who heard Abū Hurayrah say: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare: ‘Most surely a tyrant from among the tyrants of the Banū Umayyah will one day stand upon my pulpit and suffer such a nosebleed that the blood will run.’ ”

He added: “Someone who was present told me that ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ did in fact bleed on the Messenger’s pulpit until the blood flowed.”

This same ʿAmr used to dispatch detachments to Makkah after the Battle of al-Ḥarrah, in the days of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah, to fight Ibn al-Zubayr. Abū Shurayḥ al-Khuzāʿī reproved him and reminded him of the hadith he had heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the inviolability of Makkah.

ʿAmr retorted, “We know that better than you, Abū Shurayḥ. The Sacred Precinct does not grant sanctuary to a sinner, nor to one fleeing after shedding blood, nor to one absconding with jizyah (1).” The full report has already been cited and is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (2).

Afterwards, Marwān entered Egypt—having first claimed the caliphate for himself and consolidated his hold over Syria—and ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd accompanied him, whereupon Egypt was taken. Marwān had promised ʿAmr that he would be the heir apparent after ʿAbd al-Malik and, prior to that, governor of Damascus. Yet once Marwān’s power was firmly established, he went back on his word, reserved the succession for his own son ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and removed ʿAmr from office.

The slight continued to rankle in ʿAmr’s heart until matters unfolded as already described: he entered Damascus, fortified himself there, and a number of people rallied to him. ʿAbd al-Malik besieged the city, enticed him out with an illusory guarantee of safety, and then killed him, as mentioned above.

According to the majority of scholars, these events occurred in this very year; al-Wāqidī and Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus, however, place them in the year 70 AH. Allah knows best.

Something curious is related by Hishām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī, who transmits with his chain that a man dreamt he heard a voice upon the ramparts of Damascus—before ʿAmr’s final departure and some time before his death—reciting these verses:

Alas for a people given to folly and weakness,
For the sinful reprobate, for counsel that is unsound!
As for Ibn Saʿīd—while he still stands on his two feet,
He will topple, falling upon face and belly.
He deemed the fortress salvation from death and took refuge there,
But death paid him a visit inside the very fortress.

The man went to ʿAbd al-Malik and informed him. “Woe to you,” the caliph asked, “did anyone hear this from you?” He answered, “No.” ʿAbd al-Malik replied, “Then trample it beneath your feet.” Shortly thereafter, ʿAmr renounced allegiance and was slain by ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (6).

[It is also said that when ʿAbd al-Malik had besieged him he wrote, saying: “I implore you by Allah and by the ties of kinship to abandon the claim of your family and their bid to unite the word of the people, for what you have done only strengthens Ibn al-Zubayr against us. Return to your pledge of allegiance and you have from me Allah’s covenant and solemn pact