He also recited (1):
[from rajaz]
It is no disgrace for me to die;
among men the real disgrace is flight,
and true glory is never shamed by ruin.
A passer-by came upon him while he was resting his head on that very leg and asked, “Who has killed you?” He answered, “My pillow.” Ḥakīm then breathed his last, and he, together with about seventy of ʿUthmān’s killers and their supporters (the people of Madinah), were slain. The morale of the Basrans who opposed Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr therefore collapsed.
It is said that the people of Basra pledged allegiance to Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr. Al-Zubayr called for a thousand horsemen to accompany him so that he might meet ʿAlī before the latter arrived, but no one answered him. They wrote to the people of Syria congratulating them on the matter, and the encounter took place five nights before the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir in the year 36 AH.
ʿĀʾishah wrote to Zayd ibn Ṣūḥān, summoning him to support her and stand with her; if he would not come, then he should restrain his hand and remain at home—that is, be neither against her nor for her. He replied, “I stand ready to aid you so long as you remain in your house,” and he refused to comply with her request. He said, “May Allah have mercy on the Mother of the Believers. Allah commanded her to stay in her house and commanded us to fight, yet she has left her house and ordered us to stay in ours, though she had more right to that than we.” ʿĀʾishah sent a similar letter to the people of al-Yamāmah and Kūfah.
[Account of] the march of the Commander of the Believers ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib from Madinah to Basra instead (2) of [his march to] Syria
After having already prepared to set out for Syria, as we have mentioned, ʿAlī learned that Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr were heading for Basra. He addressed the people, urging them to march to Basra to prevent those men from entering the city, if possible, or to drive them out should they have already entered. Most of the inhabitants of Madinah were slow to respond, though some did answer his call.
Al-Shaʿbī said, “Only six men from the veterans of Badr rose with him on this occasion; there was no seventh.” Others said they were four.
Ibn Jarīr (3) and others relate that among the senior Companions who responded were Abū al-Haytham ibn al-Tayyihān, Abū Qatādah al-Anṣārī, Ziyād ibn Ḥanẓalah, and Khuzaymah ibn Thābit. They added, “This was not Khuzaymah nicknamed Dhū al-Shahādatayn; that one had died in the time of ʿUthmān (may Allah be pleased with him).”
ʿAlī then marched from Madinah toward Basra with the formation described earlier. He appointed Tammām ibn ʿAbbās as his deputy over Madinah and Qutham ibn ʿAbbās over Mecca. This occurred at the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir in the year 36 AH.