a stratagem devised by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. They therefore concluded a truce and drafted (1) a written agreement stipulating that the two armies would meet at Adhruh (2) and submit the matter to two arbiters.

Al-Wāqidī said: No accord was ultimately reached, and ʿAlī returned to Kūfa amid the ill-feeling (3) and division of his own partisans. From their ranks the Khārijites broke away, denounced the arbitration, and proclaimed, “Judgement belongs to Allah alone.”

Muʿāwiyah, by contrast, returned with cohesion and unity, and the Syrians pledged allegiance to him as caliph in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, year 38 AH. He began sending out raiding parties that slew anyone loyal to ʿAlī or implicated in ʿUthmān’s murder. He also dispatched Busr ibn Abī Arṭāh to the Hijaz and Yemen to round up the populace; in Yemen Busr executed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Qutham, the two sons of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās. ʿAlī was martyred in Ramadan of the year 40 AH.

Thereafter al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī made peace with Muʿāwiyah and pledged allegiance to him; that year came to be known as “the Year of Unity” (4). Muʿāwiyah appointed al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah over Kūfa, ʿAbd Allāh (5) ibn ʿĀmir ibn Kurayz over Basra, his own brother ʿUtbah—followed later by Marwān—over Medina, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ over Egypt; he himself led the Hajj in the year 50 AH. The judiciary of Syria was placed under Faḍālah ibn ʿUbayd.

He performed ʿumrah in Rajab of the year 56 AH, after which there were discussions between him and al-Ḥusayn, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn al-Zubayr, and Ibn Abī Bakr about securing the oath of allegiance for Yazīd. He then said, “I am going to speak; if anyone contradicts me, I will kill him.” He delivered a sermon and claimed that they had