She said, “Leave me be, Ibn ʿAbbās. By Him in Whose hand is my soul, I would have wished to be a thing forgotten, lost to all memory (1).”

The reports praising her virtues and outstanding qualities are exceedingly numerous. She died in this very year, 58 AH; some said a year earlier, others a year later. The most common view is that her death occurred in Ramaḍān—though some place it in Shawwāl—the prevailing opinion being the night before Tuesday, the seventeenth of Ramaḍān. She instructed that she be buried in al-Baqīʿ at night, and Abū Hurayrah led the funeral prayer for her after the Witr prayer.

Five men descended into her grave: ʿAbd Allāh and ʿUrwah, the two sons of al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, her sister Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr’s children; al-Qāsim and ʿAbd Allāh, the two sons of her brother Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr; and [ʿAbd Allāh ibn] (2) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr. She was then sixty-seven years old, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away when she was eighteen, and she had been eight or nine at the time of the Hijrah. Allah knows best.

[Then came the year 59 AH]

In that year ʿAmr ibn Murrah al-Juhanī wintered on Byzantine territory by land. Al-Wāqidī said: “There was no naval expedition that year,” while others maintained that Junādah ibn Abī Umayyah did carry out a sea-raid that same year (3).

During it Muʿāwiyah dismissed Ibn Umm al-Ḥakam from Kūfah because of his misconduct toward its people and appointed al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr in his place.

That year as well, Muʿāwiyah appointed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād governor of Khurāsān, removing Saʿīd ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. Thus ʿUbayd Allāh held Basra, ʿAbbād ibn Ziyād Sijistān, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād Khurāsān. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān remained there until the reign of Yazīd; he then came to Yazīd after the killing of Ḥusayn.

Yazīd asked him, “How much money have you brought?”
He replied, “Twenty million.”
Yazīd said, “If you wish, we will audit you; or, if you prefer, we will grant it to you and remove you from the post on condition that you give ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar five hundred thousand dirhams.”
He answered, “Grant it to me; as for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, I will give him what you stated and the like of it besides.” Yazīd dismissed him and appointed another in his stead. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān then sent ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar one million dirhams, saying, “Five hundred thousand from the Commander of the Faithful and five hundred thousand from me.”

In that same year ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād visited Muʿāwiyah accompanied by the nobles of Basra and Iraq. ʿUbayd Allāh sought leave for them to enter in accordance with their ranks (4). The last one he admitted was al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays—whom ʿUbayd Allāh did not esteem. When Muʿāwiyah saw al-Aḥnaf, he welcomed, honoured, and seated him beside him on the couch. The company then spoke, praising ʿUbayd Allāh, while al-Aḥnaf remained silent.

Muʿāwiyah asked him, “What is the matter with you, Abū Baḥr? Why do you not speak?”
He replied, “If I speak, I will differ…"