I say: What he did with respect to ʿUthmān was a lapse and an act of incitement, undertaken according to his own judgment. When he witnessed ʿUthmān’s corpse, however, his heart changed and he regretted not having come to his aid. Talḥah was in fact the first to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī—forced to do so by ʿUthmān’s killers, who dragged him forward until he pledged.

al-Bukhārī said: Mūsā ibn Aʿyan narrated to us; Abu ʿAwanah narrated to us, from Ḥuṣayn, in the account of ʿAmr ibn Jawān, who said:

“When the two sides met on the Day of the Camel, Kaʿb ibn Sūr rose holding a mushaf, opened it between the two armies, and adjured them by Allah and by Islam regarding their blood. He continued until he was killed.

Talḥah was among the first to fall (1).

al-Zubayr rode off to rejoin his children and was killed as well (2).”

Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, from ʿAwf, narrated to me from Abū Rajāʾ, who said:

“I saw Talḥah on his mount calling out, ‘People, listen!’ They kept pressing upon him and would not listen. So he exclaimed, ‘Alas—moths of the Fire and flies of greed!’ (3)”

Ibn Saʿd said: Someone who heard Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid told me, from Ḥakīm ibn Jābir, who said:

Talḥah said, “We temporized over the affair of ʿUthmān; today we see nothing better than to spill our own blood for him. O Allah, take for ʿUthmān from me this day until You are satisfied.” (4)

Wakīʿ: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid narrated to us, from Qays, who said:

“I saw Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam when he shot Talḥah that day with an arrow that lodged in his knee, and the blood kept pouring out until”