with his fellow Kharijites, confiding his plan to them; he would visit them and they would visit him. During this time he noticed Qatām bint Shajnah of Banī Taym al-Rabbāb—ʿAlī had slain her father and brother at Nahrawān—and he was taken with her. She said, “I will not marry you unless you give me three thousand dirhams and kill ʿAlī.” He replied, “That is yours.”

He later met Shabīb ibn Bijrah al-Ashjaʿī, informed him of the plot, and invited him to join; Shabīb accepted.

On the night Ibn Muljam resolved to kill ʿAlī he stayed whispering with al-Ashʿath ibn Qays in the mosque until dawn was about to break. Al-Ashʿath warned him, “Daybreak will expose us.” Ibn Muljam and Shabīb thereupon rose, took up their swords, and sat facing the doorway through which ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) would emerge. When the attack took place and ʿAlī was struck down, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muljam was seized, tortured, and executed.

Hajjāj ibn Abī Manīʿ narrated: My grandfather told us, from al-Zuhrī, from Anas, who said: “Three men from Iraq covenanted to kill Muʿāwiyah, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and Ḥabīb ibn Maslamah. They set out after Muʿāwiyah had received the pledge of allegiance.”

Among those who died this year was al-Ḥārith ibn Khuzamah ibn ʿAdī, Abū Bashīr al-Anṣārī al-Ashhalī. He fought at Badr and every subsequent battle and was an ally of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal. He passed away in Medina in the year 40 AH at the age of sixty-seven. Khuzamah is pronounced with two fatḥahs, as noted by Ibn Mākūlā.