—a dark-skinned, fine-featured man with a slight gap between his front teeth; his hair reached his earlobes and a mark of prostration showed on his forehead. The second was al-Burak ibn ʿAbd Allah at-Tamimi, and the third ʿAmr ibn Bakr at-Tamimi as well.
The three met together and spoke about how ʿAlī had slain their brothers at Nahrawān. They prayed for mercy upon them and said, “What good is life after them? They were [among the best of people, most constant in prayer, and callers who summoned others to their Lord], fearing no reproach in Allah’s cause. Let us sell our own souls, go to the leaders of misguidance, kill them, relieve [the servants of Allah and] the land of them, and avenge our brothers.”
Ibn Muljam said, “As for me, I will be enough for you against ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.”
Al-Burak said, “And I will be enough for you against Muʿāwiyah.”
ʿAmr ibn Bakr said, “And I will be enough for you against ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ.”
They pledged and bound one another that none of them would turn back from his target until he had killed him or died in the attempt. They took their swords, poisoned the blades, and agreed [that the deed would be] for the seventeenth of Ramadan (1), each of them to surprise his victim in whichever city he was.
Ibn Muljam travelled to Kūfa, entered it, and concealed his purpose even from [his own clan and] his companions there among the Khārijites. While he was sitting with some men of the Banū [Taym] ar-Rabab, recalling their dead at Nahrawān, a woman of that tribe approached, named Qutām bint al-Shajnah. ʿAlī had killed her father and brother on the day of Nahrawān. She was exceptionally beautiful, renowned [for her loveliness], and had secluded herself in the central mosque for worship. When Ibn Muljam saw her she bewitched him and he forgot the purpose for which he had come. He proposed to her, and she stipulated three thousand dirhams, a servant, a female singer—and that he kill ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib for her. [He accepted what she stipulated], saying, “It is yours; by Allah, nothing brought me to this town but the killing of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.” He married her and consummated the marriage, after which she began to egg him on. She enlisted for him a clansman of hers from Taym ar-Rabab named Wardān to help him, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muljam won over another man named Shabīb ibn Najdah al-Ashjaʿī al-Harūrī.
Ibn Muljam said to him, “Would you like the honour of this world and the next?”
He replied, “What is that?”
He said, “The killing of ʿAlī.”
He answered, “May your mother lose you! You have proposed something dreadful. (2) How will you manage it?”
He said, “I will lie in wait for him in the mosque; when he comes out for the dawn prayer we shall attack him and kill him. If we escape we shall have satisfied ourselves and taken our revenge (3); and if we are killed, what is with Allah is better [and longer lasting] than this world.”
He said, “Woe to you! Had it been anyone other than ʿAlī it would have been easier for me. You know his precedence in Islam and his closeness to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; my heart cannot find ease in killing him.”
He replied, “Do you not know that he killed the people of Nahrawān?”
He said, “Indeed.”
He continued, “Then we shall kill him in retaliation for those of our brothers he slew.” After some hesitation he agreed. The month of Ramadan began, and Ibn Muljam appointed for them the night of Friday, when seventeen nights had elapsed.
He said, “This is the night on which I have arranged [with my companions] that each of us will kill the man he went after.” They then went to Qutām, and she brought them silken bands with which she bound them; this was in the mosque. (4) The three of them—namely Ibn Muljam, Wardān, and Shabīb—came with their swords wrapped beneath their cloaks.