calling you to what they contain, yet—by Allah—they have abandoned what Allah ordained therein and the sunnah of the one upon whom the [Qur’an](1) was revealed. So do not heed them.
“Give me a little time,” he pleaded, “for I sense victory.” They answered, “No!” He said, “Then grant me only the span of a horse’s gallop, for I am confident of triumph.” They retorted, “In that case, we shall share your sin.”
Al-Ashʿtar then engaged those reciters who were urging acceptance of the Syrians’ proposal, arguing in essence: “If your first decision to fight these people was right, persevere; but if it was wrong, bear witness that your slain are in the Fire.” They replied, “Leave us; we will never obey you or your leader. We fought these men for Allah’s sake, and we have ceased fighting them for Allah’s sake.”
Al-Ashʿtar responded, “By Allah, you have been deceived and you let yourselves be deceived. You were invited to lay down arms and you complied. O people of evil! We used to think your prayers showed detachment from the world and longing to meet Allah, yet I see your flight as nothing but a retreat to the life of this world to escape death. O you who resemble camels that graze on filth, you are no longer godly men. Away with you, just as the wrongdoing folk were driven away!” They reviled him and he reviled them; they even struck the face of his mount with their whips. Lengthy altercations followed.
Most of the Iraqis and the Syrians alike now inclined toward reconciliation and a period of truce, hoping some agreement might be reached that would spare Muslim blood, for the people had been decimated in that time—especially during the last three days, the final of which ended on the Thursday night known as Laylat al-Harir. Each army showed a level of courage and endurance unmatched anywhere in the world; for that reason (2) no one fled from the other. They stood firm until, according to several reports, seventy thousand men were killed from both sides: forty-five thousand from the Syrians and twenty-five thousand from the Iraqis. This was stated by more than one authority, among them [Muhammad] ibn Sīrīn, Saif, and others. Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Barāʾ—who was with the Iraqis—added that twenty-five veterans of Badr were among the dead.
He also said that during that period there were ninety engagements. They differed (3) concerning the length of the stay at Siffīn: Saif said seven months—or nine; Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Barāʾ said one hundred [days] and ten days. I say: The wording of Abū Mikhnaf indicates that it lasted from the first of Dhu al-Ḥijjah, on a Friday, until the thirteenth of Ṣafar—seventy-seven days. Allah, exalted be He, knows best.
Al-Zuhri said: News reached me that fifty men were buried in a single grave. All of this is a summary of what Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Jawzi recorded in al-Muntaẓam (4).
Al-Bayhaqi (5) also narrated, through the chain of Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān from Abū al-Yamān, from Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr: The Syrians numbered sixty thousand, of whom twenty thousand were killed; the Iraqis numbered one hundred and twenty thousand, of whom forty thousand were killed.