inside the basket. They were about to open the basket, but one of them said, “He pronounced the Name of Allah over it.” So they took the basket with everything it contained and went off with it. He said, “Nothing has ever grieved me as much as my failure to leap upon them while they were still in the house.” (1)

ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was one of those who fought resolutely in defence of ʿUthman on the Day of the House, and on that day he suffered a dozen-odd wounds. At the Battle of the Camel he commanded the infantry and was wounded nineteen times as well. During that battle he and Malik ibn al-Harith al-Ashter met in single combat; they closed with one another and al-Ashter threw Ibn al-Zubayr to the ground but could not rise from on top of him. Instead, Ibn al-Zubayr locked him in his arms and cried out, “Kill me and Malik, and kill Malik along with me!”—a cry that became proverbial. The two eventually separated, and al-Ashter could not prevail over him. It is also said that Ibn al-Zubayr received more than forty wounds that day and was found only among the slain, still breathing.

When news reached ʿAisha that he had not been killed she rewarded the bearer of the glad tidings with ten thousand dirhams and prostrated to Allah in gratitude. (2) She loved him dearly, for he was her sister’s son and very precious to her.

ʿUrwah related that ʿAisha did not love anyone after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr as she loved Ibn al-Zubayr. He said, “I never saw my father or ʿAisha supplicate for anyone as fervently as they did for Ibn al-Zubayr.” (3)

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar narrated: Hārūn ibn Abi Bakr told me, from Yahya ibn Ibrahim, from Sulayman ibn Muhammad, from Yahya ibn ʿUrwah, from his uncle, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUrwah, who said: “The poet of Banu Jadīʿah, al-Nabighah, found himself tongue-tied; then he came to ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in the Sacred Mosque and recited these verses:

‘You have revived for us al-Ṣiddīq when you took the reins of rule—
and ʿUthmān and al-Fārūq—so the pauper breathed relief. (4)
You made the people equal before justice till all stood level;
yet dawn returned black-hued and gloomy. (5)
Abu Layla has come to you, cleaving the night’s darkness—
the deep night, a wanderer of the waste, ragged. (6)
He seeks your shelter, he whom the changing nights
and relentless time have battered.’ (7)

Ibn al-Zubayr said to him, “Take it easy, Abu Layla; poetry is the least of the means you have with us. The choicest part of what we own is for the family of al-Zubayr; as for pardon, the clans of Banu Asad and Taym keep us occupied. Still, you have two claims upon the property of Allah: one because you have seen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and another because you share with the Muslims in their spoils.”

He then took him by the hand, led him into the House of Bounty, and granted him seven pregnant she-camels, a camel, horses, and loaded his mounts with wheat, dates, and clothes. Al-Nabighah, in his haste, began eating the grain raw. Ibn al-Zubayr said, “Alas, Abu Layla, hardship has truly worn you down!”

Al-Nabighah replied, “I testify that I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: …”