Qays al-Nakhaʿī; Jundub ibn Zuhayr al-ʿĀmirī; Jundub ibn Kaʿb al-Azdī; ʿUrwah ibn al-Jaʿd; and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥamīq al-Khuzāʿī.

When they left Damascus they made for al-Jazīrah, where they were met by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd—at that time governor of the district, before he later assumed authority over Ḥimṣ. He threatened and warned them. They thereupon offered their excuses and professed repentance for what they had been doing. He prayed for them and sent Mālik al-Ashṭar al-Nakhaʿī to ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān to present an apology on behalf of his companions. ʿUthmān accepted their plea, refrained from punishing them, and gave them the choice to settle wherever they wished. They elected to remain under the jurisdiction of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd, so they went to him in Ḥimṣ. He ordered them to reside along the coastal frontier and allotted them their stipends.

It is also said that when Muʿāwiyah became exasperated with them, he wrote to ʿUthmān about the matter, and ʿUthmān’s reply instructed him to send them back to Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ in Kūfah. They were returned accordingly, but on their arrival they were sharper-tongued (1) and more mischievous than ever. Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ therefore complained of them to ʿUthmān, who ordered him to dispatch them to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd in Ḥimṣ and to keep them to the frontier passes (2).

In this same year ʿUthmān sent a number of people from Basrah to Syria and to Egypt for reasons that fully justified his action—may Allah be pleased with him. Those people, however, were among those who stirred up agitation against him and assisted his enemies in disparaging and maligning him. In this they were the evildoers, while he was the righteous, rightly guided one—may Allah be pleased with him.

That year, too, the Commander of the Believers, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him—led the people in the pilgrimage, and may Allah accept it from him.

[Then the year thirty-four began]

Abū Maʿshar said: In that year occurred the Battle of al-Ṣawārī, though the sounder view of others is that it took place earlier (3), as has already been mentioned.

During the same year the dissidents who had turned away from obedience to ʿUthmān began corresponding with one another. The majority of them were the people of Kūfah who, while under the administration of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd in Ḥimṣ, had been banished from Kūfah. They rose against Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, the governor of Kūfah, united against him, and spoke ill of both him and ʿUthmān. They sent envoys to debate with ʿUthmān about his dismissal of many Companions and his appointment of a number of his Umayyad kinsmen, addressing him with harsh words and demanding that he remove his governors and replace them with other leaders from among the earliest Muslims and the Companions. This caused him great distress, so he summoned the commanders of the military districts to consult them. Present before him were Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, governor of Syria; ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, governor of Egypt; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ, governor of the Maghrib; Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, governor of Kūfah; and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir, governor of Basrah. He sought their counsel regarding the crisis and the breakdown of unity, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir advised