body more than seventy wounds, some from thrusts and others from arrows.

Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī and others, quoting al-Mughīrah, put the number at “over ninety.” Al-Bukhārī has recorded the report.

Al-Wāqidī relates: Rabīʿah ibn ʿUthmān told me, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakam, from his father, who said: Nuʿmān ibn Maḥṣ, a Jew, came and stood among the people. The Prophet ﷺ announced, “Zayd ibn Ḥārithah will command the army; if Zayd is killed, then Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib; if Jaʿfar is killed, then ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah; and if ʿAbd Allāh is killed, let the Muslims agree upon one of their number and appoint him over them.” Nuʿmān replied, “Abū l-Qāsim, if you are truly a Prophet, then however many—or few—you have named, they will all be struck down. Among the Prophets of the Children of Israel, whenever they put a man in command and said, ‘If so-and-so is killed, then so-and-so,’ even if they named a hundred, every last one of them fell.” The Jew then said to Zayd, “Make your testament, for you will not return if Muḥammad is a Prophet.” Zayd answered, “I testify that he is a true and upright Prophet.”

Yūnus, transmitting from Ibn Isḥāq, states: The right wing of the Muslim army was under Qutbah ibn Qatādah al-ʿUdhrī, and the left wing under ʿUbāyah ibn Mālik al-Anṣārī. When the two forces engaged, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr told me, on the authority of his father, who heard it from his own foster-father—a man of Banū Murrah ibn ʿAwf—who said: “By Allah, it is as though I can still see Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib on the day of Muʾtah: he vaulted off a dapple-grey horse, hamstrung it, then advanced on foot and fought until he was killed.”

Ibn Isḥāq comments: He was the first person in Islam to hamstring his mount. Jaʿfar was reciting:

Yā ḥabbadhā al-jannatu wa-iqtirābuhā—
How splendid is Paradise, and how near its coming!
Ṭayyibatun bāridun sharābuhā—
Sweet, cool is the drink it offers.