over the Muslims; the deed has already been committed and you held no authority over it.”
ʿUthmān replied, “I am their legal guardian, and I have treated it as blood money, taking the payment upon myself out of my own wealth.”
I say: al-Hurmuzān was the king of Tustar, and we have already mentioned his acceptance of Islam. ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar killed him after ʿUmar had been struck down. ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir came in to ʿUmar and said, “A momentous event has occurred in Islam today.” ʿUmar asked, “And what is that?” He answered, “ʿUbayd Allah has killed al-Hurmuzān.” ʿUmar said, “Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return. Bring him to me,” and he had him imprisoned.
Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib reported: Abū Luʾluʾa, Jufaynah—a man from al-Ḥīrah—and al-Hurmuzān gathered together; they had with them a dagger with two blades and a grip in the middle. While they were sitting, an animal startled them and the dagger dropped. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr saw them. When ʿUmar was stabbed, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān described the dagger, their meeting, and the shape of the weapon; they examined the matter and found it exactly as he had said. At that, ʿUbayd Allah leapt up and killed al-Hurmuzān, Jufaynah, and Luʾluʾah, the daughter of Abū Luʾluʾa. When ʿUthmān became caliph, ʿAlī said to him, “Exact retaliation from ʿUbayd Allah for al-Hurmuzān.” ʿUthmān replied, “He has no heir but me, and I have pardoned him—yet I shall pay the blood money.”
It is narrated that when the sword struck al-Hurmuzān he declared, “There is no god but Allah.” As for Jufaynah, he was a Christian and had been the wet-nurse of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ; Saʿd had brought him to Medina under the treaty that existed between them so that he could teach people writing.
In that same year, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī conquered al-Rayy; it had previously been taken at the hands of Ḥudhayfah and Suwayd ibn Muqarrin, but its inhabitants had broken their pact.
In that year, severe nosebleeds afflicted the people, so it was called “the Year of the Nosebleeds,” and it also struck