Salman al-Khayl's Reinforcement and the Spoils Dispute

إمداد سلمان الخيل وأمر الغنيمة

c. 645 CE · c. 25 AH

Qaliqala (Theodosiopolis/Erzurum)

In al-Baladhuri: when Habib ibn Maslama's letter reached Uthman with word of the Armeniakos patrikios's host, he wrote to Sa'id ibn al-As ibn Sa'id ibn al-As ibn Umayya — his governor of Kufa — ordering him to reinforce with an army under Salman ibn Rabi'a al-Bahili, that is Salman al-Khayl, a good, virtuous raider, who marched to him with six thousand Kufans; the Romans and their allies had come and camped on al-Fudhat — the reinforcement slow — and the Muslims night-attacked and overran them; then Salman arrived when the Muslims were done with their enemy, and the Kufans asked to be given a share in the spoils, which was refused until Habib and Salman exchanged hard words and some Muslims threatened Salman with death, the poet saying 'if you kill Salman we kill your Habib, and if you march home the son of Affan's affair marches too'; he wrote of it to Uthman, who wrote that the spoils were cold — free — for the Syrians, and wrote to Salman ordering him to raid Arran; some also relate that Salman ibn Rabi'a went to Armenia in Uthman's caliphate, took captives and spoils, and returned to al-Walid ibn Uqba at Hadithat al-Mawsil in year 25, where Uthman's letter reached him: Mu'awiya had written of a great Roman massing, asking aid and ordering eight thousand sent under Salman ibn Rabi'a al-Bahili, while Mu'awiya dispatched Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri with a like number — the two took fortresses and captives and disputed the command, the Syrians threatening Salman, whence the same verse — but the first report is sounder, transmitted to me by several shaykhs of Qaliqala and written to me by al-Attaf ibn Sufyan Abu al-Asbagh its qadi.