you to fight them.’ ʿUthmān replied, ‘I shall never fight them.’ The attackers then forced their way in while he was fasting. ʿUthmān had placed Ibn al-Zubayr in charge of the house and had ordered those present, ‘Obey ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr.’

Ibn Sīrīn relates: Zayd ibn Thābit arrived with three hundred of the Anṣār, entered upon ʿUthmān and said, ‘The Anṣār are at the door.’ ʿUthmān answered, ‘As for fighting—no.’

Abū Ṣāliḥ reports on the authority of Abū Hurayrah: I went in to ʿUthmān on the day of the siege and said, ‘It is time to strike.’ He replied, ‘Would you like all the people to be killed, and I among them?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘If you kill a single man, it is as though you had killed all the people.’ So I withdrew and did not fight.

Abū ʿAwn, the freedman of al-Miswar, said: The Egyptians had refrained from combat until the reinforcements from Iraq sent by Ibn ʿĀmir and those dispatched from Egypt by Ibn Abī Sarḥ approached. Then they said, ‘Let us finish him off before the reinforcements arrive.’

Muslim Abū Saʿīd recounts: ʿUthmān set twenty slaves free, then asked for a pair of trousers, fastened them on—garments he had never worn in either the pre-Islamic period or in Islam—and said, ‘Last night I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, together with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, and he said, “Be patient, for tomorrow you will break your fast with us.”’ He then unrolled the Qur’an in front of him, and he was killed while it lay open before him.

Ibn ʿAwn transmits from al-Ḥasan: Wathāb, ʿUthmān’s freedman, told me: Ruwayḥil came, prowling like a wolf, peered through a door and withdrew. Then Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr arrived with thirteen men. He went straight to ʿUthmān, seized his beard and shook it until I heard his teeth rattle, saying, ‘What use was Muʿāwiyah to you? What use was Ibn ʿĀmir to you? What use were your letters?’ ʿUthmān said, ‘Let go of my beard, nephew.’ Wathāb continued: I saw him call one of the men to assist him. The man stepped forward with an arrowhead, stabbed ʿUthmān in the head, and they fell upon him from every side until they killed him.