of the Muslims (1).

Thereafter Muʿāwiyah accepted the truce and was delighted with it. He and al-Ḥasan rode into Kūfah together, and Muʿāwiyah formally received the caliphate at the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir. That year came to be called “the Year of Unity,” because the community united behind a single leader; it was the year 41 AH.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Muʿāwiyah was given the pledge of allegiance in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 41 AH, when he entered Kūfah.

Abū Maʿshar said: Al-Ḥasan pledged allegiance to him at Adhruh in Jumādā al-Ūlā—the Year of Unity.

Al-Madāʾinī reported: Muʿāwiyah advanced toward Iraq with sixty thousand men, appointing Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays as his deputy over Syria. When al-Ḥasan learned that Muʿāwiyah had crossed the bridge of Manbij, he placed Qays ibn Saʿd in command of twelve thousand troops, who marched to Maskin (2). Muʿāwiyah reached al-Ukhnooniyyah (3) within ten days, accompanied by preachers who exhorted and spurred on the people of Syria.

They camped opposite Qays’s army, and Busr ibn Abī Arṭāt came to them. Skirmishes broke out between the two sides, after which they withdrew (4).

Al-Zuhrī said: For two years Muʿāwiyah conducted affairs in a way that did not fall short of ʿUmar’s practice (5); after that he diverged.

Al-Aʿmash narrated, through ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd, who said: “Muʿāwiyah led us in the Friday prayer at al-Nukhaylah during the forenoon, then delivered a sermon and said, ‘We did not fight you so that you might fast,’”