horsemen—volunteers from among the Egyptians. He placed Kinānah ibn Bishr (1) at the vanguard of his army, and no Syrian (2) met him without being struck down and driven back, routed, all the way to ʿAmr (3) ibn al-ʿĀṣ. ʿAmr thereupon sent Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj after him; Ibn Ḥudayj came upon him from the rear, while the Syrians closed in until they had surrounded him on every side. At that moment Kinānah dismounted and recited, “No soul may die except by Allah’s leave, at a term recorded” (Q 3:145); he then fought on until he was killed.

The men of Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr scattered, while he withdrew on foot until he found a ruined structure and sought refuge there. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ entered Fusṭāṭ, and Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj set out in pursuit of Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. On the road he passed some rustic youths and asked them, “Has anyone you did not recognise come by here?”

“No,” they replied, but one of them said, “I did see a man sitting in that ruin.”

“That is he—by the Lord of the Kaʿbah!” Ibn Ḥudayj exclaimed. They went in, dragged him out—he was on the verge of death from thirst—and Muḥammad’s brother ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr hurried to ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who had entered Egypt with him, saying, “Will my brother be put to death in cold blood?”

ʿAmr sent word to Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj ordering him to bring Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr to him alive and not to kill him. Ibn Ḥudayj replied, “Never, by Allah! They kill Kinānah ibn Bishr and I am to spare Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr—one of those who slew ʿUthmān? ʿUthmān begged them for water, and now Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr (4) asks me for a single drink. By Allah, may He never let me taste water if I give you so much as a drop! You denied ʿUthmān water until you slew him while he was fasting and in a state of inviolability; Allah received him, then, with the sealed nectar.”

Ibn Jarīr (5) and others relate that Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr heaped insults upon Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj—reviling him—as well as upon ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, and even ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. Enraged, Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj brought him forward and executed him, placed his body inside the carcass of a donkey, and burned it. When this news reached ʿĀʾishah, she was overcome with grief, took his children into her care—among them his son al-Qāsim—and began invoking curses upon Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ after every prescribed prayer (6).

Al-Wāqidī (7) reports that ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ entered Egypt with four thousand men, among them Abū al-Aʿwar al-Sulamī. They met the Egyptians at al-Musannāh (8) and fought a fierce battle in which Kinānah ibn Bishr ibn ʿAtāb al-Tujībī was killed. Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr then fled and hid with a man named Jabalah ibn Masrūq, but he was betrayed. Muʿāwiyah ibn Khudayj and his followers surrounded him; Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr came out and fought them until he was killed.