Al-Wāqidī said: They fought on for several days until great numbers were killed and the combatants grew exhausted. At that point the Syrians raised copies of the Qur’an and called out, “We invite you to the Book of Allah and to having it decide between us.” This was in fact a ruse contrived by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ when he saw the army of ʿAlī gaining the upper hand. The two sides then agreed to a truce, the details of which will be related below.

Al-Zuhrī reported: They engaged in a battle the like of which this community had never experienced. The Iraqis held the field over the slain of Ḥimṣ, while the Syrians held it over the slain of al-ʿĀliyah. On ʿAlī’s right wing stood al-Ashʿath ibn Qays al-Kindī; on his left ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās; and over the infantry ʿAbdullāh ibn Budayl ibn Waraqāʾ al-Khuzaʿī, who was killed that day. Among ʿAlī’s other commanders were: al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays al-Tamīmī, ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir al-ʿAnsī, Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad al-Khuzaʿī, ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, al-Ashtar al-Nakhaʿī, ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥamq al-Khuzaʿī, Shabath ibn Ribʿī al-Riyāḥī, Saʿīd ibn Qays al-Hamdānī; the chief of Hamdān was al-Muhājir ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd al-Makhzūmī; as well as Qays ibn Makshūḥ al-Murādī, Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī, and others.

ʿAlī’s forces numbered fifty thousand—some say ninety thousand, others one hundred thousand.

Muʿāwiyah commanded seventy thousand men. His banner was carried by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd al-Makhzūmī; on his right wing was ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ—some say his son ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr—on his left Ḥabīb ibn Maslamah al-Fihrī. Over the cavalry stood ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Other commanders that day included Abū al-Aʿwar al-Sulamī, Zufar ibn al-Ḥārith, Dhū al-Kalāʿ al-Ḥimyarī, Maslamah ibn Mukhlad, Busar ibn Arṭāʾah al-ʿĀmirī, Ḥābis ibn Saʿd al-Ṭāʾī, and Yazīd ibn Hubayrah al-Sakūnī.