make me one of them.” He replied, “You will be among the first.” (1)

She therefore joined that very expedition and died during it; the “second” company refers to the later campaign against Constantinople, as we shall relate.

To the point: Muʿāwiyah boarded ships, set sail, and headed for the island of Cyprus with a great army of Muslims. He did so on the instruction of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him—after seeking his permission. He had earlier asked ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, but ʿUmar refused to let him place the Muslims upon that vast expanse which, were it to rage, would drown them all. When ʿUthmān became caliph, Muʿāwiyah pressed the matter until he was granted leave, so he embarked, reached the island, and was met from the opposite shore by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ. The two forces fell upon its inhabitants, killed a great many of them, took numerous captives, and collected abundant, excellent spoils.

When the prisoners were brought in, Abū al-Dardāʾ began to weep. Jubayr ibn Nufayr said, “Do you weep on a day when Allah has strengthened Islam and its people?” He answered, “Woe to you! These people were once a mighty nation that possessed sovereignty, but when they neglected Allah’s command He reduced them to what you see and set captivity upon them. When captivity is visited upon a people, Allah has no further need of them. How insignificant servants become in Allah’s sight when they abandon His order!”

Muʿāwiyah then concluded a treaty with them for an annual tribute of seven thousand dinars and agreed to a truce. As the army prepared to depart, a mule was brought for Umm Ḥarām to mount; she fell from it, broke her neck, and died there. Her grave remains in that place, where the locals venerate it, seek rain by means of it, and say, “The grave of the righteous woman.”

Al-Wāqidī reports: In this same year Ḥabīb ibn Maslamah campaigned in the Syrian sector of Byzantine territory. ʿUthmān also married Nāʾilah bint al-Furāfiṣah al-Kalbiyyah—she had been a Christian but embraced Islam before he consummated the marriage with her. (2)

In this year ʿUthmān built his residence, al-Zawrāʾ, in Medina, and the Commander of the Believers, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him—led the people in the Pilgrimage.

Then the year 29 AH began.

In that year (3) ʿUthmān dismissed Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī from Basra after he had governed it for six years—some say three—and appointed in his place ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir ibn Kurayz ibn Rabīʿah ibn Ḥabīb ibn ʿAbd Shams, his cousin. He combined under him the forces of Abū Mūsā and those of ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ. At the time he was twenty-five years old, and he remained in office for six years. According to al-Wāqidī and Abū Maʿshar, in this same year ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir conquered Fars; Sīf maintained that it occurred earlier, and Allah knows best.