to his deputy there. They searched for him and found that he had hidden in a cave, where a snake bit him and he died. His head was then severed and sent to Muʿāwiyah; it was paraded through Syria and other regions, and it was the first severed head ever carried about in this way. Muʿāwiyah subsequently sent the head to his wife, Āminah bint al-Sharīd—who was being held in Muʿāwiyah’s prison—and it was thrown into her lap. She placed her hand upon his forehead, kissed his mouth, and said:
You kept him from me so long,
then sent him back to me slain.
Welcome be this gift—
not despised, nor by me disdained. (1)
As for Kaʿb ibn Mālik (2), the Salami Anṣārī and poet of Islam: he embraced the faith early, was present at the Pledge of al-ʿAqabah, but did not take part in Badr, as established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs in the account of Allah’s acceptance of his repentance. He was one of the three whose repentance was accepted after they stayed behind from the Expedition of Tabūk, as has already been detailed [in the Tafsīr and in the section on Tabūk]. (3)
Ibn al-Kalbī erred when he claimed that Kaʿb attended Badr and that he died before the year 40 AH. Al-Wāqidī—who is better informed—stated that he died in 50 AH, while al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī (4) said it was in 51 AH. (5)
Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah ibn Abī ʿĀmir ibn Masʿūd, Abū ʿĪsā [some say: Abū Muḥammad] (6) (7), and it is also said:
(1) The remainder of her discourse and the exchange between her and Muʿāwiya are recorded in A‘lam al-Nisā’ by al-Kaḥḥāla (vol. 1, p. 11), citing Balaghāt al-Nisā’ by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir.
(2) Ṭabaqāt Fuḥūl al-Shu‘arā’ (vol. 1, p. 220); Ṭabaqāt Khalīfa (p. 103); Tārīkh Khalīfa (p. 202); Musnad Aḥmad (vol. 3, p. 454; vol. 6, p. 38); al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr of al-Bukhārī (vol. 7, p. 219); al-Ma‘ārif (p. 343); al-Ma‘rifa wa’l-Tārīkh (vol. 1, p. 318); al-Jarḥ wa’l-Ta‘dīl (vol. 7, p. 160); Mashāhīr ‘Ulamā’ al-Amṣār (d. 63); al-Aghānī (vol. 16, p. 226); Ma‘jam al-Shu‘arā’ by al-Marzubānī (p. 229); al-Mustadrak of al-Ḥākim (vol. 3, p. 440); al-Istibsār (p. 160); al-Isti‘āb (vol. 3, p. 1 323); Ansāb al-Sam‘ānī (vol. 7, p. 114); Tārīkh Ibn ‘Asākir (vol. 14, p. 286, note a); Asad al-Ghāba (vol. 4, p. 487); Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq (vol. 21, p. 188); Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (p. 1 148); Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 2, p. 243); Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ (vol. 2, p. 523); al-‘Ibar (vol. 1, p. 56); al-Kāshif (vol. 3, p. 8); Nukat al-Humayān (p. 231); Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (vol. 8, p. 440); al-Iṣāba (vol. 8, p. 304); Khulāṣat al-Khazarjī (p. 321); Kanz al-‘Ummāl (vol. 13, p. 581); Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab (vol. 1, p. 244).
(3) The words “ma bayna ḥāṣiratayn” do not occur in manuscript A.
(4) In the primary sources it is erroneously written as al-Qāsim.
(5) In manuscripts A and B it reads “one and forty,” which is incorrect.
(6) Ṭabaqāt Ibn Sa‘d (vol. 4, p. 284; vol. 6, p. 20); Ṭabaqāt Khalīfa (pp. 361, 884, 1419); Musnad Aḥmad (vol. 4, p. 244); al-Muḥabbir (index); al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr of al-Bukhārī (vol. 7, p. 316); Thiqāt al-‘Ajlī (p. 437); al-Ma‘ārif (p. 294); al-Awwā’il by Ibn Qutayba (pp. 20, 60); al-Ma‘rifa wa’l-Tārīkh (index); Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī (vol. 5, p. 234); al-Jarḥ wa’l-Ta‘dīl (vol. 8, p. 224); Mashāhīr ‘Ulamā’ al-Amṣār (d. 269); al-Aghānī (vol. 16, p. 79); Jumhūrat Ansāb al-‘Arab (p. 267); al-Isti‘āb (vol. 4, p. 1 445); Tārīkh Baghdad (vol. 1, p. 191); al-Jam‘ bayna Rijāl al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (vol. 2, p. 499); Tārīkh Ibn ‘Asākir (vol. 17, p. 33, note b); Asad al-Ghāba (vol. 5, p. 247); al-Kāmil fī’l-Tārīkh (vol. 3, p. 461); Tahdhīb al-Asmā’ wa’l-Lughāt, sec. 1 of part 2 (p. 109); Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq (vol. 25, p. 154); Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (p. 1 363); Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 2, p. 247); Tathhīb al-Tahdhīb (vol. 4, p. 60, note a); Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ (vol. 3, p. 21); al-Kāshif (vol. 3, p. 148); al-‘Ibar (vol. 1, p. 56); Mir’āt al-Jinān (vol. 1, p. 124); al-‘Aqd al-Thamīn (vol. 7, p. 255); al-Iṣāba (d. 8181); Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (vol. 10, p. 262); Khulāṣat al-Khazarjī (p. 385); Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab (vol. 1, p. 245).
(7) Omitted in the Ṭ edition.