Name: the killing of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa in Egypt (36 AH, disputed)
Start: 0656

the killing of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa in Egypt (36 AH, disputed)

مقتل محمد بن أبي حذيفة بمصر

656 CE · 36 AH

Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa — orphaned at al-Yamāma, raised by ʿUthmān, flogged for drink and then turned ascetic — agitated the Egyptians against his foster-father, returned ʿUthmān's gift of 30,000 dirhams crying «do you not see ʿUthmān deceiving me about my religion and bribing me over it?«, expelled governor ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd and held Egypt himself. One report has Muʿāwiya and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ luring him to al-ʿArīsh, mangoneling him out, and killing him with thirty companions — a chronology Ibn al-Athīr himself rejects, since the conquest of Egypt came after Ṣiffīn ¹.

Summary

Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa (may God be pleased with him) ibn Utba ibn Rabi'a: his father was killed at the battle of al-Yamama and left him an orphan, and Uthman took him in and raised him well. He was once punished with the hadd for drinking, after which he turned to asceticism and devotion. He took part with Abd Allah ibn Sa'd in the raid of al-Sawari, then began to find fault with Uthman and to rouse the Egyptians against him, until he returned a gift of thirty thousand dirhams and said in the mosque: "Do you not see how Uthman deceives me in my religion and bribes me to go along with him?" When the Egyptians marched on Medina, he himself took control of Egypt and expelled from it Ibn Sa'd, Uthman's governor. It is reported that Mu'awiya and Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him) later deceived him; he went out to al-Arish with a thousand men, and they set up a catapult against him until he came down with thirty of his companions and was killed. Ibn al-Athir, however, weakened this report, since the seizure of Egypt by Mu'awiya and Amr came after Siffin, not before Qays ibn Sa'd arrived there as governor. ¹

The Conquest of Caesarea

In al-Baladhuri: the conquest of Caesarea is disputed — some ascribe it to Mu'awiya, others to Iyad ibn Ghanm after Abu Ubayda's death, others to Amr ibn al-As or his son Abdullah; what the scholars agree is that the first to besiege it was Amr ibn al-As, camping against it in Jumada I year 13 and staying as long as he did, marching off whenever the Muslims massed against an enemy — attending Ajnadayn, Fihl, the Marj, Damascus and the Yarmuk — then returning to Filastin to besiege it after Iliya', before leaving from Caesarea for Egypt; Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, succeeding Abu Ubayda, charged his brother Mu'awiya with the siege and went plague-stricken to Damascus, dying there at the end of year 18, leaving Mu'awiya over Caesarea, who took it and wrote of it to Yazid who wrote to Umar; al-Waqidi reports that when Umar gave Mu'awiya Syria he besieged it until he took it — it had been besieged near seven years — its conquest falling in Shawwal year 19, some say the opening of year 20; the cause of its fall was a Jew named Yusuf who came to the Muslims by night and guided them to a way through a conduit with water to a man's waist, on condition of safety for himself and his house — Mu'awiya carried it out and the Muslims entered by night and magnified God, the Byzantines fleeing toward the conduit finding the Muslims upon it, and the gate being opened Mu'awiya entered with his men; it is said he found in it seven hundred thousand apostates, thirty thousand Samaritans and two hundred thousand Jews, three hundred functioning markets and a hundred thousand guarding its wall each night; its captives reached four thousand heads whom Mu'awiya sent to Umar, who had them quartered at al-Jurf and divided among the orphans of the Ansar, putting some to the script and the Muslims' labours — Abu Bakr had given the daughters of Abu Umama As'ad ibn Zurara two servants of Ayn al-Tamr's captives who died, and Umar gave them their like of Caesarea's; Mu'awiya sent the victory news with two men of Judham, then fearing their weakness sent a man of Khath'am who outpaced them and came to Umar, who magnified God; in it is said to have been Shaqa'iq, of whom Hassan ibn Thabit says 'Shaqa'iq says: had you woken from the wine you would have risen enriched in number'.

the killing of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa in Egypt (36 AH, disputed)

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The Conquest of Caesarea