of the desert; if anyone refused to hand it over he was to be put to death, after which he was to proceed to Medina, Mecca, and the whole Ḥijāz. Ibn Masʿadah therefore marched to Taymāʾ, and a great multitude gathered beneath his banner. When the news reached ʿAlī, he dispatched al-Musayyab ibn Najabah al-Fazārī at the head of two thousand men. They met at Taymāʾ and engaged in fierce combat just after the sun had passed its zenith.

Al-Musayyab charged straight at Ibn Masʿadah, striking him three times, yet he did not wish to kill him; instead he kept calling out, “Escape, escape!” Ibn Masʿadah then withdrew with a party of his kinsfolk into a nearby fortress and barricaded themselves inside, while the rest fled to Syria. The Bedouin made off with the ṣadaqah camels that Ibn Masʿadah had assembled. Al-Musayyab besieged them for three days, then piled firewood against the gate and set it ablaze. When they sensed that death was imminent they appeared on the battlements and signalled (1) to him that they were his own people. He felt pity for them and extinguished the flames. But when night fell they opened the gate of the fortress, slipped out from it, and fled toward Syria. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shabīb (2) said to al-Musayyab, “Ride on so that I may catch them!” He replied, “No.” Ibn Shabīb retorted, “You have deceived the Commander of the Believers and shown undue leniency toward them.”

That same year Muʿāwiyah sent al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays with three thousand men, ordering him to raid the outlying detachments of ʿAlī’s army. ʿAlī equipped Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī with four thousand men and allotted each man fifty dirhams. They met at Tadmur, where Ḥujr killed nineteen of al-Ḍaḥḥāk’s followers, while two of Ḥujr’s own men were slain. Night overtook them and they scattered, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk (3) slipped away with his troops, fleeing to Syria. That same year Muʿāwiyah himself marched with a large army as far as the Tigris, then turned back. This was reported by Muḥammad ibn Saʿd on the authority of al-Wāqidī through his isnād, and is likewise related by Abū Maʿshar.

During this year as well, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib appointed Ziyād ibn Abīhi over the province of Fārs. Its people had withheld the land tax and their obedience, the cause being the episode in which Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī and his companions were burned to death when Jāriya ibn Qudāmah set fire to the house, as previously mentioned. When this deed (4) became widely known throughout the provinces it (5) unsettled the hearts of many people toward ʿAlī (6); they turned against him, and most inhabitants of those districts withheld their revenues—especially the people of Fārs, who rebelled and expelled their governor Sahl ibn Ḥanīf, as noted last year. ʿAlī consulted the community as to whom he should appoint over them. Ibn ʿAbbās and Jāriya ibn Qudāmah advised him to install Ziyād ibn Abīhi, for he was firm in judgment and skilled in administration.

ʿAlī said, “He is equal to the task,” and made him governor of Fārs and Kirmān, outfitting him with four thousand cavalry. Ziyād set out that very year, subdued the inhabitants, and overpowered them until they submitted, paid the land tax and all other dues, and returned to obedience. He ruled them with justice and trustworthiness,

so that the people of those regions used to say, “We have never seen an administration more akin…"