Abū ʿUbaydah relates: When Ibn ʿĀmir returned to Basra, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muʿammar moved on to Fars. He came to Arjān, whose people shut the gates in his face. Mountains flanked the town on both sides, and beside them lay narrow desert edges called asiyāf (coastal plains); the mountains were impassable for cavalry and the plains could not bear the army. He therefore made terms with the inhabitants: they were to open one gate so that his troops might simply pass through. They agreed, and he advanced until he reached Nubandajān, which he seized. Afterward they broke the pact.
He pressed on and took the fortress of Shiraz, then marched to Jūr, concluded a treaty with its people, and left among them a man from the Banū Tamīm. From there he turned to Istakhr and laid siege to it for some time. While the siege was under way, the people of Jūr killed the governor he had placed over them. Ibn ʿĀmir therefore hurried back to Jūr, confronted its defenders, stormed it, and killed 40,000 of them—the dead being tallied with reeds. He then appointed Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (or another commander) over the city and returned to Istakhr, whose inhabitants had meanwhile killed ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muʿammar. He captured Istakhr by force and proceeded to Fasā, which he also took. He likewise overran several rural districts of Kirmān.
Setting out across the desert toward Khurāsān, the army was struck by thirst and a great many perished.
Ibn Jarīr reports that Ibn ʿĀmir wrote to ʿUthmān announcing the conquest of Fars. ʿUthmān replied, instructing him to appoint Haram ibn Ḥayyān al-Yashkurī, Haram ibn Ḥayyān al-ʿAbdī, and al-Khurayt ibn Rāshid over the districts of Fars, and to divide Khurāsān among six men: al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays over the two Marws, Ḥabīb ibn Qurra al-Yarbūʿī over Balkh, Khālid ibn Zuhayr over Herat, Amīr ibn Aḥmad al-Yashkurī over Ṭūs, and Qays ibn Hubayrah al-Sulamī over Naysābūr.
In the same year ʿUthmān enlarged the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, expanding its area and rebuilding it with stone.