Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam was wounded as well. Then a man came up, struck the camel on its legs, and hamstrung it so that it toppled to the ground, letting out a bellow the like of which none had ever heard—louder and more piercing than any before it. The last person holding the rein was Zufar ibn al-Ḥārith; the camel was brought down while the rein was still in his hand. Some say he and Bujayr ibn Dulaja had agreed to do so; others report that the one who gave the order was ʿAlī, and still others ascribe it to al-Qaʿqāʿ ibn ʿAmr, so that the Mother of the Believers would not be struck, for she had become (1) a ready target for the archers, and whoever held the rein (2) an unmoving mark for their spears. They also hoped thereby to end a battle in which people were destroying one another.
When the camel (3) collapsed, the fighters around it scattered, and ʿĀʾishah’s litter was carried away, bristling like a hedgehog with arrows (4). A herald of ʿAlī proclaimed: “No one is to pursue a fugitive, no one is to finish off a wounded man, and no one is to enter (5) the houses.” ʿAlī ordered a group of men to remove the litter from among the slain, and he instructed Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr and ʿAmmār to pitch a tent over it.
Her brother Muḥammad came and asked, “Has any wound reached you?” She replied, “No! And you would never do that, O son of the Khathʿam woman.” ʿAmmār greeted her, saying, “How are you, Mother (6)?” She answered, “I am no mother of yours.” He replied, “Indeed you are, whether you like it or not.” ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Commander of the Faithful, then came and greeted her: “How are you, dear mother?” She said, “I am well,” and he responded, “May Allah forgive you.”
The leading men—commanders and notables—then came to greet the Mother of the Believers (7). It is said that Aʿyan (8) ibn Ḍubayʿah al-Mujāshiʿī peered into the litter, whereupon she exclaimed, “Away with you; may Allah curse you!” He said, “By Allah, all I can see is the Ḥumayrāʾ.” She retorted, “May Allah tear away your covering, sever your hand, and expose your nakedness.” And so it was: he was killed in Basra, stripped of his possessions, his hand cut off, and his naked body flung into a ruined building of the Azd.
When night fell, the Mother of the Believers entered Basra, accompanied by her brother Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. She lodged in the house of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalaf al-Khuzaʿī—the largest house in Basra—under the care of Ṣafiyyah bint al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd al-Dār (9), the mother of Ṭalḥah al-Ṭalḥāt, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalaf.
The wounded slipped away from among the dead and made their way into Basra (10). ʿAlī walked among the fallen, and whenever he passed a man he recognized he prayed for mercy upon him (11) and said, “It pains me to see Quraysh lying slain.” It is related that when he came upon Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, already dead, he said, “How deep is my grief for you!”