He therefore set out for Ifriqiyah with ten thousand men. Ibn Saʿd made peace with the people of Ifriqiyah for two million five hundred thousand dinars. From Constantinople the Byzantine emperor sent word that three hundred qintars of gold were to be taken from the inhabitants—exactly what ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd had already levied. They replied, “We have no more wealth to give; what we had we have paid as ransom. As for the emperor, he is our sovereign—let him take the customary gift we used to present to him each year.” When the envoy heard this he ordered that they be imprisoned. They, however, alerted some of their comrades, who came, broke open the jail, and set them free.

Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb reports that ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd wrote to ʿUthmān: “ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ has ruined the land-tax.” ʿAmr, for his part, wrote: “ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd has spoiled my war stratagem.” ʿUthmān therefore wrote to ʿAmr, “Withdraw; leave the land-tax and the troops under Ibn Saʿd.” ʿAmr returned, angered, and entered upon ʿUthmān wearing a Yemeni cloak padded with cotton. ʿUthmān asked, “What is your cloak stuffed with?” He answered, “ʿAmr.” ʿUthmān replied, “I already know it is stuffed with ʿAmr; that is not what I meant. I was asking whether it is cotton or something else.”

ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd then sent a considerable sum of money from Egypt to ʿUthmān. While ʿAmr was present, ʿUthmān remarked, “Do you see that those milch-camels have started giving milk again after you?” ʿAmr retorted, “Their calves have died.”

That same year ʿUthmān led the people in the pilgrimage.