ʿUthmān as well, and the bleeding kept him from performing the pilgrimage; he therefore remained behind and drafted his testament, while ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf led the people in Hajj.

In that year, ʿUthmān dismissed al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba from al-Kūfa and appointed Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ in his place.

That same year, al-Walīd ibn ʿUqba mounted a campaign against Azerbaijan and Armenia because their inhabitants had withheld the payments they had agreed upon; he captured prisoners, collected spoils, and then returned.

During the year as well, the Byzantines mobilised. The commanders of Syria sought reinforcements from ʿUthmān, so he dispatched eight thousand soldiers from Iraq. They advanced with the Syrian forces into Byzantine territory. The Iraqi contingent was under Salmān ibn Rabīʿa al-Bāhilī, and the Syrians under Ḥabīb ibn Maslama al-Fihrī. Together they conducted raids, took captives, and seized many fortresses.

In that year the future caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān was born.

Year 25 AH:

In this year, ʿUthmān removed Saʿd from the governorship of al-Kūfa and appointed al-Walīd ibn ʿUqba ibn Abī Muʿīṭ ibn Abī ʿAmr ibn Umayya al-Umawī—his maternal half-brother—whose kunya was Abū Wahb. He was a Companion who also transmitted hadith; among those who narrated from him were Abū Mūsā al-Hamadānī and al-Shaʿbī.

Tāriq ibn Shihāb said: When al-Walīd arrived as governor, Saʿd came to him and said, “Have you acted wisely….”