to his shoulder, like a woman’s breast. When ʿAlī saw him he said, “By Allah, I did not lie; were it not that you would then rely on deeds⦗1⦘, I would have informed you of what Allah has decreed concerning fighting them—for the one who truly recognizes the truth.”

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī states in his book “Al-Khawārij”: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿah al-Akhnasī narrated to me, from Nāfiʿ ibn Muslimah al-Akhnasī, who said: “Dhū al-Thudayyah was a man of ʿUrnah, of the tribe of Bajīlah⦗3⦘. He was black—extremely black—with a foul odor for which he was known throughout the camp. He used to accompany us beforehand, lodging with us and we with him.”⦗2⦘

Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥanafī told me, on the authority of al-Riyyān ibn Ṣabrah al-Ḥanafī: “We were present at Nahrawān with ʿAlī; when he found the maimed man, he performed a long prostration.”

Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to me, from Muḥammad ibn Qays al-Hamdanī, from a tribesman of his known as Abū Mūsā, that when ʿAlī located the maimed man he likewise prostrated at length.

Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq related to me; Ismāʿīl⦗4⦘ narrated to me, from Ḥabbah al-ʿUrnī, who said: “When the people of Nahrawān⦗5⦘ approached, everyone began saying, ‘Praise be to Allah, O Commander of the Believers, who has cut off their last remnant.’ ʿAlī replied, ‘No, by Allah! They are still in the loins of men and the wombs of women; and when they emerge from between the arteries, they will scarcely meet anyone without⦗6⦘ finding that they prevail over him.’”

He continued: “ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb al-Rāsibī had the places of his prostration parched from intense devotion and frequent sujūd, so he was called Dhū al-Thafīnāt⦗7⦘ (‘the Man of the Calluses’).”

Al-Haytham also transmitted from one of the Khārijites that he said, “Because of his hatred for ʿAlī, ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb would call him nothing but ‘the denier.’”

And al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said: “Ismāʿīl narrated to us, from Khālid, from ʿAlqamah ibn ʿĀmir, who said: ‘ʿAlī was asked about the people…’”