quran ; one says : the reading of Abu, another says : the reading of Abdallah ; a man swears : by Allah, your reading is not established. Go, then, each of you, and bring what has come to him of the Book of Allah." Each man would bring the leaf and the parchment containing Quran, until much had been gathered ; then Uthman entered, called them man by man, and adjured them : "Did you hear this from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, when he dictated it to you ?" And the man would say : yes. When he had finished, he said : "Who is the best of writers ?" They said : "The scribe of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : Zayd ibn Thabit." He said : "And which of the people is the most Arab in tongue ?" They said : "Sa'id ibn al-As." Uthman said : "Then let Sa'id dictate, and let Zayd write." He had codices written and distributed them among the people."

A man reported, from Suwayd ibn Ghafla, that Ali said of the codices : "Had Uthman not made it, I would have made it."

Abu Hilal said : I heard al-Hasan say : Uthman governed twelve years, and they disapproved nothing of his rule.

Sa'id ibn Jumhan reported, from Sufyan : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "After me the caliphate shall last thirty years, then it shall be kingship."

Qatada reported, from Abdallah ibn Shaqiq, from Murra al-Bahazi, who said : I was with the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; he said : "A fitna shall be stirred like patches of the dark night : this man, and those with him, shall be upon the truth." He said : I went and seized the hem of his garment : behold, it was Uthman.

Al-Ash'ath as-Sana'ani reported it, from Murra. Muhammad ibn Sirin reported it, from Ka'b ibn Ajra.

The like is reported from Ibn Umar.

Qays ibn Abi Hazim reported, from Abu Suhla, client of Uthman, from Aisha, that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, took Uthman as his confidant ; and the color of Uthman's face would change. When the day of the House came, and he was besieged in it, we said : "O Commander of the Believers, will you not fight ?" He said : "The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, made me a covenant, and I shall be patient."

Abu Suhla : Ahmad al-Ijli accredited him.

Al-Jurayri said : Abu Bakr al-Adawi told me : I asked Aisha : did the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, make a promise to any of his companions at his death ? She said : "Allah forbid ! But he had a dream concerning Uthman : he told him he would be slain, and ordered him to hold his hand."

Chu'ba said : Abu Hamza informed me : I heard my father say : I heard Ali say : Allah caused Uthman to be slain, and I am with him. Abu Hamza said : I mentioned it to Ibn Abbas, who said : he spoke truth : "Allah caused Uthman to be slain and will slay me with him."

I say : Ali already used to say : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, promised me : "This beard shall be dyed with the blood of this head."

Chu'ba reported, from Habib ibn az-Zubayr, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn ash-Churad, that Ali said : I hope to be, with Uthman, among those of whom Allah the Most High said : {We shall strip away all rancor from their breasts : brethren upon couches, facing one another} (Surah al-Hijr, verse 47).

Abdallah ibn al-Harith reported it from Ali.

Mu'tarif ibn ach-Shikhhir said : I met Ali, and he said : "O Abu Abdallah, what keeps you from me so long ? Do you love Uthman ?" Then he said : "If you say so, he was the kinsman who joined us to our kin, and the most fearing of Allah among us toward his Lord."

Sa'id ibn Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl said : had a mountain undergone what you did to the son of Affan, it would have split.

Hisham said : Muhammad ibn Sirin told us, from Uqba ibn Aws, from Abdallah ibn Amr, who said : there shall be upon this community twelve caliphs ; among them Abu Bakr as-Siddiq : you have grasped his name aright ; Umar al-Faruq, a horn of iron : you have grasped his name aright ; Uthman Dhun-Nurayn : he was given two portions of mercy ; he was slain unjustly : you have grasped his name aright. More than one narrator reported it from Muhammad.

Abdallah ibn Chawdhab said : Zudham al-Jarmi told me : I was at a night sitting with Ibn Abbas, and he said : "I shall relate to you a tradition : when there befell, concerning this man, meaning Uthman, what befell, I said to Ali : withdraw from this matter ; by Allah, were you to do so, the people would come to you until they pledged you allegiance." He disobeyed me ; by Allah, Mu'awiya shall be charged with avenging his blood ; and that because Allah says : {Whoso is slain unjustly, We have given his guardian authority : let him not exceed in slaying : he shall be helped} (Surah al-Isra, verse 33).

Abu Qilaba al-Jarmi said : when the slaying of Uthman reached Thumama ibn Adi, who was governor of Sana'a, he wept and wept long, then said : "This is when the caliphate of prophethood was torn from the community of Muhammad, to become kingship and coercion : whoso overcomes a thing devours it."

Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari said : Abu Humayd as-Sa'di, who was a Badri, said, when Uthman was slain : "O Allah, You have a claim upon me : I shall not laugh again until I meet You."

Qatada said : Uthman governed twelve years, less twelve days ; Khalifa ibn Khayyat and others said the like.

Abu Ma'shar as-Sindi said : he was slain eighteen nights remaining of Dhu al-Hijja, on a Friday. Others added : after the asr ; he was buried at al-Baqi between the two ishas, at the age of eighty-two : that is the sound account.

It is said : he lived eighty-six years.

Abdallah ibn Farrukh reported : I attended his burial : he was buried in his clothes, with his blood, and was not washed. Abdallah ibn Ahmad reported it in "the Additions to the Musnad". It is said : Marwan prayed over him, and he was not washed.

Such is the narration of al-Waqidi : Na'ila went out, her pocket torn, crying out, a lamp in her hand. Jubayr ibn Mut'im said : "Put out the lamp : none can discern our band." They came to al-Baqi ; Jubayr ibn Mut'im prayed over him, and behind him stood Abu Jahm ibn Hudhayfa, Niyar ibn Makram, and the two wives of Uthman : Na'ila and Umm al-Banin ; the two women guided them in the grave toward the men who descended into his grave, shrouded him, filled in his grave, and dispersed.

It is reported that Jubayr ibn Mut'im prayed over him with sixteen men ; the first account is the firmer.

It is reported that Na'ila bint al-Farafisa was of a lovely face : she broke her front teeth with a stone and said : "By Allah, none shall have you to wife after Uthman." When she came to Mu'awiya in Syria, he sought her in marriage : she refused.

Hassan ibn Thabit declaimed concerning him :

"You slew the guardian of Allah in the midst of his house / and you came with a ruinous decision, astray from the right path.

No success shall befall the religion of a people who conspired / to slay Uthman, the rightly guided, the true of aim.

Ka'b ibn Malik said :

"O you men, a tumultuous affair has made me bear sorrow : I marvel at whoso weeps over shed blood.

I saw the slain one of the house, cast down : Uthman, guided to the graves in a shroud."

Some declaimed :

"Perish your father, lie not : the good has departed, save a little.

The people were light in their religion / and the son of Affan departed unto a long good."

The events of the caliphate of Dhun-Nurayn Uthman

The year twenty-four : the investiture of Uthman.

Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was buried at the beginning of Muharram ; then they sat for the consultation. It is reported from Abdallah ibn Abi Rabi'a that a man said before the consultation : "If you pledge allegiance to Uthman, we shall obey ; if you pledge it to Ali, we shall hear and disobey."

Al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama said : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf came to me, after a portion of the night, and said : "My eyes have tasted little sleep these three nights : call me Uthman, Ali, az-Zubayr and Sa'd." I called them ; he took them aside one by one and took covenants from them. At morning, Suhayb prayed at the head of the people ; then Abd ar-Rahman sat, praised Allah and extolled Him, and said in his speech : "I have seen that the people desire none but Uthman."

Hamid ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf said : al-Musayyab informed me that the men to whom Umar had entrusted the matter met and consulted. Abd ar-Rahman said : "I am not one to contend with you over this matter ; but, if you will, I shall choose for you one of you." They committed that to Abd ar-Rahman. He said : "By Allah, I never saw a man so generous toward a people at the moment they entrusted him their affair : no man sought counsel from any one of those notables but he trod in their steps. The people inclined toward Abd ar-Rahman, consulting him and whispering to him those nights : no man of counsel left him but he turned another away from Uthman. And he mentions the hadith up to these words : he took witnesses and said : As for you, O Ali, I have examined the people and seen that they prefer none to Uthman : so bring not upon yourself a path to destruction. Then he took the hand of Uthman

and said : "We pledge you allegiance upon the sunna of his Messenger and the sunna of the two caliphs after him." Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf pledged him allegiance, and the Muhajirun and the Ansar with them.

Anas reported that Umar said to Abu Talha al-Ansari : "Be with fifty Ansar alongside these men, the members of the consultation : they will, I reckon, gather in a house ; keep that door with your companions : let none enter upon them, and let them not pass the third day without investing one of them. O Allah, You are my successor over them."

In "the Additions to the Musnad of Ahmad", from the hadith of Abu Wail : I said to Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf : "How did you pledge Uthman allegiance and leave Ali ?" He said : "What is my fault ? I began with Ali and said to him : I pledge you allegiance upon the Book of Allah,

the sunna of the Messenger, the conduct of Abu Bakr and Umar. He said : within my capacity. Then I brought that to Uthman, who said : yes."

Al-Waqidi said : they rallied to Uthman one night remaining of Dhu al-Hijja.

It is reported that Abd ar-Rahman said to Uthman, in private : "If I pledge you not allegiance, toward whom do you direct me ?" He said : "Ali." And he said to Ali, in private : "If I pledge you not allegiance, toward whom do you direct me ?" He said : "Uthman." Then he called az-Zubayr and said : "If I pledge you not allegiance, toward whom do you direct me ?" He said : "Ali or Uthman." Then he called Sa'd and said : "Toward whom do you direct me ? He said : you and I, we desire it not." He said : "Uthman." Then Abd ar-Rahman consulted the notables and saw that the inclination of most was toward Uthman. Then the call was made : "The prayer is gathered !" Abd ar-Rahman went out, girt with the turban wherewith the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had girt him, his sword at his side ; he mounted the pulpit, stood long praying in secret,

Then he spoke and said : "O people, I have questioned you in secret and openly as to the fulfilment of your trust, and I have seen you prefer none of these two men : either Ali, or Uthman. Come hither, O Ali." He came and stood beside the pulpit. Abd ar-Rahman took his hand and said : "Will you pledge me allegiance upon the Book of Allah, the sunna of his prophet, and the conduct of Abu Bakr and Umar ?" He said : "O Allah, no ; but according to my effort and my capacity therein." He said : "Come hither, O Uthman", and took his hand in Ali's place, then said : "Will you pledge me allegiance upon the Book of Allah, the sunna of his prophet, and the conduct of Abu Bakr and Umar ?" He said : "O Allah, yes." Abd ar-Rahman raised his head to the ceiling of the mosque, his hand in his, then said : "O Allah, bear witness : O Allah, I have transferred to the neck of Uthman what lay upon mine."

The people pressed forward to pledge Uthman allegiance until they enveloped him near the pulpit ; they seated him on the second step, and Abd ar-Rahman took the place of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, on the pulpit. It is said : Ali lingered ; Abd ar-Rahman said : {Whoso breaks his pledge breaks it but to his own hurt : and whoso fulfils that which he has covenanted with Allah, He shall give him an immense reward} (Surah al-Fath).

Ali returned, cleaving through the people, and pledged Uthman allegiance, saying : "A trick ; and what a trick !"

Uthman then sat in a corner of the mosque and had Ubaydallah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab brought, who was confined in the house of Sa'd ; and it was Sa'd who had wrested the sword from the hand of Ubaydallah after he slew Jafina, al-Hurmuzan, and the daughter of Abu Lulu'a. Ubaydallah swore : "By Allah, I shall slay men of those who took part in my father's blood," menacing the Muhajirun and the Ansar. Sa'd advanced upon him, wrested the sword from his hand, seized him by the hair until he laid him down, and confined him. Uthman said then to a company of the Muhajirun : "Counsel me concerning this matter which has rent Islam with a rent." Ali said : "I see that he must be slain." One said : "His father slain yesterday, and he slain today !" Amr ibn al-As said : "O Commander of the Believers, Allah has excused you this punishment ; the Muslims gave you authority only as exercised ; but this has been done without your authority." Uthman said : "I am their guardian : I have made it blood-money, and borne it from my own wealth."

I say : al-Hurmuzan was the king of Tustar, whose Islam has already been mentioned ; Ubaydallah ibn Umar slew him when Umar was struck. Ammar ibn Yasir came, entered upon Umar, and said : "There has befallen you today an affair that has rent Islam." He said : "What is it ?" He said : "Ubaydallah has slain al-Hurmuzan." He said : "To Allah we belong and unto Him we return ; seize him," and he imprisoned him.

Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said : Abu Lulu'a, Jafina, a man of al-Hira, and al-Hurmuzan met together, with a dagger of two blades, royal, adorned in its midst. They held a sitting ; a beast stirred them, and the dagger fell. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr espied them. When Umar was stabbed, Abd ar-Rahman related the matter of the dagger, their meeting, and the description of the weapon : they examined and found it so. Ubaydallah leapt up, slew al-Hurmuzan, Jafina, and Lulu'a, the daughter of Abu Lulu'a. When Uthman was invested, Ali said to him : "Exact the penalty from Ubaydallah for al-Hurmuzan." Uthman said : "He has no guardian but me ; I have pardoned him, but I pay his blood-price."

It is reported that al-Hurmuzan, when the sword reached him, said : "There is no deity but Allah." As for Jafina, he was a Christian, a friend of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, whom he had brought to Medina for the peace concluded between them, and that the people might learn writing.

That year : Abu Musa al-Ash'ari opened Rayy, which had been conquered by Hudhayfa and Suwayd ibn Muqarrin, then revolted.

That year : a great epidemic of coryza struck the people ; it was called "the year of coryza" ; Uthman himself was smitten and abstained from pilgrimage, and made a bequest. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf made the pilgrimage with the people.

That year : Uthman deposed al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba from Kufa and appointed over it Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas.

That year : al-Walid ibn Uqba campaigned against Azerbaijan and Armenia to forestall their inhabitants who had broken the peace ; he took captives and plunder, and returned.

That year : the Byzantines pressed forward ; the commanders of Syria sought reinforcements from Uthman, who granted them eight thousand men of Iraq, who marched and entered the land of the Byzantines with the people of Syria. Over the people of Iraq : Salman ibn Rabi'a al-Bahili ; over the people of Syria : Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri. They multiplied the raids, took captives and opened many fortresses.

That year : was born the caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.

The year twenty-five :

That year : Uthman deposed Sa'd from Kufa and appointed over it al-Walid ibn Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt ibn Abi Amr ibn Umayya al-Umawi, brother of Uthman by the mother ; his kunya was Abu Wahb ; he had the Companionship and transmission. Those who narrated from him : Abu Musa al-Hamdani and ash-Sha'bi.

Tariq ibn Shihab said : when al-Walid arrived as governor, Sa'd came to him and said : "Have I followed you to be followed after you, or have I become a fool after your command ?" Al-Walid said : "Neither : but the people preferred their authority to you." This was among the grievances they charged Uthman with : deposing Sa'd and appointing al-Walid ibn Uqba. Hadhin ibn al-Mundhir relates that al-Walid prayed with them four rak'as of the dawn prayer, drunk, then turned and said : "I shall add more for you !"

It is said : that year the army marched from Kufa against them under Salman ibn Rabi'a toward Barda'a : there were slain and captives.

That year : the people of Alexandria revolted ; Amr ibn al-As, governor of Egypt, fought them and took them captive ; Uthman returned the captives to their charge. The king of the Byzantines had sent to them Manuel the eunuch in ships, and the people revolted, save al-Muqawqis ; Amr fought them in Rabi al-awwal and opened it by force, save the citadel, which made peace.

That year : Uthman deposed Amr from Egypt and appointed over it Abdallah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh.

The sound account dates that to the year twenty-seven : Ibn Abi Sarh asked Uthman leave to campaign against Ifriqiya, and he granted it.

It is said : that year was born Yazid, son of Mu'awiya.

Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, made the pilgrimage with the people.

The year twenty-six :

That year : Uthman enlarged the Sacred Mosque ; he bought the enlargement from some, and others refused : he demolished over them and placed the prices in the treasury. They cried out against Uthman, who ordered them imprisoned, and said : "Nothing emboldens you against me but my forbearance. Umar did the like with you, and you cried not out against him." Then they spoke to him concerning them, and he released them.

That year : Sabur was opened, under the command of Uthman ibn Abi al-As ath-Thaqafi ; peace was concluded with its people upon three million three hundred thousand.

It is said : Uthman deposed Sa'd from Kufa because he was in debt to Ibn Mas'ud, who demanded it of him and disputed with him ; Uthman grew angry with Sa'd and deposed him. Al-Walid had been an agent of Umar over part of the Jazira, wherein he was gentle to his flock.

The year twenty-seven :

That year : Mu'awiya campaigned against Cyprus : he embarked upon the sea with the armies ; with him were Ubada ibn as-Samit, and the wife of Ubada, Umm Haram bint Milhan al-Ansariyya, maternal aunt of Anas. She fell from her mule and died a martyr : may Allah have mercy on her. The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, used to visit her during his midday nap, and had given her the good tidings of martyrdom. Her grave is in Cyprus : they say it is the grave of the righteous woman.

Those who narrated from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and narrated from her : Anas ibn Malik, Umayr ibn al-Aswad al-Ansi, Yala ibn Chaddad ibn Aws, and others.

Dawud ibn Abi Hind said : Uthman ibn Abi al-As and Abu Musa concluded in the year twenty-seven peace with the people of Arjan upon two million two hundred thousand, and peace with the people of Darabjird upon one million eighty thousand.

Khalifa said : that year Uthman deposed Amr from Egypt and appointed over it Abdallah

ibn Sa'd, who campaigned against Ifriqiya, with him Abdallah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab, Abdallah ibn Amr ibn al-As, and Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr. He met Jourjir at Sabaytila, two days from Qayrawan : Jourjir had two hundred thousand fighters, or it is said : one hundred twenty thousand ; the Muslims were twenty thousand.

Mus'ab ibn Abdallah said : my father and az-Zubayr ibn Khubayb told us, and they said : Ibn az-Zubayr said : "Jourjir fell upon us in our camp with one hundred twenty thousand men and enveloped us, while we were twenty thousand." The people diverged upon Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh : he entered his tent and withdrew. And I myself saw the vanguard of Jourjir : I beheld him behind his ranks, upon a dapple-grey steed, two slave-girls shading him with a parasol of peacock feathers ; between him and his soldiers stretched a white plain whereon stood none. I went out to Ibn Abi Sarh, who allotted me men : I chose of them thirty horsemen, and said to the rest : spread yourselves in your ranks. I charged from the side where I had seen Jourjir, saying to my companions : guard my back ! By Allah, scarcely had the fight begun when I pierced the ranks to him and stood facing him ; neither he nor his companions deemed me aught but a messenger. When I drew near him, he knew the evil : he leapt upon his steed and fled at speed ; I overtook him and stabbed him : he fell ; I finished him with the sword, raised his head upon a lance and cried Allah is greater ; the Muslims charged, his companions were repulsed from every side, and we rode upon their shoulders.

Khalifa said : there told us one who heard Ibn Lahi'a say : Abu al-Aswad told us ; Quthal said : Abu Idris told me that he campaigned with Abdallah ibn Sa'd against Ifriqiya and opened it : every man received a thousand dinars.

Another said : they took captives and plunder, and the share of the horseman reached three thousand dinars.

Allah opened Ifriqiya, its plain and its mountain ; then they rallied to Islam : their obedience was good.

Ibn Abi Sarh divided the spoils Allah had bestowed on them, took the fifth of the fifth by the command of Uthman, and sent him the four fifths. He encamped at the site of Qayrawan ; a deputation came, complaining of Abdallah for what he had taken. He said : "It was my personal spoil ; it is yours now : if you are content, it stands ; if you are displeased, it is returned." They said : "We are displeased." He said : "It is returned," and he wrote to Abdallah to return it and appease them.

They said : "Then depose him from our affairs." He wrote to him : "Appoint over Ifriqiya a man who contents you, and restore what fell to you as personal spoil : they are displeased." Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh returned, then, to Egypt, after Allah had opened Ifriqiya ; its people remained the most obedient of men until the time of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.

Sayf ibn Omar reported, from his elders, that Uthman sent forthwith Abdallah ibn Nafi ibn al-Husayn and Abdallah ibn Nafi al-Fihri to al-Andalus : they reached it by sea. Uthman wrote to him whom he dispatched to al-Andalus : "As to what follows : Constantinople is opened only from al-Andalus ; if you open it, you shall be partners in its conquest in reward." And the salam, from Ka'b, who said : a people shall cross the sea to al-Andalus and conquer it : they shall be known by their light on the Day of Judgment. They went out to it, by land and by sea, Allah opened it to the Muslims, and the realm of the Muslims grew by the like of Ifriqiya. And the affair of al-Andalus remained as the affair of Ifriqiya, until Hisham commanded, and the Berbers barred their lands.

When Amr was deposed from Egypt, he grew angry with Uthman and bore him rancor. Uthman dispatched Abdallah ibn Sa'd and ordered him to march against Ifriqiya, and mustered the people to go with him to Ifriqiya. He went out to it with ten thousand men. Ibn Sa'd concluded peace with the people of Ifriqiya upon two million five hundred thousand dinars. The king of the Byzantines sent from Constantinople the order to take from the people of Ifriqiya three hundred cantars of gold, as Abdallah ibn Sa'd had taken from them. They said : "We have no wealth to give ; what was in our hands we have ransomed by it. As for the king, he is our lord : let him take what is his due of gift among us, as we gave him every year." The messenger, seeing that, ordered them imprisoned ; they sent to men of their partisans, who came, broke the prison, and brought them out.

Yazid ibn Abi Habib said : Abdallah ibn Sa'd wrote to Uthman : "Amr ibn al-As ruins the land-tax." And Amr wrote : "Abdallah ibn Sa'd has spoiled against me the strategy of war." Uthman wrote to Amr : "Withdraw : Abdallah takes charge of the land-tax and the troops." Amr arrived, angry, entered upon Uthman wearing a Yemenite jacket stuffed with cotton. Uthman said to him : "What is stuffed in your jacket ?" He said : "Amr." He said : "I know well that Amr is in it : that is not what I ask ; I ask you : do you dwell there, or not ?"

Abdallah ibn Sa'd sent Uthman wealth from Egypt, into which Amr entered. Uthman said : "Do you know that that colt has trotted after you ?" Amr said : "Its weaning-price is lost."

That year : Uthman made the pilgrimage with the people.

The year twenty-eight :

It is said : at its beginning, the expedition of Cyprus, already mentioned. Sayf reported, from his narrators, that they said : Mu'awiya pressed Umar for command of the naval expedition, the nearness of the Byzantines to Homs. Umar said : "A village of Homs whose people hear the barking of their dogs and the crowing of their cocks is dearer to me than all that is in the sea." Umar ceased not refusing until Mu'awiya all but prevailed upon him. Umar wrote to Amr ibn al-As : "Describe to me the sea and its riders." He wrote to him : "I have seen a great creature ridden by small creatures : if it stands still, it burns the hearts ; if it moves, it disorders the minds ; certainty grows little therein and doubt much ; men therein are as worms upon a stick : if it inclines, they drown ; if they escape, they return perplexed."

When Umar read the letter, he wrote to Mu'awiya : "By Allah, I shall never embark a Muslim thereon."

Abu Ja'far at-Tabari said : Mu'awiya campaigned against Cyprus, and peace was concluded with its people upon the tribute.

Al-Waqidi said : in that year Habib ibn Maslama campaigned from Syria against the land of the Byzantines.

That year : Uthman married Na'ila bint al-Farafisa, who embraced Islam before he entered upon her.

That year : al-Walid ibn Uqba campaigned against Azerbaijan and concluded peace on the like of the peace of Hudhayfa.

How few died in those years, as you see.

The year twenty-nine :

That year : Uthman deposed Abu Musa from Basra, replacing him with Abdallah ibn Amir ibn Kurayz, to whom he added Fars.

That year : Abdallah ibn Amir opened Istakhr by force : slain and captives ; at his vanguard was Ubaydallah ibn Ma'mar ibn Uthman at-Taymi, one of the generous ; each of the two had seen the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

Great was the fighting for Istakhr, and Ubaydallah ibn Ma'mar was slain therein : he was among the great emirs ; he had opened Sabur by force and the citadel of Shiraz, and he died young. Ibn Amir swore that, were he victorious over the city, he would slay until blood flowed from its gate. There was in it Yazdjard ibn Chahriyar ibn Kisra, who went out of it with a hundred thousand men, marched to Merv, and left over Istakhr one of his emirs with an army to guard it. The Muslims sapped the wall : they had scarce perceived it when the Muslims were in the city. Ibn Amir exceeded in slaying them, desiring that blood flow not from the gate. It was said to him : "You have destroyed the creatures." He ordered water poured upon the blood, until the blood issued from the gate. He returned to Hulwan and opened it a second time, slaying many among them because they had broken the peace.

That year : Azerbaijan revolted ; Sa'id ibn al-As campaigned against them and opened it.

That year : Ibn Amir campaigned, with Abdallah ibn Badil al-Khuza'i at his vanguard, who came to Isfahan ; it is said : Sariya ibn Zunaym opened Isfahan by force, then peace was concluded.

Abu Ubayda said : when Ibn Amir came to Basra, Ubaydallah ibn Ma'mar marched to Fars and came to Arjan : they closed themselves against him ; to the right and left of the town rose mountains and shores, and the mountains were not passable to horses, and the shores, meaning the coasts, bore not the army. He concluded peace with them on condition they open for him the gate of the town, that he might pass through : they did so. He marched until he came to Nubandajan and opened it ; then they broke the peace. Then he marched, opened the citadel of Shiraz, then marched to Jur (Gor) and concluded peace with them, leaving among them a man of Taym ; then he returned to Istakhr and besieged it a while. While they were in the siege, the people of Jur slew his agent : Ibn Amir marched to Jur, faced them, opened it by force, and slew thereof forty thousand, counted by reeds ; then he left over them Marwan ibn al-Hakam or another, returned to Istakhr, where Ubaydallah ibn Ma'mar had been slain : he opened it by force, then marched to Fassa and opened it, and opened districts of Kirman. Then he set out toward Khurasan across the desert : thirst seized them, and many perished.

Ibn Jarir said : Ibn Amir wrote to Uthman of the conquest of Fars ; Uthman wrote ordering him to appoint Hurmuz ibn Hayyan al-Yachkuri, Hurmuz ibn Hayyan al-Abdi, and al-Kharrit ibn Rachid over the districts of Fars, and divided Khurasan among six men : al-Ahnaf ibn Qays over Merv and its district, Habib ibn Qurra al-Yarbui over Balkh, Khalid ibn Zuhayr over Herat, Amir ibn Ahmad al-Yachkuri over Tus, and Qays ibn Hubayra as-Sulami over Nishapur.

That year : Uthman enlarged the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : he had it built of hewn

stone, fixed its number, roofed it with teak, fixed its length at one hundred sixty cubits and its breadth at one hundred fifty cubits, and made its gates six, as in the time of Umar.

Uthman made the pilgrimage with the people ; a tent was pitched for him at Mina, wherein he performed the whole prayer, as at Arafat. They blamed him for it ; Ali came to him, and he said : "By Allah, no new command has been issued, no old covenant abrogated : I saw your prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, pray two rak'as ; then Abu Bakr, then Umar ; and you, at the start of your rule." Uthman said : "It is the opinion I formed."

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf spoke to him of it : he said : "I have been told of the harshness of the people, who say : the prayer of the resident is two rak'as, and behold Uthman prays four rak'as : therefore I prayed four rak'as ; and I have taken a wife at Mecca." Abd ar-Rahman said : "That is no excuse." He said : "It is the opinion I formed."

The year thirty :

That year : al-Walid ibn Uqba was deposed from Kufa, replaced by Sa'id ibn al-As, who campaigned against Tabaristan : he besieged them, and they asked him amnesty on condition he slay not one man of them ; he slew them all, save one man alone : he excuses himself of it.

That year : Jur, of the land of Fars, was opened by Ibn Amir, who took abundant plunder ; and in those years Ibn Amir opened many lands of Khurasan.

Dawud ibn Abi Hind said : when Ibn Amir opened the land of Fars in the year thirty, Yazdjard, son of Kisra, fled ; Ibn Amir sent after him Mujashi ibn Mas'ud as-Sulami ;

and Ibn Amir dispatched, as Khalifa mentions, Ziyad ibn ar-Rabi al-Harithi to Sistan : he opened Zaliq and Nachirudh, then concluded peace with the people of Zarandj upon a thousand garments, each garment with a jam of gold. Then Ibn Amir marched to Khurasan, with al-Ahnaf ibn Qays at his vanguard : he met the people of Herat and routed them.

Then Ibn Amir opened Abrachahr, that is, Nishapur, by peace ; it is said : by force. There were in it, as mentioned by other than Khalifa, the two daughters of Kisra, son of Hormuz. He sent an army which opened Tus and its districts by peace. Then he concluded peace with those of the people of Sarakhs who came to him, upon one hundred fifty thousand, and sent al-Aswad ibn Koulthoum al-Adawi to Bayhaq.

The people of Merv sent seeking peace, and Ibn Amir concluded with them peace upon two million two hundred thousand.

Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays marched with four thousand men ; the people of Tokharistan, of Juzjan and of Faryab gathered against him, under Tuqan-shah : the fighting was fierce, then Allah routed the polytheists, and the victory was won.

Then al-Ahnaf marched on Balkh : they concluded peace upon four hundred thousand. Then he reached Khwarizm, could not take it, and returned. Herat was opened, then they broke faith.

Ibn Ishaq said : Ibn Amir sent an army to Merv : peace concluded, and the city was opened by peace.

Then Ibn Amir went out from Nishapur in ihram for the umra, leaving al-Ahnaf ibn Qays as deputy over Khurasan. When he had completed his umra, he came to Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, and met him. Then the people of Khurasan broke faith, gathered a great host,

and encamped at Merv : al-Ahnaf rose to fight them, met them and routed them ; it was a famous engagement.

Then Ibn Amir came from Medina to Basra, and governed it without cease until Uthman was slain ; and so Mu'awiya in Syria.

When Ibn Amir had opened those vast lands, the land-tax abounded for Uthman, and wealth came to him from every side, until he made for himself treasuries and administered the pensions ; he would order for a man one hundred thousand : in each bundle, four thousand whole pieces.

The qadi Abu Yusuf said : there were brought out from the treasuries of Kisra two hundred thousand bundles, four thousand pieces to the bundle.

Those who died in the year thirty :

Jabbar ibn Sakhr ibn Umayya ibn Khansa, Abu Abd ar-Rahman al-Ansari as-Sulami.

He attended Badr and Aqaba ; the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent him as scout to Khaybar. He died in Medina, at sixty years.

At-Tufayl ibn al-Harith ibn al-Muttalib al-Muttalibi, according to Sa'id ibn Afir ; brother of Ubayda ibn al-Harith and al-Husayn ibn al-Harith ; he was among the very first converts ; he attended Badr.

Abdallah ibn Ka'b ibn Amr al-Mazni al-Ansari al-Badri.

He was over the fifth on the day of Badr ; his kunya was Abu al-Harith, or it is said : Abu Yahya ; Uthman prayed over him. He was brother of Abu Layla al-Mazni.

Ma'mar ibn Abi Sarh ibn Rabi ibn Hilal al-Qurashi, Abu Sa'd al-Fihri ; it is said : his name was Amr, so named him Ibn Ishaq and others ; a Badri, he attained the Companionship.

Mas'ud ibn Rabi, or it is said : ibn ar-Rabi, Abu Umayr the reciter ; al-Qarara were allies of the Banu Zahra. He attended Badr and other battles, and lived some sixty-five years : already mentioned.

The year thirty-one :

Abu Abdallah al-Hakim said : all our elders agree that Nishapur was opened by peace, and that its conquest took place in the year thirty-one. Then he reports, with a chain, from Mus'ab ibn Abi az-Zahra, that Kinar, lord of Nishapur, wrote to Sa'id ibn al-As, governor of Kufa, and to Abdallah ibn Amir, governor of Basra, inviting them to Khurasan, informing them that Merv had slain its people and that Yazdjard had fled. Sa'id ibn al-As then dispatched al-Hasan ibn Ali

and Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr. A dehkan came to Ibn Amir and said : "What will you give me if I outpace your mount ?" He said : "Your land-tax and that of your household until the Day of Judgment." He took him by the hand toward Qumis, hastened the march, and encamped upon Nishapur.

He fought its people seven months, then opened it. Uthman appointed him governor over it as well : he was the maternal cousin of Uthman. It is said : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, spat in his mouth while he was a child.

Khalifa says of it : Abdallah ibn Amir entered ihram from Nishapur, and left Qays ibn al-Haytham and others deputies over Khurasan ; it is said that was the previous year.

That year : the expedition of al-Asawid ; Abdallah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh campaigned from Egypt upon the sea, and marched toward the region of Misis.

The year thirty-two :

That year : the engagement of the Strait, near Constantinople ; its commander : Mu'awiya.

Died that year : Sinan ibn Abi Sinan ibn Muhsin al-Asadi, ally of the Banu Abd Shams.

He was older than his uncle Uqacha ; he and his father emigrated and both attended Badr. His father died while the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was besieging the Banu Qurayza. Sinan was among the lords of the Companions. Al-Waqidi said : he is the first who pledged allegiance under the Tree.

At-Tufayl ibn al-Harith ibn al-Muttalib, that year according to some : already mentioned.

His brother al-Husayn died four months after him ; both had attended Badr. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib are one and the same : they forsook us not, in the Jahiliyya nor in Islam."

The year thirty-three :

That year : the expedition of Cyprus, according to Ibn Ishaq and others, and the expedition of Ifriqiya, commander of the people Abdallah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh : so said al-Layth.

That year, says Khalifa : Qarin gathered a great host at Badghis and Herat, and advanced with forty thousand : Qays ibn al-Haytham abandoned the lands and fled. Abdallah ibn Khazim as-Sulami took command of the Muslims, gathered four thousand fighters, met Qarin ; Allah gave him victory : slain and captives. He wrote Ibn Amir of the conquest, and Ibn Amir appointed him over Khurasan. Then Ibn Amir dispatched Abd ar-Rahman ibn Samura to Sistan : the lord of Zarandj concluded peace with him, and he remained there until Uthman was besieged.

Khalifa says : that year Mu'awiya campaigned against Malatya and the fortress of al-Mara, of the land of the Byzantines.

He says : that year Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh campaigned against Abyssinia, wherein the eye of Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj was struck.

The year thirty-four :

That year : the people of Kufa fell upon their governor Sa'id ibn al-As and drove him out ; they were content with Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, wrote concerning him to Uthman, who entrusted them to him ; then, a little after, he sent Sa'id ibn al-As back to the command, and they went out and refused him.

That year : the expedition of the One with Masts upon the sea, from the side of Alexandria ; its commander : Ibn Abi Sarh.

The year thirty-five :

That year : the expedition of Dhi Khushb, over the Muslims Mu'awiya.

That year : he made the pilgrimage with the people, and Abdallah ibn Abbas presided over the season.

The slaying of Uthman :

That year took place the slaying of Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him : the Egyptians and others went out against Uthman and marched upon him to depose him from the caliphate.

Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid said : when the people of Egypt encamped at al-Juhfa and came reproaching Uthman, Uthman mounted the pulpit and said : "May Allah recompense you on my behalf, O companions of Muhammad : you acknowledged the misdeed and concealed the good deed ; you stirred against me the light-minded of the people. Which of you will go to these folk and ask them what they blame and what they seek ?" He said it three times, and none answered. Ali rose and said : "I." Uthman said : "You are nearest of them in kin." He went to them, and they welcomed him. He said : "What is it you blame ?" They said : "We blame him for effacing the Book of Allah," meaning his having united the community upon one codex, "for keeping the domains to himself, for appointing his kinsmen, for giving a hundred thousand to Marwan, and for setting aside the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

Uthman answered them : "As for the Quran, it is from Allah : I only forbade you divergence ; recite then according to whatever script you will. As for the domains : by Allah, I kept them not for my beasts nor for my plunder, but for the camels of alms. As for your word : I gave a hundred thousand to Marwan : that is their treasury : let them appoint over it whom they love. As for your word : I set aside the companions of the Messenger of Allah : I am but a man : I grow angry and I am content. Whoso claims from me a right, or a wrong done him : here I am : if he will, let him exact retaliation ; if he will, let him pardon." The people were content, made peace, and returned to Medina.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd said : they said : there left Kufa for Medina : al-Ashtar an-Nakha'i, whose name was Malik ibn al-Harith, Yazid ibn Munqif, Thabit ibn Qays, Kumayl ibn Ziyad, Zayd and Sa'sa'a, the two sons of Suhan, al-Harith one-eyed, Jundab ibn Zuhayr, and Asfar ibn Qays : they asked Uthman the deposition of Sa'id ibn al-As from over them. Sa'id departed also to Uthman, and their wish was granted.

Uthman refused to depose him. Al-Ashtar went out of his night in two bands : ten men marched to Kufa, seized it, mounted the pulpit and said : "This is Sa'id ibn al-As come to you, claiming the plain is a garden for the old men of Quraysh : the plain is where your heads fall and the resting-place of your spears. Whoso sees a right upon himself toward Allah, let him rise to al-Jara." The people went out and encamped at al-Jara. Sa'id advanced and encamped at al-Adhib. Al-Ashtar equipped against him a thousand horsemen, with Yazid ibn Qays al-Arh abi and Abdallah ibn Kinana al-Abdi, and said : "March : harass him and bring him back to his master ; if he refuses, strike his neck." They came to him ; seeing their earnestness, he turned back. Al-Ashtar mounted the pulpit of Kufa and said : "O people of Kufa, I was angered but for Allah and for you ; I have entrusted your prayer to Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, and the spoils to Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman." Then he descended and said : "O Abu Musa, mount." He said : "I shall not ; but come, pledge allegiance to the Commander of the Believers, and renew the pledge upon your necks." The people answered, and he wrote Uthman what he had done. Uthman marveled at it. Utba ibn al-Wa'l, the poet of the people of Kufa, declaimed :

"Bestow alms upon us, O son of Affan, and reckon the reward / and entrust us to the Ash'arite for some nights."

Uthman said : "Yes, and months, and years, if I live." What the people of Kufa did to Sa'id was the first disorder ; then they rushed upon Uthman when they grew bold against him.

Az-Zuhri said : Uthman governed and acted six years, and the people found nothing to blame him for ; he was dearer to them than Umar, for Umar was severe upon them. When Uthman governed them, he was gentle and visited them ; then he delayed in their affair, appointed

his kinsmen and his household in the last six years, wrote for Marwan the fifth of Egypt, or of Ifriqiya, preferred his kinsmen with wealth, construed the kinship Allah commanded honored, amassed wealth, borrowed from the treasury, and said : "Abu Bakr and Umar left what was their due, and I took it and divided it among my kinsmen." The people blamed him for it.

I say : among what they blamed him for : he deposed Umayr ibn Sa'd from Homs, who was righteous and detached ; he united Syria for Mu'awiya ; he withdrew Amr ibn al-As from Egypt and appointed Ibn Abi Sarh over it ; he withdrew Abu Musa al-Ash'ari from Basra and appointed Abdallah ibn Amir over it ; he withdrew al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba from Kufa and appointed Sa'id ibn al-As over it.

Al-Qasim ibn al-Fadl said : Amr ibn Marra told us, from Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'd : Uthman summoned Companions, among them Ammar, and said : "I ask you, and I love that you be truthful : I adjure you by Allah, do you know that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, preferred Quraysh over the rest of the people, and the Banu Hashim over the rest of Quraysh ?"

They were silent, and he said : "Had I in my hand the keys of Paradise, I would give them to the Banu Umayya until they entered it."

Abu Wail reported that Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf had an exchange with Uthman, who sent to him : "Why did you flee on the day of Uhud, hold back from Badr, and contradict the sunna of Umar ?" He answered : "I held back from Badr because the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, kept me busy with her illness ; as for the day of Uhud, Allah pardoned me ; as for the sunna of Umar, by Allah, neither you nor I could bear it."

There was between Ali and Uthman some discord : al-Abbas walked between them. Ali said : "By Allah, were he to order me out of my house, I would go ; but as to the Book of Allah not being established by him, that I would not do."

Sayf ibn Omar reported, from Atiyya, from Yazid al-Faqasi, who said : when Ibn as-Sawda set out for Egypt, he encamped once with Kinana ibn Bachr, once with Sawdan ibn Hamran, and attached himself to al-Ghafiqi, who urged him on and made him speak ; Kharid ibn Muljam, Abdallah ibn Razin and their likes thronged about him ; he turned their speech, and found them answering nothing but this counsel : "Have recourse to the phalanx of the Arabs and their rock ; we are not of his partisans. Make him believe you till the land, and till nothing this year, until Egypt is broken, and you complain to Uthman, who will depose him over you ; we shall then ask for one weaker than he and abandon what we will, and take charge of enjoining right and forbidding wrong." Swiftest to that was Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa, maternal cousin of Mu'awiya : he was an orphan in the care of Uthman, then grew up, and asked Uthman leave to emigrate to some province ; he went out to Egypt. What drove him to it : he had asked Uthman for office, and he said : "I shall not see you there."

He says : they did as Ibn as-Sawda had ordered them. Then they went out, those whom Allah willed ; they complained of Amr and sought his recall ; every time Uthman turned them from Amr, a folk fell silent, others rose with something else, all of them demanding Abdallah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh. Uthman said to them : "As for Amr, we shall depose him over you and return him to war" ; then he entrusted Ibn Abi Sarh their land-tax, and left Amr over the prayer. Sawdan, Kinana ibn Bachr and Kharja walked between Abdallah ibn Sa'd and Amr ibn al-As, and sowed between them until they exchanged letters to the measure of what each reported to them, and wrote to Uthman. Ibn Abi Sarh wrote : "My land-tax prospers not so long as Amr holds the prayer." They went out, confirmed him, sought the recall of Amr, and asked for Ibn Abi

Sarh. Uthman wrote to Amr : "No good for you in the company of one who hates you : return." Then he united Egypt to Ibn Abi Sarh.

It is related that there was an exchange between Ammar ibn Yasir and al-Abbas ibn Utba ibn Abi Lahab, and Uthman struck them both.

Sayf reported, from Mubashshir and Sahl ibn Yusuf, from Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, who said : Ammar ibn Yasir came from Egypt, and Abu Chakr reached him ; he sent me to summon him : he rose with me, wearing a turban, a staff, and a jacket of hide. When he entered upon Sa'd, the latter said to him : "Woe to you, O Abu al-Yaqdhan : if you are of us and of the people of good, what is this that has reached me of you : your labor to corrupt between the Muslims and to slander the Commander of the Believers ? Have you your reason, or no ?" Ammar bent to his turban in anger : he pulled it off and said : "I have deposed Uthman as I depose this turban of mine." Sa'd said : "To Allah we belong and unto Him we return. Woe to you : when your hair has whitened, your bones thinned, and your life spent, you strip the collar of Islam of its necklace and go out of the religion bare." Ammar rose angry, turning away and saying : "I seek refuge with my Lord from the fitna of Sa'd." Sa'd said : "Yes indeed : in the fitna fell those who fell. O Allah, add to Uthman, with You, degrees for his pardon and his forbearance !" Until Ammar went out the door. Sa'd turned to me weeping, until his beard was wet, and said : "Who then is secure from fitna, O my boy ? Let not leave you what you heard from me : that is of the trust ; and I hate that people seize upon it against me. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : the truth goes with Ammar so long as the boldness of old age diverts him not." He has been diverted, and he drivels.

Among those who rose against Uthman was Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as-Siddiq. Salim ibn Abdallah was asked the cause of Muhammad's going out, and said : "Anger and greed : he had a standing in Islam ; folk deluded him and he coveted ; he had a guide, and right attended him ; Uthman deprived him of it."

Mu'awiya made the pilgrimage ; it is said that, seeing Uthman's softness and the wavering of his affair, he said : "Come with me to Syria, before there leap upon you one to whom you can offer nothing : the people of Syria are upon obedience." He said : "I shall not sell the neighborhood of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, for anything, though it be the cutting of a thread of my neck." He said : "I shall send you troops." He said : "To bring the stipends near the neighbors of the Messenger of Allah, with troops lodging among them !" He said : "O Commander of the Believers, by Allah, you shall be surprised and you shall fight." He said : "Allah suffices me : an excellent trustee !"

The people of Egypt had pledged their partisans among the people of Kufa and Basra, and all who answered them ; they appointed a day wherein their emirs presented themselves, but that did not stand them. Among the people of Kufa rose Yazid ibn Qays al-Arh abi, to whom folk rallied ; al-Qaqa ibn Amr had the command of the war that day : he came to him, the people enveloped their own, and adjured them. Yazid said to al-Qaqa : "What is your way with me and these ? By Allah, I am a hearing, obedient one, cleaving to my company, save that I ask the deposition of the command of Sa'id." They showed nothing but that ; they met Sa'id, turned him back from Jara, the people rallied to Abu Musa, and Uthman confirmed him.

When the emirs returned, the partisans had no way left to go out from the provinces : they exchanged letters with their partisans to come to Medina and consider there what they sought, professing they enjoined right, and asking Uthman things that would inflame the people and establish the case against him. They came to Medina ; Uthman sent two men of the Banu

Makhzum and of the Banu Zahra, saying : "See what they seek." The two men had met with rigor from Uthman : they held their anger for the truth and did not flare. The plotters, seeing them, questioned them and informed them. They said : "Who in Medina is with you on this ?" They said : "Three." They said : "What will you do ?" They said : "We shall mention to him things we have sown in the hearts of the people, then return to them and affirm to them that we stated it to him, and that he neither denied it nor repented ; then we shall go out as pilgrims, until we arrive, encompass him, and depose him ; if he refuses, we slay him."

They returned to Uthman with the report, and he laughed and said : "O Allah, preserve these : if You preserve them not, they shall be broken. As for Ammar, upon him is the sin of the son of Abu Lahab and the dispute he had with me ; as for Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, he has been dazzled until he saw that rights bind him not ; as for Ibn Sara, the tribulation has dazzled him."

He sent to the Egyptians and the Kufans, and the call was made : "The prayer is gathered !" They were with him at the base of the pulpit. The companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came forward : he praised Allah and extolled Him, informed them of the matter, and the two men rose. The people said : "Slay these : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : whoso calls to himself, or to another, while the people have an imam, upon him is the curse of Allah : slay him."

Uthman said : "We shall pardon and accept, and show them our toil : these said the prayer of travel is completed in full, when it was not. Behold, I have come to a land where is my family : therefore I completed it."

They said : "You kept the domains." He said : "By Allah, I kept only what my predecessor kept ; and when I was invested, I was the richest of the Arabs in camels and sheep ; today my wealth, save two camels for my pilgrimage, is gone : is it so ?" They said : "Yes."

He said : "And they said : the Quran was leaves, and I left but one : behold, the Quran is one, come from One ; and I am therein but the follower of those men : is it so ?" They said : "Yes."

They said : "You sent back the governor the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had sent to Ta'if, then recalled : the Messenger of Allah sent him, and it is he who recalled him : is it so ?" They said : "Yes."

They said : "You appointed young men." He said : "I appointed none but men of consensus and approval : these are my men of affairs, ask them ; and my predecessor appointed younger, and it was said to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, over the appointment of Usama, harder than what is said to me : is it so ?" They said : "Yes."

They said : "You gave Ibn Abi Sarh what Allah bestowed on him as spoils." He said : "I gave as personal spoil only the fifth of the fifth, which was a hundred thousand ; Abu Bakr and Umar gave the like ; the troops claimed to dislike it : I returned it to them, for it is not theirs : is it so ?" They said : "Yes."

They said : "You love the people of your house and give to them." He said : "As for loving them, it entails no wrong ; as for giving them, I give them only of my own wealth, and I made not lawful the wealth of the Muslims for myself nor for any." Yet he had divided his wealth and his land among the Banu Umayya, and made his children as one who receives.

He says : those returned to their lands, and he pardoned them. They exchanged letters and appointed to meet in Chawwal. When Chawwal came, they went out like pilgrims and encamped near Medina. The people of Egypt went out, four hundred, their emirs being Abd ar-Rahman ibn Adis al-Balawi, Kinana ibn Bachr al-Laythi, Sawdan ibn Hamran as-Sakuni and Qutayra as-Sakuni, and their vanguard al-Ghafiqi ibn Harb al-Aki, with them Ibn as-Sawda.

The people of Kufa went out in number near that of the Egyptians, among them Zayd ibn Suhan al-Abdi, al-Ashtar an-Nakha'i, Ziyad ibn an-Nadr al-Harithi, Abdallah ibn al-Asamm, their vanguard Amr ibn al-Asamm.

The people of Basra went out, among them Hakim ibn Jabala, Dharih ibn Abbad, Busr ibn Charih al-Qaysi and Ibn Muharrich al-Hanafi, under the lead of Harqus ibn Zuhayr as-Sadi.

As for the people of Egypt, they sought Ali ; as for the people of Basra, they sought Talha ; as for the people of Kufa, they sought az-Zubayr. They went out, and each company doubted not that its affair would be accomplished before the other, until they were three stages from Medina. Some of the people of Basra advanced and encamped at Dhi Khushb ; some of the people of Kufa advanced and encamped at al-Awas, and some of the people of Egypt came to them ; the main body encamped at Dhi al-Marwa. Ziyad ibn an-Nadr and Abdallah ibn al-Asamm walked between the people of Basra and the people of Egypt to learn the news of Medina : they entered, met the wives of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, Talha, az-Zubayr and Ali, and said : "We intend not this House ; we only ask the recall of some of our agents," and asked the people leave to enter : all refused and forbade them, and they returned. A company of the people of Egypt gathered and came to Ali, a company of the people of Basra came to Talha, a company of the people of Kufa came to az-Zubayr ; each company said : if we pledge not allegiance to our man, we shall outwit them and disperse their company, then return until we have lost them.

The Egyptians came to Ali while he was encamped at the stones of the olive, and his son al-Hasan had gone out to Uthman among those who had rallied to him. The Egyptians greeted Ali, offered themselves to him ; he cried out against them and drove them off, saying : "The righteous know you are accursed : return, may Allah give you no company !" They withdrew ; and Talha and az-Zubayr did the like.

Those folk feigned returning to their lands : the people of Medina went to their dwellings ; when the plotters had returned to their camps, they returned against them unawares, seized Medina to the surprise of its people, cried out the greatness of Allah, encamped at the places of their armies, enveloped Uthman, and said : "Whoso withholds his hand is safe."

The people kept to their houses. Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, came : "What brought you back after your going ?" They said : "We found with the courier a writing announcing our slaying." The Kufans and the Basrians said : "We shall shield our brothers and aid them" : the people knew that was their trick.

Uthman wrote to the people of the provinces seeking their aid : they marched to him over hard roads and swift mounts ; Mu'awiya sent him Habib ibn Maslama, Ibn Abi Sarh sent Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj, and from Kufa marched to him al-Qaqa ibn Amr.

When Friday came, Uthman prayed with the people and preached : "O you there, Allah, Allah ! By Allah, the people of Medina know you are accursed upon the tongue of Muhammad, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. Efface the fault by right : Allah effaces not the evil but by the good." Muhammad ibn Maslama rose : "I bear witness to that." Hakim ibn Jabala seated him ; Zayd ibn Thabit rose : "Give me the writing." From the other side leapt Muhammad ibn Abi Qutayra, who seated him and spoke, and frightened him ; the whole company surged, stoned the people until they drove them out, stoned Uthman until he fell from the pulpit senseless ; he was carried and taken into the house.

The Egyptians looked for none in Medina to aid them but three men : they corresponded with them : Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as-Siddiq, Muhammad ibn Ja'far, and Ammar ibn Yasir.

He says : men put themselves beyond slaying : Zayd ibn Thabit, Abu Hurayrah, Sa'd ibn Malik, al-Hasan ibn Ali ; they rose to aid Uthman ; he sent them word he would march upon them when they had withdrawn ; they withdrew. Ali came, entered upon Uthman, with Talha and az-Zubayr, to visit him in his swoon, then they returned to their dwellings.

Amr ibn Dinar reported, from Jabir : Uthman sent us fifty riders, with Muhammad ibn Maslama at our head ; we came to Dhi Khushb : behold a man with a codex hung about his neck, his two eyes shedding tears, the sword in his hand, saying : "Behold, this one, meaning the codex, commands us to strike with this one, meaning the sword, upon what is in this one." Muhammad ibn Maslama said : "Sit : before you, we struck with this one upon what is in this one." He sat, and he ceased not speaking to them until they returned.

Al-Waqidi said : Ibn Jurayj and others told me, from Amr, from Jabir : when the Egyptians advanced upon Uthman, Uthman called Muhammad ibn Maslama and said : "Go out to them, turn them back, and grant them satisfaction." Their chiefs were four : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Adis, Sawdan ibn Hamran, Amr ibn al-Hamaq al-Khuza'i, and Ibn al-Bayya. Ibn Maslama came to them and ceased not with them until they returned. When they were at al-Buwayb, they saw a camel bearing the brand of alms : they seized it ; it was a lad of Uthman. They searched his baggage and found a rod of lead containing, inside the waterskin, in the water, a writing : "To Abdallah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh : do so to so-and-so, and so to so-and-so, of the people who have entered upon the slaying of Uthman." The people returned a second time, engaged Uthman, and besieged him.

Al-Waqidi said : Abdallah ibn al-Harith told me, from his father : Uthman disclaimed the writing of that letter and said : "He did it without my order."

Abu Nadra reported, from Abu Sa'id, client of Abu Usayd, and mentions part of the hadith up to these words : then they returned content. While they were on the road, they caught a courier bearing to the agent of Egypt the order to crucify them, and do, and do. They returned to Medina, came to Ali and said : "Do you not see the enemy of Allah ? Rise with us." He said : "By Allah, I shall not rise with you." They said : "Then why did you write to us ?" He said : "By Allah, I wrote you not." They looked at one another, and Ali went out of Medina. They went to Uthman : "Did you write of us so and so ?" He said : "There are but two issues : either you establish two men of the Muslims," meaning two witnesses, "or my oath by Allah, other than whom there is no deity : I neither wrote nor knew. A letter may be written upon a man's tongue, and a seal graven upon a seal." They said : "Allah has made lawful your blood : they broke the covenant and the pledge," and they besieged him in the fortress.

Ibn Sirin said : Uthman sent them Ali, who said : "You accept the Book of Allah, and you complain of all that displeases you." Men of their notables came with him and made peace upon five terms : the exile shall be returned, the deprived given, the spoils paid in full, equity observed in the division, and there shall be appointed the man of trust and strength ; they wrote that in a document, on condition that Ibn Amir be returned to Basra and Abu Musa to Kufa.

Abu al-Achhab reported, from al-Hasan : I saw you stoning one another in the mosque until you saw not the sky ; and a man lifted a codex from the chambers of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and cried : "Know you not that Muhammad is quit of those who divided their religion and were sects ?"

Salam said : I heard al-Hasan say : Uthman went out one Friday ; a man rose to him and said : "I ask you by the Book of Allah." He said : "Woe to you : have you not with you the Book of Allah ?" Then came another man who forbade him ; another rose, then another, until they were many ; then they stoned one another until I saw not the sky.

Bachr ibn Chufagh reported, from Abdallah ibn Salam : Uthman was preaching when a man rose and struck him ; the blood flowed. A man said : "The place of Ibn Salam must not bar you from reviling a Na'thal, for he is of his partisans." I said to him : "You have spoken there a mighty word concerning the caliph descended after Nuh."

They wounded him : I rebuked him and repressed him. They called Uthman "Na'thal", likening him to an Egyptian man named Na'thal, long-bearded ; and the na'thal is the male of the hyena ; and Umar was likened to Nuh in firmness.

Ibn Umar said : Uthman was preaching when Jahjaha al-Ghifari rose to him, took the staff from his hand and broke it upon his knee : a splinter entered his knee, and the devourer fell into it.

Another said : then they surrounded the house and besieged him. Sa'd ibn Ibrahim reported, from his father : I heard Uthman say : "If you find in the right that you place my legs in fetters, place them."

Thumama ibn Hazn al-Quchayri said : I attended the affair of the house ; Uthman looked down upon them and said : "Bring me your two companions who beguiled you." They were brought to him : they were like two camels, or two asses. He said : "I adjure you by Allah : know you that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came to Medina, and there was in it no sweet water but the well of Ruma, and said : whoso buys it, his bucket shall be as the buckets of the Muslims, and he shall have in Paradise better than it ; I bought it, and you today bar me from drinking of it, until I drink of the salt water ?" The two said : "O Allah, yes." He said : "I adjure you both by Allah and by Islam : know you that the mosque grew strait for its people, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : whoso buys a spot shall have better in Paradise ; I bought it and added it to the mosque, and you bar me today from praying in it ?" The two said : "O Allah, yes." He said : "I adjure you both by Allah : know you that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, stood upon the mount of Mecca when it quaked, with Abu Bakr, Umar and me, and said : Be still : upon you is none but a prophet, a truthful one, and two martyrs." The two said : "O Allah, yes." He said : "Allah is greater ! Two witnesses, and by the Lord of the Ka'ba : I am a martyr."

Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman reported it in like manner, adding that he equipped the army of the Hardship, then said : "But my affair tarried too long with you, and you hastened ; you would take off the tunic Allah clothed me in : I shall not take it off until I die or am slain."

Ibn Umar reported that he looked down upon them and said : "Why slay you me ? The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : the blood of a Muslim man is lawful for none of three : unbelief after Islam, a man who fornicates after chastity, or a man who slays a soul. By Allah, I never fornicated, in the Jahiliyya nor in Islam ; I never slew a man, and I was never an unbeliever."

Abu Umama ibn Sahl ibn Hanif said : I saw Uthman besieged ; we entered upon him in turns : when the man entered upon him, he heard the words of those upon the terrace. One day he entered and came out to us, his color changed, and said : "They threaten me with slaying." We said : "Allah suffices you against them."

Sahl as-Sirraj reported, from al-Hasan, that Uthman said : "If they slay me, they shall never fight an enemy all together, never divide a spoil all together, never pray all together."

Abd al-Malik ibn Abi Sulayman said the like, from Abu Layla al-Kindi, adding : then he sent to Abdallah ibn Salam and said : "What see you ?" He said : "Restraint, restraint : it is more compelling for you in argument." They entered upon him and slew him : fasting, may Allah be pleased with him and satisfy him.

Al-Hasan said : Waththab told me : Uthman sent me ; I summoned al-Ashtar, who said : "What do the people seek ? One of three : they give you choice between deposition and the law of retaliation upon yourself ; if you refuse, they slay you." He said : "How should I take off the tunic Allah clothed me in ? And my body cannot stand for retaliation."

Hamid ibn Hilal said : Abdallah ibn Mughaffal told us : Abdallah ibn Salam used to come from his land upon a donkey on Friday. When they rose against Uthman, he said : "O people, slay not Uthman : ask him assurance. By Him in whose hand my soul is, never has a community slain its prophet but Allah set right their affairs after seventy thousand bloods were shed ; and never has a community slain its caliph but Allah set right their affairs after forty thousand bloods were shed ; and never has a community perished but it raised the Quran above the sultan." He says : they regarded not his word, and slew him ; he sat upon the road of Ali ibn Abi Talib and said to him : "Go not to Iraq, and keep to the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah : by Him in whose hand my soul is, had I not held you back, you would never see it again." Those around Ali said : "Let us slay him." He said : "Leave Abdallah ibn Salam : he is a righteous man."

Abdallah ibn Mughaffal said : I had asked leave of Abdallah ibn Salam for a land I was buying ; he said afterwards : "This is the crest of forty years, and after it comes peace : buy it." It was said to Hamid ibn Hilal : "How raise we the Quran above the sultan ?" He said : "See you not the Khawarij, how they construe the Quran against the sultan ?"

Ibn Umar entered upon Uthman

beseiged and said : "What see you ?" He said : "I see that you give them what they asked of you, over the threshold of your gate, without deposing yourself." He said : "Here is your grant," and he was found to have means. Ibn Umar said : "This is not the day for that." Then Ibn Umar went out to them and said : "Beware the slaying of this old man : by Allah, if you slay him, you shall never make the pilgrimage of the House all together, never fight your enemy all together, never divide your spoils all together, save that bodies gather and souls diverge. We were, with the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, many, and we said : Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman." Asim ibn Muhammad al-Umari reported it, from his father, from Ibn Umar.

Abu Ja'far the reciter said : the Egyptians who besieged Uthman were six hundred, at their head Kinana ibn Bachr, Ibn Adis al-Balawi, and Amr ibn al-Hamaq ; those who came from Kufa were two hundred, at their head al-Ashtar an-Nakha'i ; those who came from Basra were one hundred, at their head Hakim ibn Jabala. They were one hand in evil ; and the scum of the people had joined them. The companions of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, who forsook him, disliked the fitna and thought the matter would not reach slaying ; when the slaying came, they regretted what they had neglected in his affair. By my life : had they risen, or had some of them risen, reviling those folk, they would have withdrawn in disgrace.

Az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said : Muhammad ibn al-Hasan told me : when the blows against Uthman multiplied, Ali withdrew to his property at al-Junayna ; Uthman wrote to him : "As to what follows : the girdle of the two archers is in its place, and the river has left behind it the silt, and the matter has exceeded its measure, and he covets the matter who wards it not from himself :

If you be devoured, be the best of devourers / else, come to me, and rend me not."

The verse is of a poet of the Abd al-Qays.

At-Tayy : the breast of horses.

Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mut'im said : when Uthman was besieged, he sent to Ali : "Your cousin shall be slain, and you despoiled."

Aban ibn Uthman reported : when they pressed Uthman with stoning, I went out, came to Ali and said : "O uncle, the stones destroy us." He rose with me and ceased not being stoned until his shoulder wearied, then said : "O nephew, gather your folk : that shall be your affair after."

Habib ibn Abi Thabit reported, from Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ali : Uthman, besieged, sent to Ali calling him : he wished to come, but they clung to him and forbade him. Ali drew off from his head a black turban and said : "O Allah, I am not pleased with his slaying, nor do I command it."

Abu Idris al-Khawlani reported : Uthman sent to Sa'd, who came ; he spoke with him, and Sa'd said to him : "Send to Ali : if he comes and consents, let the matter be settled." He said : "You are my messenger to him." Ali came, walked with him, passed by Malik al-Ashtar, who said to his companions : "Where would this one go ?" They said : "To Uthman." He said : "By Allah, if he enters upon him, you shall be slain, one after another." He advanced with his companions, wrested Ali from Sa'd, seated him among his companions, and sent to the people of Egypt : "If you seek his death, hasten." They entered upon him and slew him.

Abu Habiba reported : when the matter grew critical, they said to Uthman, meaning those with him in the house : "Give us leave to fight." He said : "I have sworn that he who owes me obedience shall not fight."

This Abu Habiba was the client of az-Zubayr ; Musa ibn Uqba narrates from him.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd said : Muhammad ibn Umar told us : Charhabil ibn Abi Awn told me, from his father, and Abd al-Hamid ibn Imran told me, from his father, from al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama "H" ; and Musa ibn Yaqub told me, from his uncle, from Ibn az-Zubayr "H" ; and Ibn Abi Habiba told us, from Dawud ibn al-Husayn, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas : they say : Uthman sent al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama to Mu'awiya to inform him he was besieged, ordering him to equip him a swift army. When he came to Mu'awiya, the latter mounted at his hour, with Muslim ibn Uqba and Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj ; they marched from Damascus toward Uthman ten nights. Mu'awiya entered at midnight, kissed the head of Uthman, who said : "Where is the army ?" He said : "I came not but with three men." Uthman said : "No : may Allah strengthen your kin, honor your aid, and reward you well ! By Allah, I shall be slain by none but you, and none shall blame me but him who slays me." He said : "May my father and mother be your ransom : had I sent you an army and they heard you hastened them, they would slay you ; but I have light horsemen : come out with me, and none shall know of us : in three nights we shall see the landmarks of Syria." He said : "Evil is the counsel you give," and refused to answer him.

Mu'awiya hastened back. Al-Musayyab turned toward Medina, met Mu'awiya returning at Dhi al-Marwa, came to Uthman, who blamed Mu'awiya finding him no excuse.

In his last siege, al-Musayyab sent a second time to Mu'awiya to aid him ; he said : "Uthman did well : may Allah do well by him ; then he changed, and Allah changed him, and he hardened against me. You left Uthman until his soul was in his gullet, then say : go, ward off from him death ! That is not in my hand." Then he lodged him at the watering-place overhanging his house, and none entered upon him but Uthman was slain.

As for Sayf ibn Omar, he reported, from Abu Haritha and Abu Uthman, who said : when the news came to Mu'awiya, he sent to Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri and said : "Point me a man executing my command, who will not fail." He said : "I know none for that but me." He said : "It is you," and set at his vanguard Yazid ibn Chajara al-Himyari with a thousand, and said : "If you arrive, O Habib, and he is slain, leave none who pointed to it or aided it but slay him ; and if the news reaches you before you arrive, stay until I see." He sent Yazid ibn Chajara with a thousand upon mules, driving

the horses, with them camels bearing the garments of luxury, hastening the march : the news of his slaying reached them near Khaybar. Then an-Nu'man ibn Bachir came, bearing the shirt wherein they had slain him, full of blood and of the fingers of his wife Na'ila, cut off with a sword-blow ; they returned. Mu'awiya raised the shirt upon the pulpit of Damascus, the fingers hanging in the cloth ; men of Syria vowed they would not approach women, nor make the full ablution but of sweat, nor sleep upon a bed, until they had slain the slayers of Uthman or their souls were spent ; they wept for him a year.

Al-Awza'i said : Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan told me that al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba entered upon Uthman while besieged and said : "You are the imam of the community, and there has befallen you what you see : I offer you three traits : either you go out and fight them, for you have with you number and strength ; or a gate other than theirs be pierced for you, you mount your beasts and join Mecca : they shall never make you lawful while you are there ; or you join Syria : they are the people of Syria, and Mu'awiya is among them." He said : "I shall never leave the house of my hijra, nor be the first successor of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in his community to shed blood."

Nafi reported, from Ibn Umar : Uthman rose one morning and told the people : "I saw this night the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in a dream ; he said : you shall break your fast with us tomorrow." He was fasting that morning, and he was slain that day.

Muhammad ibn Sirin said : I know none who accused Ali of the slaying of Uthman ; the slaying came while the house was thronged, among them Ibn Umar, al-Hasan ibn Ali ; but Uthman had resolved that they should not fight.

By another path, from Ibn Sirin : al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Ibn Umar, Marwan and Ibn az-Zubayr went out, all in armor, until they entered upon Uthman, who said : "I adjured you that you return not until you had laid down your arms and kept to your houses." Ibn az-Zubayr and Marwan said : "We adjure ourselves not to stir."

The others went out.

Ibn Sirin said : there were that day with Uthman in the house seven hundred men : had they fought them, they would have beaten them until they drove them from its approaches.

It is reported that al-Hasan ibn Ali returned not but wounded.

Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr said : I said to Uthman : "Fight them : by Allah, Allah has made lawful to you their fighting." He said : "I shall never fight them." They entered upon him while he fasted ; yet Uthman had put Ibn az-Zubayr in charge of the house and said : "Obey Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr."

Ibn Sirin said : Zayd ibn Thabit came with three hundred Ansar, entered upon Uthman, who said : "The Ansar are at the gate." He said : "As for fighting : no."

Abu Salih reported, from Abu Hurayrah, who said : I entered upon Uthman the day of the House and said : "May the blow be good !" He said : "Would it please you that the people be all slain and I among them ?" I said : "No." He said : "If you slew one man, it were as if you slew all the people." I withdrew and fought not.

Abu Awn, client of al-Musayyab, reported : the Egyptians ceased not warding off fighting, until the succors of Iraq from Ibn Amir and the succors of Ibn Abi Sarh from Egypt arrived ; they said : "Let us deal with it before the succors advance."

Muslim Abu Sa'id said : Uthman freed twenty slaves, then called for trousers, girt them upon him, never having worn them in the Jahiliyya nor in Islam, and said : "I saw last night the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with Abu Bakr and Umar ; he said : be patient : you shall break your fast with us tomorrow." Then he spread the codex before him, and he was slain before it.

Ibn Awn reported, from al-Hasan : Waththab, client of Uthman, informed me : came Ruwayhil, like a wolf ; he looked through the door, then returned. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr came with thirteen men, entered until he reached Uthman, seized his beard and pulled it until I heard his teeth grind ; he said : "Nothing availed you Mu'awiya, nor Ibn Amir, nor your letters !" He said : "Let go my beard, O nephew." He said : I saw him ashamed, rise, and take the hem of his garment thus : "Return, return !" She said : came a man from behind Uthman with a moist palm-branch ; he struck his forehead with it, and I saw the blood flow ; he wiped it, saying : "O Allah, let none but You demand my blood !" Came another who struck him with the sword upon the chest and felled him ; they hewed at him with their swords, and I saw them plunder his house.

Mujalid reported, from ash-Sha'bi : a man of the Juhayna, of the Egyptians, came, the people around Uthman ; he drew his sword, then said : "Give way." They gave way ; he plunged the point of his sword into the belly of Uthman. Na'ila bint al-Farafisa, the wife of Uthman, seized the sword to turn it from him : the sword cut her fingers.

It is said : he who slew him was a man called Himar (the ass).

Al-Waqidi said : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abd al-Aziz told me, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Abd : Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr climbed the house of Amr ibn Hazm toward Uthman, with him Kinana ibn Bachr, Sawdan, and Amr ibn al-Hamaq. They found him by Na'ila, reading in the codex. Muhammad advanced before them, seized his beard and said : "O Na'thal, may Allah disgrace you !" He said : "I am not Na'thal : I am Abdallah, the Commander of the Believers." Muhammad said : "Nothing availed you Mu'awiya, and so-and-so, and so-and-so !" He said : "O nephew, let go my beard : your father would never have seized what you seize." He said : "What is sought of you is graver than my seizure." A man stabbed him in the side with a dagger ; Kinana raised a cleaver and drove it into the ear of Uthman, and it went on until it reached his throat ; then he finished him

with the sword. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abd al-Aziz said : I heard Ibn Abi Awn say : Kinana ibn Bachr struck his brow with an iron bar, and Sawdan al-Muradi struck him and slew him, and Amr ibn al-Hamaq leapt upon him : it was he who drew off his soul ; he stabbed him nine stabs, saying : "Three for Allah, and six for what is in my breast against him."

Al-Mughira said : they besieged him twenty-two days, then burned the gate, and those in the house went out.

Sulayman at-Taymi reported, from Abu Nadra, from Abu Sa'id, client of Abu Usayd, who said : Uthman opened the door and set the codex before him ; a man entered and said : "Between me and you, the Book of Allah" : he went out and left him. Then another entered, saying the like ; Uthman lunged at him with the sword : he warded it with his hand, and it was cut. He said : "By Allah, it is the first hand cut at the wrist." Then entered a man called al-Mawt al-Aswad (the Black Death), who strangled him before striking with the sword. He said : "By Allah, I saw nothing softer than his throat : I strangled him until I saw his soul, like a djinn, passing through his body."

Az-Zuhri said : he was slain at the prayer of the asr. A slave of Uthman clung to Kinana ibn Bachr and slew him, and Sawdan clung to the slave and slew him.

Abu Nadra reported, from Abu Sa'id, who said : they struck him, and the blood flowed upon the codex, upon : {Allah will suffice you against them : He is the Hearing, the Knowing} (Surah al-Baqara, verse 137).

Imran ibn Hudayr said, unless it were Abdallah ibn Shaqiq who told me : the first drop shed of his blood fell upon : {Allah will suffice you against them} ; for Abu Harith mentions that he went out with Suhayl ibn Amr : they brought him the codex, and behold the drop of blood upon : {Allah will suffice you against them} ; it is in the codex until it fades.

Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Sami reported, from Ibn Abi Dhi'b, from az-Zuhri : I said to Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib : "Will you inform me how was the slaying of Uthman ?" He said : "He was slain unjustly : whoso forsook him is excused, whoso slew him is a wronger. When he was invested, a company of the Companions disliked it, for he loved his people and appointed them ; there could come from him what the Companions disliked ; they would remonstrate with him concerning them, and he deposed them not. In the last six years he took to his cousins and appointed them, associating none with them : he appointed Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh over Egypt, who remained over it. The people of Egypt came complaining of him and suffering wrong from him. There had been before that from Uthman some affronts to Ibn Mas'ud, Abu Dhar and Ammar, and their partisans grew wroth with him. The Egyptians came complaining of Ibn Abi Sarh ; he wrote him, threatening him, but he would not comply, and slew one of those who came complaining of him.

Seven hundred men of Egypt went out, encamped in the mosque, and complained to the Companions of what Ibn Abi Sarh had done to them. Talha rose and addressed Uthman with a harsh word ; Aisha sent to him : "Be equitable with them concerning your agent." Ali entered upon him, being the most eloquent of the people, and said : "They ask you only a man in place of a man, and they claim against him a blood : depose him, and judge between them." He said : "Choose a man of your choosing." They proposed Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr : he wrote his letter of appointment, and there went out with them a number of the Muhajirun and Ansar to judge between the people of Egypt and Ibn Abi Sarh. When Muhammad was three stages from Medina, behold a black lad upon a camel at speed : they questioned him, and he said : "The Commander of the Believers sends me to the agent of Egypt." They said : "This is the agent of the people of Egypt," and brought him to Muhammad ; they searched him, found his waterskin stirring, cut it open : behold a writing from Uthman to Ibn Abi Sarh. Muhammad gathered the Companions with him, unfolded the writing : behold therein : "When Muhammad comes to you, with so-and-so and so-and-so, make lawful their slaying, annul his letter, and abide in your office." When they read the letter, they returned to Medina, gathered Talha, Ali, az-Zubayr and Sa'd, spread out the writing : none remained but he was wroth with Uthman ; and that increased the wrath and anger of the partisans of Abu Dhar, of Ibn Mas'ud, and of Ammar.

Those besieged Uthman, and Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr encamped against him at the Banu Taym. Ali, seeing that, sent to Talha, az-Zubayr and Ammar, then entered upon Uthman bearing the writing, the lad and the camel : "This lad and this camel, are they yours ?" He said : "Yes." He said : "Is this writing yours, then ?" He swore he neither wrote it nor ordered it. He said : "And the seal, is it your seal ?" He said : "Yes." He said : "How does your lad go out upon your camel with a writing bearing your seal, and you know it not !" They knew it was the hand of Marwan, and asked him to deliver Marwan to them : he refused, while Marwan was with him in the house. They went out from him in anger, doubted his affair, knew he swore not falsely, and kept to their houses.

Those besieged him until they barred from him the water. One day he looked down : "Have I aught against you ?" They said : "No." He said : "Have I aught against Sa'd ?" They said : "No." He was silent, then said : "Is there none to give us water ?" It reached Ali, who sent him three skins : a company bled upon the way until they reached him. Ali learned that Uthman was meant to be slain and said : "We seek from him only Marwan ; as for Uthman, we shall let none reach him."

Az-Zubayr sent him his son, Talha sent his son, and a number of the Companions sent their sons, to bar the people from him and ask him to deliver Marwan. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, seeing that, and the people pelting Uthman with arrows, until al-Hasan was bloodied at his door, Marwan struck by an arrow, Muhammad ibn Talha wounded, and Qanbar, the client of Ali, stabbed : Muhammad feared the Banu Hashim would be angered at al-Hasan's state. He agreed with his two companions, and they climbed over from a house until they entered upon him, none of the household knowing : they were above the roofs, and with Uthman was none but his wife. Muhammad entered, seized his beard, and said : "By Allah, your father saw you not, or your place with me would have grieved him." He loosed his hand. The two men leapt upon him and slew him, then fled by where they entered. The woman cried out : her cry was not heard, for the tumult in the house ; she mounted to the people and told them : al-Hasan, al-Husayn, and others entered and found him slaughtered.

The news reached Ali, Talha and az-Zubayr : they went out, their minds gone, entered and saw him slaughtered. Ali said : "How was he slain while you were at the gate ?" He slapped al-Hasan, struck the chest of al-Husayn, reviled Ibn az-Zubayr and Ibn Talha, and went out angry to his house. The people came rushing to him to pledge him allegiance ; he said : "That is not for you : that is for the people of Badr ; whoso they accept, he is the caliph." None of the Badris remained but came to Ali. The first to pledge him was Talha with his tongue, and Sa'd with his hand ; then he went out to the mosque and mounted the pulpit : the first to mount it was Talha, who pledged him with his hand, then az-Zubayr, Sa'd, and all the Companions ; then he descended, called the people, and sought Marwan, who fled, he and his kinsmen.

Aisha went out on the lesser pilgrimage saying : Uthman is slain. Ali came to the wife of Uthman and said : "Who slew him ?" She said : "I know not," and informed him of what Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr had done. Ali questioned him, and he said : "You lie : by Allah, I entered upon him seeking to slay him ; he mentioned my father to me, and I rose, turned back to Allah : by Allah, I neither slew him nor held him." She said : "He spoke truth : but he brought in the two who slew him."

Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Alqama ibn Waqqas reported, from his father, from his grandfather :

we gathered in the house of Makhrama for the allegiance after the slaying of Uthman. Abu Jahm ibn Hudhayfa said : "As for him of you who pledges us, nothing shall part us from the law of retaliation." Ammar said : "As for the blood of Uthman : no." He said : "O son of Sumayya, would you exact retaliation for skins of their skins, and not for the blood of Uthman !" They dispersed that day without allegiance.

Omar ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn reported, from his father : Marwan said : "None in the people defended our master better than your master," meaning Ali for Uthman. I said : "Why then do you revile him upon the pulpits ?" He said : "The matter does not stand otherwise." Ibn Abi Khaythama reported it, with a strong chain, from Omar.

Al-Waqidi reported, from Ibn Abi Sabra, from Sa'id ibn Abi Zayd, from az-Zuhri, from Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah : Uthman had, with his steward, the day he was slain, thirty thousand bundles of a thousand dirhams each, one hundred fifty thousand dinars ; I went and came away ; he left a thousand camels at ar-Rabadha, and alms to the value of two hundred thousand dinars.

Ibn Lahi'a reported, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib : it reached me that most of the riders who marched to Uthman were possessed.

Al-Layth ibn Abi Sulaym reported, from Tawus, from Ibn Abbas : I heard Ali say : "By Allah, I neither slew him, nor commanded, but I was outrun," and he said it thrice. The like comes from Ali by paths, and it is reported of him that he cursed the slayers of Uthman.

Ash-Sha'bi said : I never heard an elegy for Uthman finer than the word of Ka'b ibn Malik :

"He held back his two hands, then shut his door / and knew that Allah is never heedless,

and said to the people of the house : slay them not / may Allah pardon whoso fought not.

How did I see Allah pour upon them / enmity and hate, after fellowship ?

And how did I see the good turn its back after him / from the people, as the back of the trampling ostriches ?

Hassan ibn Thabit wept for him, saying :

"Whoso delights in death, turned aside without returning / let him come then to the banquet, in the house of Uthman,

where they pass the night, the crown of prostration / breaking the night with glorification and the Quran,

in patience : may my mother be your ransom, and what my mother bore / patience avails at times in the hateful thing :

he shall hear soon, upon his bloods : / Allah is greater ! O avengers of Uthman !"

Section : mention of those who died under the caliphate of Uthman, approximately

Aws ibn as-Samit ibn Qays ibn Asram al-Ansari, brother of Ubada ; both attended Badr.

Aws is the husband of Mujadila in the matter of her husband Khawla, or it is said : Khuwayla, bint Tha'laba ; the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, made a pact of brotherhood between him and Murthid ibn Abi Murthid al-Ghanawi.

Anas ibn Mu'adh ibn Anas ibn Qays al-Ansari an-Najjari ; it is said : his name was Anis, perhaps a diminutive.

He attended Badr and the battles. He died under the caliphate of Uthman.

Aws ibn Khawli, of the Banu al-Hubla.

Ansari, he attended Badr ; he is the one who attended the washing of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and descended into his grave. He died before the slaying of Uthman.

Al-Jadd ibn Qays. It is said he repented of hypocrisy and his affair ended well.

Al-Hutay'a the poet, Abu Mulayka al-Absi ; it is said : his name was Jarwal.

He lived an age in the Jahiliyya and the first of his life in Islam ; he entered upon Umar and declaimed to him :

"He who does good shall never fail of its crossing / courtesy vanishes not between Allah and the people."

He roved through the horizons, praising the great and seeking their gifts ; he was a petitioner, though niggardly. He set out once to visit kings and said to his household :

"Count the years when you go out for absence / and take leave of the months, for they are short."

Zayd ibn Kharja ibn Zayd ibn Abi Zuhayr al-Ansari al-Khazraji, the one who spoke after death. He had the Companionship and transmission ; his father was slain on the day of Uhud.

Sulayman ibn Bilal reported, from Yahya ibn Sa'id, from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, that Zayd ibn Kharja died in the time of Uthman : they shrouded him, then they heard in his breast a rumbling, then he spoke and said : "Praise, praise : in the first book, truth, truth ; Abu Bakr, the weak in himself, the strong in the affair of Allah, in the first book : truth, truth ; Umar, the strong, the trustworthy, in the first book : truth, truth ; Uthman, upon their path : four years have passed, two remain ; the fitnas shall come, the strong shall devour the weak ; the Hour shall rise ; and there shall come to you the news of the well of Ariss ; and what a well is the well of Ariss !"

Ibn al-Musayyib said : then perished a man of the Banu Khazrama ; they shrouded him, they heard in his breast a rumbling, then he spoke and said : "The brother of the Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj spoke truth, spoke truth."

Ibn Abd al-Barr said : this is he who spoke after death ; they differ not on that : he was overcome with a swoon, his soul was taken, then his self returned to him, and he spoke words concerning Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, then died at his hour. Trustworthy narrators of the Syrians reported it from an-Nu'man ibn Bachir.

Salman ibn Rabi al-Bahili ; it is said : he had the Companionship.

He heard Umar. Those who narrated from him : Abu Wail, as-Sabbi ibn Ma'bad, and Amr ibn Maymun. He was a hero, courageous, virtuous, a worshipper ; Umar entrusted him the judgeship of Kufa, then in the time of Uthman the command of the expedition of Armenia : he was slain at Balanjar ; it is said : rather there where his brother Abd ar-Rahman was slain. It is said : when the Turks suffer dearth, they pray for rain at the grave of Salman, who is buried among them, and they have placed his bones in a coffin. Muslim reported from him.

Abdallah ibn Suraqa ibn al-Mu'tammir al-Adawi.

He had the Companionship and transmission ; he attended Uhud and other battles, and az-Zuhri says he attended Badr. Those who narrated from him : Abdallah ibn Shaqiq, Uqba ibn Wasaj, and others. He narrated also from Abu Ubayda, and he was brother of Amr.

It is said : he who narrated from Abu Ubayda, and from whom Abdallah ibn Shaqiq narrated concerning the Dajjal, was an Azdi noble of Damascus : so say al-Ghallabi and others.

Abdallah ibn Qays ibn Khalid al-Ansari an-Najjari al-Maliki ; he attended Badr.

Al-Waqidi said : he left no descendants, and died in the time of Uthman.

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sahl ibn Zayd al-Ansari al-Harithi.

Ibn Abd al-Barr said : he attended Badr.

Abu Nu'aym said : he attended Uhud and the Trench ; he is the one whose nape Amara ibn Hazm bit. Umar appointed him over Basra after the death of Utba ibn Ghazwan.

Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad reported : two grandmothers came to Abu Bakr, who gave the sixth to the mother of the mother before the mother of the father. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sahl, a man of the Banu Haritha who had attended Badr, said : "You gave to her who, were she to die, would not inherit, and left her who, were she to die, would inherit." Abu Bakr set it between the two.

It is related that this one campaigned under the caliphate of Uthman.

Amr ibn Suraqa ibn al-Mu'tammir ibn Anas al-Qurashi al-Adawi, a great Badri, brother of Abdallah.

Amir ibn Rabi reported : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent us on an expedition, with us Amr ibn Suraqa, of a delicate belly and great frame ; he hungered, his waist bent : we took a slab of stone and bound it upon his belly ; he walked a day ; we came to a people who entertained us, and Amr said : "I thought men carried the belly : and behold, the belly carries the man !"

Urwa ibn Hizam, Abu Sa'id.

A youth of Udhran whom love slew : he is the one who was enamored of his cousin Afra bint

Muhassir. Her people left the Hijaz for Syria : Urwa followed them ; his uncle refused to wed him to her for poverty, and wed her to another rich cousin : Urwa perished of love of her.

Of his poetry concerning her :

"There is nothing, save that I see her unawares / and I lose speech so that I can scarcely answer,

and I turn from the opinion I held / and forget what I counted on when she is away."

Uyayna ibn Hisn ibn Hudhayfa ibn Badr ibn Amr ibn Juhayna ibn Lowdhan ibn Tha'laba ibn Adi ibn Fazara al-Fazari, of Qays Aylan ; the name of Uyayna was Hudhayfa : strength smote him and his two eyes grew prominent, whence his name Uyayna.

His kunya was Abu Malik ; he was the lord of the Banu Fazara and their knight.

Al-Waqidi said : Ibrahim ibn Ja'far told me, from his father : the lands of the family of Badr suffered dearth ; Uyayna marched with some hundred households of his people until he overlooked a vale of palms ; he feared the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came to Medina neither embracing Islam nor going far, and said : "I desire to draw near your neighborhood : leave me be." The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, granted him three months. When they were spent, Uyayna returned to their lands and raided the brood-mares of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, at al-Ghaba. Al-Harith ibn Awf said to him : "How have you requited Muhammad : he left you secure in his land, then you raid him !"

Al-Waqidi said : Abd al-Aziz ibn Uqba ibn Salama told me, from his uncle Iyas ibn Salama, from his father : Uyayna raided with forty men the brood-mares of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, which were twenty brood-mares : he drove them off and slew two sons of Abu Dhar who were among them. The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, went out in pursuit of them to Dhi Qird and rescued ten brood-mares ; the people escaped with the rest ; slain were Habib ibn Uyayna, his cousin Mas'ada, and a company.

Al-Waqidi, from Muhammad ibn Abdallah, from az-Zuhri, from Ibn al-Musayyib, who said : Uyayna ibn Hisn was one of the heads of the factions. The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent to him and to al-Harith ibn Awf : "What think you : if I grant you the third of the dates of Medina, will you return with those with you ?" They were content with that. While the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was about to write them the treaty, Usayd ibn Hudayr came ; Uyayna was stretching his legs before the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, saying : "O lackey of the Hijaz, fold your legs ! By Allah, were it not for the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, I would dye you red with the lance." Then he turned to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and said : "If the matter is from heaven, let it go its way ; else, by Allah, we give them nothing but the sword : when have you tasted that of us !" And the Sa'd said the like.

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Tear the writing." He tore it. Uyayna said : "By Allah, what you left is better for you than the course you took ; and you have no strength against these folk." Adi ibn Bachr said : "O Uyayna, with the sword do you frighten us ? You shall know which of us two flinches : by Allah, were it not for the station of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, you would never have returned to your families." They returned, both saying : "By Allah, we see not that we can obtain aught of them."

Al-Waqidi said : when the factions were dispersed, Uyayna was sent back to his land, then he embraced Islam a little before the conquest.

Ibn Sa'd said : Ali ibn Muhammad informed us, from Ali ibn Sulaym, from az-Zubayr ibn Khubayb, who said : Uyayna ibn Hisn advanced ; a company going out of Medina met him : he questioned them, and they said : "The people are three : a man who has embraced Islam and fights the Arabs alongside the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; a man who has not embraced Islam and fights him ; a man who manifests Islam and manifests to Quraysh that he is of them." He said : "What are these called ?" They said : "The hypocrites are called so." He said : "Of those you described, none is more cunning than these : bear witness that I am of them."

Ibn Sa'd relates next a long story without chain, concerning the hypocrite Uyayna on the day of Ta'if, and, on the day of Hawazin, an old woman captive for whose ransom her son came, offering a hundred camels for her ; Uyayna accepted, then turned from it and reduced her to fifty ; he refused again, then ceased not until ten camels were offered for her : he grew angry and refused. The son came then and said : "O uncle, release her, and I thank you." He said : "I have no need of your praise." Then he said : "Never saw I a matter more bitter than today," and fell to blaming himself. The youth said : "You did this : you aimed at an old woman, and by Allah, her breast never suckled, her belly never carried, her mouth never fed, her husband finds her no more : you took her before our eyes." He said : "Take her : may Allah bless you not in her." The youth said : "The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, has clothed the captives ; seek her among them among the garments, will you not clothe her ?" He said : "No, by Allah." The youth left him not until he had taken from him a panel of his garment, then turned to him saying : "You are not of those who seize occasions."

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, gave Uyayna a hundred camels of the spoils.

Al-Waqidi said : Musa ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim at-Taymi told us, from his father, from Abu Salama, from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her : Uyayna ibn Hisn entered upon the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, while I was with him, and said : "Who is this red one ?" He said : "This is Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr." He said : "Would you not marry the best of the people, the daughter of Jamra ?" He said : "No." When he went out, I said : "O Messenger of Allah, who is this ?" He said : "This is the obeyed fool."

Ibn Sa'd said : they said : Uyayna apostatized when the Arabs apostatized, and joined Tulayha al-Asadi when he claimed prophethood, and believed in him. When Tulayha was routed, Khalid ibn al-Walid took Uyayna, fettered him, and sent him to as-Siddiq. Ibn Abbas said : I looked at him : the lads were pricking him with palm-rods, striking him, and saying : "O enemy of Allah, did you disbelieve after your faith ?" He would say : "By Allah, I had not believed." When Abu Bakr spoke with him, he returned to Islam, and he granted him assurance.

Al-Madaini, from Amir ibn Abi Muhammad : Uyayna said to Umar : "Beware, or I shall bring the Persians out of Medina : I am not assured some man of them will not stab you."

Al-Madaini, from Abdallah ibn Faid : Umm al-Banin, daughter of Uyayna, was with Uthman ; Uyayna entered upon Uthman without leave : Uthman rebuked him, and he said : "I thought not to be veiled from a man of Mudar." Uthman said : "Draw near, and eat of the supper." He said : "I fast." Uthman said : "You fast the night !" He said : "I found the fast of the night easier upon me !"

Al-Madaini said : then Uyayna went blind under the command of Uthman.

Abu al-Achhab reported, from al-Hasan : Uthman reproached Uyayna, who said : "Did I not do it, did I not do it ? You came to Umar and came not to us !" He said : "Umar was better for us than you : he gave and enriched us, he feared and made us fear."

Qutba ibn Amir, Abu Zayd al-Ansari as-Sulami ; he attended Badr and the two Aqabas.

Qays ibn Quhayd ibn Qays ibn Tha'laba al-Ansari, one of the Banu Malik ibn an-Najjar.

Mus'ab az-Zubayri said : he is the grandfather of Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari ; the most contradict him ; it is said : he is the grandfather of Abu Maryam Abd al-Ghaffar ibn al-Qasim the Kufan.

Ibn Makula said : he attended Badr. Those who narrated from him : his son Sulaym, and Qays ibn Abi Hazim.

He has a hadith concerning the two rak'as after the dawn prayer.

Labid ibn Rabi al-Amiri, the famous poet, of whom the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The most truthful word the Arabs ever said is the word of Labid : is not everything, save Allah, void."

Malik said : it reached me that Labid lived one hundred forty years, and his kunya was Abu Aqil.

Ibn Abi Hatim said : al-Walid ibn Uqba sent to the dwelling of Labid twenty she-camels, which were slaughtered.

It is said : he died in the year forty-one.

Al-Musayyib ibn Hazn ibn Abi Wahb al-Makhzumi, of those who pledged allegiance under the Tree. Narrated from him : his son Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib.

Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, Abu al-Qasim al-Hashimi.

Asma bint Umayss bore him in Abyssinia, in the days when his two fathers emigrated to it ; he died young.

Abu Ahmad al-Hakim said : he married Umm Kulthum, daughter of Ali, after Umar ibn al-Khattab.

Ibn Abd al-Barr said : he was slain at Tustar ; Allah knows better.

Jarir ibn Hazim said : Muhammad ibn Abi Yaqub told us, from al-Hasan ibn Sa'd, from Abdallah ibn Ja'far : when the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, announced the death of his father Ja'far, he granted them three days without coming to them, then came and said : "Weep for my brother no more after today." Then he said : "Call me the sons of my brother." We were brought, joyful ; he ordered a barber summoned, who shaved our heads ; then he said : "As for Muhammad, he resembles our uncle Abu Talib ; as for Abdallah, he resembles my make and his." Then he took my hand, gave me his arm, and said : "O Allah, succeed Ja'far in his family, and bless the grip of the right hand of Abdallah," thrice. Then our mother Asma came and mentioned her need ; he said : "You fear want for them : I am their guardian in this world and the hereafter."

Munqidh ibn Amr al-Ansari, one of the Banu Mazin ibn an-Najjar.

A wound had smitten his head, breaking his tongue and disturbing his mind. He is the one who was wont to cheat in sales, and the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to him : "When you sell, say : no trickery."

Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud, Abu Salama al-Ghatafani al-Ashja'i.

He embraced Islam in the time of the Trench ; he is the one who failed between the two hosts, and he dwelt in Medina. He has descendants ; his son Salama narrated from him.

Abu Khuzayma ibn Aws ibn Zayd, one of the Banu an-Najjar.

He attended Badr and the battles ; he is the one with whom Zayd ibn Thabit found the two verses at the end of Surah at-Tawba. He died in the time of Uthman.

Abu Dhu'ayb al-Hudhali, Khuwaylid ibn Khalid, the famous poet.

He knew the Jahiliyya and embraced Islam under the caliphate of as-Siddiq ; he was the greatest poet of the Hudhail, and the Hudhail were the greatest poets of the Arabs. Of his poetry :

"When death plants her claws / you find every amulet of no avail,

and I show the enviers my endurance / they shall see that before the turns of time I bend not."

He died campaigning toward Ifriqiya under the caliphate of Uthman ; he had attended the Saqifa of the Banu Sa'ida and prayed over the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

Abu Zubayd at-Ta'i the poet, whose name is Harmala ibn al-Mundhir, a Christian.

He declaimed before Uthman an admirable qasida concerning the lion ; Uthman said : "You cease not mentioning the lion so long as you live : I deem you a coward." Now Abu Zubayd kept company with al-Walid ibn Uqba.

Abu Sabra ibn Abi Ruhm ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Abi Qays ibn Abd Wadd al-Qurashi al-Amiri.

Early in Islam ; it is said he emigrated to Abyssinia and attended Badr and the battles after. He was brother of Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Asad ; their mother was Barra bint Abd al-Muttalib, aunt of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. The Messenger of Allah made a pact of brotherhood between Abu Sabra and Salama ibn Salama ibn Waqch.

Az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said : we know not, among the people of Badr, a man who returned to Mecca and dwelt there, save Abu Sabra : he dwelt there after the death of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; his descendants deny it. He died under the caliphate of Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him.

Abu Loubaba ibn Abd al-Mundhir ibn Zunbar ibn Zayd ibn Umayya al-Ansari ; his name was Bachir, or it is said : Rifa.

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent him back from the brigade of Badr at ar-Rouha and appointed him over Medina ; he allotted him the share of Badr and its reward ; he was among the lords of the Companions. He died under the caliphate of Uthman ; it is said : under that of Ali ; it is said : under that of Mu'awiya. He was one of the notables of the night of Aqaba.

Those who narrated from him : his two sons as-Sa'ib and Abd ar-Rahman, Abdallah ibn Umar, Salim ibn Abdallah, Nafi, client of Ibn Umar, Ubaydallah ibn Abi Yazid, Abdallah ibn Ka'b ibn Malik, and Salman al-Agharr ; the narration of some of these of him is a relay, because they attained him not.

Abu Hashim ibn Utba ibn Rabi, mentioned before in the year twenty-one ; he died under the caliphate of Uthman.

His name was Khalid ; it is said : Chayba ; it is said : Hashim ; it is said : Mahcham. He was brother of Abu Hudhayfa.

He was righteous and detached ; brother of Mus'ab ibn Umayr by the mother ; he embraced Islam on the day of the conquest, and his eye was lost on the day of the Yarmuk.