The Conquest of Rayy and Qumis

فتح الري وقومس

In al-Baladhuri via al-Kalbi from Abu Mikhnaf: two months after Nihawand's battle Umar wrote Ammar ibn Yasir, his Kufa agent, to send Urwa ibn Zayd al-Khayl al-Ta'i to Rayy and Dastaba with eight thousand; the Daylam gathered against him with Rayy's reinforcement, and God gave him victory — he killed and swept through them, left his brother Hanzala ibn Zayd, and came to Ammar asking to be sent to Umar — he having once borne the Bridge's ill news and wishing now to bring joy. Umar saw him and said 'we are God's and to Him we return'; Urwa answered 'rather praise God — we are victorious,' told his tale, and when asked why he did not send word answered 'I left my brother and wished to come myself' — so Umar named him al-Bashir. Urwa's verse: 'I stood forth a teacher to Qadisiyya's people — not every bearer of sorrow teaches.'

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The Kufans' Complaint against Sa'd and the Succession of Governors

In al-Baladhuri via Jabir ibn Samura: the Kufans maligned Sa'd to Umar claiming he prayed poorly; Sa'd answered he led them the Messenger's prayer unabridged — lingering in the first two, light in the last — and Umar's mosque-by-mosque inquiry praised him everywhere until a man of Banu Abs called Abu Sa'da testified he neither divided equally nor judged justly; Sa'd's counter-prayer for a liar befell him, Abd al-Malik ibn Umayr later seeing him in the alleys saying 'an old man tried — Sa'd's prayer struck me'. Amr ibn Ma'dikarib testified for Sa'd with 'a gnat's gathering and a goodly mother's tenderness', gave Umar his famous appraisals of war and weapons — the spear 'your brother though he may betray', arrows 'death's messengers', mail 'a burden for horseman and weariness for footman yet a strong fortress', and for the sword 'there your mother bewailed you' met by Umar's 'nay, your mother bewailed you' — whereupon 'the fever drove me to you'. Umar deposed Sa'd for Ammar ibn Yasir, whom they then called weak and unknowledgeable — deposed after a year and nine months — and Umar cried 'who will excuse me from the Kufans? Appoint the strong they make him a sinner, the weak they slight him', finally giving it to al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba on his pledge not to return to his former accusation, which he held till Umar's death; Uthman then appointed Sa'd, replaced him with al-Walid ibn Uqba — Sa'd greeting him 'either you measured after me or I grew senile after you' — then with Sa'id ibn al-As.

The Conquest of Rayy and Qumis

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The Kufans' Complaint against Sa'd and the Succession of Governors