so let anyone who wishes shoot at us and exhaust himself against us.”

He said: Abū al-Dardāʾ and Abū Umāmah then went back and took no part in the fighting; they remained in their homes.

ʿAmr ibn Saʿd, transmitting with his chain, relates: When the month of Rajab arrived and Muʿāwiyah feared that all the Qur’an-reciters might pledge allegiance to ʿAlī, he wrote on the shaft of an arrow, “From ʿAbd Allāh, the sincere adviser: O people of Iraq! Muʿāwiyah intends to divert the Euphrates upon you so that it drowns you; take precautions!” He shot it into the Iraqi camp. The soldiers picked it up, read it, and began to discuss it.

They reported it to ʿAlī, who said, “Such a thing will never happen; it is impossible.” Yet the rumour spread among them. Muʿāwiyah then dispatched two hundred labourers to dig along the bank of the Euphrates, and when news of this reached the people, the Iraqis became confused (1) and hurried in alarm to ʿAlī. He said, “Woe to you! He only wishes to deceive you and weaken your resolve so that he can dislodge you (2) from this position of yours and occupy it himself, for it is better than the ground he now holds.”

They said, “We have to vacate (3) this place.” So they broke camp, and Muʿāwiyah came and stationed his army there—ʿAlī being the last to move—and as he settled his troops he was reciting:

Had I obeyed, I would have kept my tribe secure
…to the stronghold of al-Yamāmah or of Shām; (4)
But when I resolve a matter,
The rabble—sons of rabble—oppose it. (5)

He continued: They remained thus until the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, then they began to fight. Each day ʿAlī would appoint a commander for the battle, and the one he appointed most often was al-Ashtar. Muʿāwiyah likewise named a new commander every day, and they fought throughout the whole of Dhū al-Ḥijjah—(sometimes twice in a single day).

Ibn Jarīr (may Allah have mercy on him) (6) said: (Then) envoys kept passing between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah while the people held back from fighting, until the month of Muḥarram of that year had elapsed, and no peace had been concluded between them.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib thereupon ordered Yazīd ibn al-Ḥārith al-Jushamī, who proclaimed to the Syrians at sunset: “Behold, the Commander of the Believers says to you: I have granted you respite so that you might return to (7) the truth and have established the proof against you, yet you have not responded. I now renounce our covenant on equal terms; indeed, Allah does not love the treacherous.” (8)

The Syrians rushed to their commanders and informed them of the proclamation they had just heard. Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr thereupon rose and arrayed the army in right and left wings, while ʿAlī spent the night arranging his forces. He put over the cavalry of Kūfah al-Ashtar al-Nakhaʿī, over their infantry ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, over the cavalry of Baṣrah Sahl ibn Ḥunayf, over their infantry Qays ibn Saʿd and Hāshim ibn ʿUtbah, and over their reciters Saʿd ibn Fadakī al-Tamīmī. ʿAlī also instructed the people not to initiate