Al-Riyāshī narrated to us; al-Aṣmaʿī narrated to us; Ibn Abī al-Zinād narrated, saying:
On the Day of the Trench al-Zubayr struck ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīrah with his sword on the top of his helmet, cleaving it straight through to the saddle’s pommel (1).
People exclaimed, “What a superb sword you have!”
Al-Zubayr grew upset, wishing them to understand that the feat belonged to his own hand, not to the sword itself.
Abū Khaythamah narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Madīnī narrated to me; Umm ʿUrwah bint Jaʿfar transmitted from her sister ʿĀ’ishah, from their father, from their grandfather al-Zubayr: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ handed him, on the day Mecca was conquered, the banner that had belonged to Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, and al-Zubayr entered Mecca carrying two banners (2).
And Asmāʾ related: “In my possession are two silk arm-guards that belonged to al-Zubayr; the Prophet ﷺ had given them to him, and he fought wearing them.”
Aḥmad recorded it in his Musnad (3) through the chain of Ibn Luhayʿah.
= It also contains the following wording: “The Messenger of Allah said: Who will go to Banu Qurayza and bring me their news? I went, and when I returned the Messenger of Allah joined my father and mother for my sake, saying: May my father and mother be ransomed for you.”
Muslim likewise recorded it (no. 2416) in the Book of the Virtues of the Companions, chapter on the merits of Talha and al-Zubayr.
al-utum means a fortified tower; its plural is awtam, on the pattern ʿunuq / aʿnaq.
(1) al-qurbus denotes both the front and the rear pommel of a saddle.
(2) Its chain of transmission is very weak. Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Madini—better known as Ibn Zabala al-Makhzumi—was called “a liar” by Abu Dawud; Yahya (ibn Maʿin) said, “He is unreliable”; al-Nasaʾi and al-Asadi judged him “abandoned”; Abu Hatim labeled him “feeble in hadith,” and al-Darqutni and others classified his reports as munkar. Al-Haythami cited the report in Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid 6/169, and Ibn Hajar in al-Matalib al-ʿaliya, no. 4357, both attributing it to Abu Yaʿla and noting that its top narrator is Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Zabala.
(3) Majmaʿ 6/352 transmits it through the route: Maʿmar – ʿAbd Allah b. al-Mubarak – Ibn Lahiʿa – Khalid b. Yazid al-Misri – ʿAbd Allah b. Kaysan, client of Asmaʾ – from Asmaʾ. This isnad is sound, for the transmitter from Ibn Lahiʿa is one of the two ʿAbdallahs who narrated from him before his books were burned: ʿAbd Allah b. al-Mubarak and ʿAbd Allah b. Yazid al-Muqriʾ.