1473 – Abū Ubayd Alī ibn al-Husayn ibn Harb, the judge, informed us: Abū al-Ashath Ahmad ibn al-Miqdām narrated to us: al-Mu'tamir ibn Sulaymān informed us: I heard my father narrate from Abū Nadra, from Abū Saīd, the freedman of Abū Usayd, who said:

Uthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—heard that a delegation from Egypt was approaching, so he went out to meet them. He related the report at length, saying at its conclusion:

“Then a man from Banū Sadūs known as al-Mawt al-Aswad (‘the Black Death’) entered upon him. He strangled him again and again, then went out and said, ‘I have never seen a throat softer than his. I strangled him until I watched his breath move back and forth through his body like a small snake.’

“Then a man carrying a sword entered upon him. Uthmān said, ‘The Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, shall judge between you and me.’ The man struck him, but he warded off the blow with his hand, and it cut his hand. I do not know whether it severed it completely, or whether it neither cut nor detached it. Then al-Tujībī entered upon him and struck him with an arrowhead, drawing blood. The blood spattered upon this verse: ‘Allah will suffice you against them, for He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing’ [al-Baqara: 137]. That stain remains in the codex and has never been rubbed away.” He then related the report.