ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad said:
Abū ʿAlī Suwayd al-Ṭaḥḥān narrated to us, ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us, Abū Rayḥānah informed us, from Safīnah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:
“The caliphate after me will last thirty years.”⦗1⦘
A man who was present in the gathering remarked, “Six of those thirty years have already passed under the caliphate of Muʿāwiyah.”
He replied, “Here is where you have gone astray: those months belonged to the pledge of allegiance to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī. Forty thousand—or forty-two thousand—gave him their bayʿah.”
Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad said:
I heard my father say, “Seventy thousand⦗2⦘ swore allegiance to al-Ḥasan, yet he renounced the caliphate, made peace with Muʿāwiyah, and not a single drop⦗3⦘ of blood was shed during his days.”
Ibn Abī Khaythamah said:
My father narrated to us, Wahb ibn Jarīr narrated to us, saying: My father said, “When ʿAlī was killed, the people of Kufah pledged allegiance to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, obeyed him, and loved him even more than they had loved his father⦗4⦘.”
Ibn Abī Khaythamah also said:
Hārūn ibn Maʿrūf narrated to us, Ḍamrah narrated to us, from Ibn Shawdhub, who said:
“When ʿAlī was killed, al-Ḥasan set out with the people of Iraq, and Muʿāwiyah advanced with the people of Syria. They met, but al-Ḥasan disliked fighting and pledged allegiance to Muʿāwiyah on the condition that the succession would revert to al-Ḥasan after him. Al-Ḥasan’s companions used to say, ‘O disgrace of the believers!’ and he would reply, ‘Disgrace is better than the Fire⦗5⦘.’”
Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā said:
al-ʿAbbās ibn Hishām⦗6⦘ narrated to us, from his father, who said: “When ʿAlī was killed, the people pledged allegiance to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, and he held authority for seven months and eleven days.”
Another transmitter reports:
“The people of Kufah pledged allegiance to al-Ḥasan, while the people of Syria pledged allegiance to Muʿāwiyah at Īliyāʾ⦗7⦘ after ʿAlī’s death. The general bayʿah was given in Jerusalem on Friday at the end of the year 40 AH. [Later al-Ḥasan met Muʿāwiyah at Maskin, a district of Kufah, in the year 41 AH]⦗8⦘; they reached a settlement, and al-Ḥasan pledged allegiance to Muʿāwiyah.”