He was the first person in Basra to don khazz, the silk-and-wool brocade, and the first to construct water basins at ʿArafah and pipe to them a copious flow of fresh water(1).

He remained governor of Basra until ʿUthmān was killed. After the caliph’s death he seized the treasury funds, went out to meet Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr, fought alongside them at the Battle of the Camel, and then made his way to Damascus. Nothing is recorded of him at Ṣiffīn, but later Muʿāwiya reinstated him over Basra. He died in this year [at his estate in ʿArafat] (2) and appointed ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr as his executor.

He relates a single hadith, and none of it appears in the major compilations. Musʿab al-Zubayrī narrated—through his father, his grandfather, and Ḥanẓalah ibn Qays—from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever is killed defending his wealth is a martyr” (3).

Muʿāwiya had married him to his daughter Hind, a woman of striking beauty who, out of her love for him, would serve him with her own hands. One day he looked in a mirror, saw the radiance of her face beside the greyness of his beard, divorced her, and sent word to her father to give her in marriage to a young man whose face was like a page of the Quran.

He died in this very year—though some say a year later.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (4) was the eldest child of Abū Bakr, as stated by al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, who added that he had a light-hearted disposition. His mother was Umm Rūmān, the mother of ʿĀʾisha, making him her full brother.

He fought on the side of the idolaters at Badr and Uḥud [and even attempted to kill his father, Abū Bakr] (5). When Abū Bakr advanced toward him, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Spare us—let us benefit from your presence” (6). ʿAbd al-Raḥmān later embraced Islam during the truce, migrated before the Conquest, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, allotted him forty wasqs of produce from Khaybar each year. He was counted among the nobles of the Muslims.

It was he who entered upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, on the day the Prophet passed away—while ʿĀʾisha was supporting him against her chest—and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was holding a siwāk.