The Ridda Wars

All stops in this story

1. The Ridda Wars — c. 632 CE · c. 11 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr succeeded, groups of the Arabs apostatized and withheld the alms, some saying 'we keep the prayer but will not pay the zakat', whereupon Abu Bakr said 'if they withheld from me a hobbling-cord — some say a she-goat kid — I would fight them', the 'iqal being a year's alms; Abdullah ibn Masud said the Muslims had stood after the Prophet at a station where they nearly perished had God not graced them with Abu Bakr: they had all agreed not to fight over a young she-camel or a weaned camel 'and to eat the Arab villages' yield and worship God until certainty came to us', but God resolved him to fight, and he accepted from them only the humiliating condition or the annihilating war — the first that they confess their slain are in the Fire and return what they took of Muslim property, the second that they leave their homes; in Tariq ibn Shihab's report he offered the Buzakha delegation the choice of the annihilating war or the humiliating peace: surrender of armour and mounts, return of what was taken, blood-money for the slain Muslims, their own slain in the Fire; Aisha said 'when the Prophet died there befell my father what would have crushed the firm mountains — hypocrisy reared its head in Medina and the Arabs apostatized'; Abu Bakr went out to al-Qassa directing the columns against the apostates, was attacked by Kharija ibn Hisn and Manzur ibn Zabban the Fazaris who were routed with Talha ibn Ubaydillah pursuing them to lower Thaniyyat Awsaja, then appointed Khalid ibn al-Walid over the army and Thabit ibn Qays over the Ansar, beginning with Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid at Buzakha, followed by the affairs of Yamama, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Hadramawt, Mecca, Tihama and Iraq.

2. The Conquest of Syria — c. 633 CE · c. 12 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr finished with the apostates he dispatched the armies to Syria, binding three banners — for Khalid ibn Sa'id (whom he deposed), Shurahbil ibn Hasana and Amr ibn al-As — directing them and Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan by the Ayla and Tabuk roads until their number completed at twenty-four thousand; their first fighting came at Dathin and al-Araba, and al-Waqidi's account assigns Amr Filastin, Shurahbil al-Urdunn and Yazid Dimashq; Khalid ibn al-Walid then marched from Iraq reaching them in Rabi' al-Akhir year 13, and they made him commander in every battle; the great battle of Ajnadayn fell on Monday twelve nights remaining of Jumada I year 13, Busra fell by treaty, Shurahbil conquered al-Urdunn by force save Tabariyya, the battle of Fihl came five months into Umar's caliphate with Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah commanding by Umar's investiture, the day of Marj al-Suffar at the new moon of al-Muharram year 14, and then the conquest of Damascus and Bayt al-Maqdis.

3. The Siege of Ayn al-Tamr and Its Church Captives — c. 633 CE · c. 12 AH†

   In al-Baladhuri: Khalid ibn al-Walid came to Ayn al-Tamr, pressed against its fortress holding a great Persian garrison; its people fought then shut themselves in; Khalid besieged them till they asked safety — he refused to grant it, opened the fortress by force, killed and took captive, finding in a church there a band he took captive. Among that captivity: Humran ibn Aban ibn Khalid al-Tamri, Uthman's mawla; Sirin, father of Muhammad ibn Sirin, and his brothers Yahya, Anas and Ma'bad — the eldest — mawali of Anas ibn Malik; Abu Amra, grandfather of the poet Abdallah ibn Abd al-A'la; Yasar, grandfather of Muhammad ibn Ishaq author of the sira, mawla of Qays ibn Makhrama ibn al-Muttalib; Murra abu Ubayd, grandfather of Muhammad ibn Zayd ibn Ubayd ibn Murra and Nafis ibn Muhammad ibn Zayd, lords of the palace by al-Harra; and Nusayr, father of Musa ibn Nusayr the Maghreb's conqueror, mawla of the Umayyads. Al-Kalbi said Abu Farwa Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Aswad and Nusayr were two Arab men of Arasha of Bali captured in Abu Bakr's days from Syria's Jabal al-Jalil; Nusayr's name was Nasr, diminutivized — an Umayyad freed him, he returned to Syria and Musa was born to him at Kafr Mari village; he was lame. It was also said they were brothers of Ayn al-Tamr's captives whose wala' lay with Banu Dubba; al-Mada'ini: Na'im al-Asadi bought Abu Farwa, then Uthman bought him for grave-digging; when the people rose on Uthman he was with them against him, Uthman saying 'repel the wrongs' — he answered 'you are first among them: I bought you from alms-money to dig graves and you abandoned it'; Abu Farwa was named for the fur garment on him when captured. It was also said Khalid made peace with Ayn al-Tamr's fortress people and these captives were found in a church in some canal-district, and that Sirin was of Jarjaraya's people visiting kin when taken. Via al-Sha'bi: Khalid made peace with Hira's and Ayn al-Tamr's people and wrote Abu Bakr who approved — something on them, nothing on their lands. Hilal ibn Uqqa ibn Qays ibn al-Bushr al-Namiri was over al-Namar ibn Saqit at Ayn al-Tamr; he gathered for Khalid and fought him, was overcome, killed and crucified — al-Kalbi: it was Uqqa ibn Qays himself. Bashir ibn Sa'd al-Ansari's wound relapsed and he died, buried at Ayn al-Tamr, and beside him was buried Umayr ibn Ri'ab ibn Muhashshim ibn Sa'id ibn Sahm ibn Amr, martyred by an arrow there.

4. The Battle of Yamama — c. 634 CE · 12 AH

   In al-Baladhuri — who reports it in the first part of his book — Abu Bakr sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to al-Yamama ordering him to fight Musaylima the Liar; the first to meet the Muslims, al-Rajjal ibn Unfuwa, was killed, the foremost Muslims and the Quran-reciters fell as martyrs, then the Muslims returned and stood firm and God sent down His aid; Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr shot Muhakkim ibn al-Tufayl — called 'the arbiter of al-Yamama' — with an arrow and killed him, and the unbelievers were driven into the Garden, that day named the Garden of Death, formerly called Ubad; Musaylima was killed in the Garden and they disputed his slayer: Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy say Khidash ibn Bashir, some Ansar Abdullah ibn Zayd ibn Tha'laba who was shown the adhan, some Abu Dujana Simak ibn Kharasha who then fell, some Abdullah ibn Zayd ibn Asim brother of Habib ibn Zayd whose hands and feet Musaylima had cut off, Wahshi ibn Harb — Hamza's slayer — used to claim it saying 'I killed the best of men and the worst', some held they all shared in it, and Mu'awiya and the Umayyads claimed it for him until Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan told a Hanafi who described the killer 'by God I have judged it for Mu'awiya'; the Muslims' cry was 'O companions of Sura al-Baqara'; some Ansar reproached Khalid's lone resolve to butt Musaylima then followed him; al-Sa'ib ibn al-Awwam stood the men at their baggage: 'no man may flee beyond his saddle'; when the war wore the Muslims down Mujja'a ibn Murara told Khalid most of Yamama's people had not come out to fight and offered peace for half the captives and half the gold, silver, armour and mounts, then armed the old men, boys and women on the fortresses, returned claiming they refused, and beat the terms down to a quarter of the captives and half the wealth — settled thus, until Khalid entered, saw who remained and said 'you deceived me, Mujja'a'; the people of al-Yamama embraced Islam and the alms were taken from them, Abu Bakr's letter reached Khalid ordering him to aid al-Ala ibn al-Hadrami so he marched to Bahrain leaving Samura ibn Amr al-Anbari over al-Yamama; its conquest was in year 12; they disputed the martyrs' count — least said seven hundred, most seventeen hundred, some twelve hundred — among them Zayd ibn al-Khattab, Umar's brother (killed by Abu Maryam al-Hanafi or per Ibn al-Kalbi Labid ibn Burghuth), Thabit ibn Qays the Prophet's orator commanding the Ansar that day, Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba and his mawla Salim, Abu Dujana, Abbad ibn Bishr and Salim; and Nusayba bint Ka'b — mother of Habib and Abdullah the sons of Zayd ibn Asim — fought that day and came away wounded, Musaylima having cut off her son Habib's hands and feet when the Prophet sent him with Abdullah ibn Wahb al-Aslami, whom he left unharmed.

5. The Dispatch of the Armies to Syria — c. 12 April 634 CE · 1 Muharram 13 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr had finished with the apostates he resolved to direct the armies to Syria, writing to the people of Mecca, al-Ta'if, Yemen and all the Arabs of Najd and the Hijaz summoning them to jihad and stirring their desire for Byzantine spoil, and they hastened from every quarter; he bound three banners for three men — Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, Shurahbil ibn Hasana (per al-Waqidi son of Abdullah ibn al-Mutta' al-Kindi with Hasana his mother, per al-Kalbi son of Rabi'a ibn al-Mutta' of the children of Sufa) and Amr ibn al-As al-Sahmi — the binding being on Thursday at the opening of Safar year 13, after the armies had camped at al-Jurf the whole of al-Muharram, with Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah leading their prayers; Abu Bakr had wanted to bind a banner for Abu Ubayda who begged off — some report he did bind it, which is not established — and Abu Yakhnaf records Abu Bakr telling the commanders 'if you join in battle your commander is Abu Ubayda, otherwise Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan', while Amr is said to have been only a reinforcement and commander over those joined to him; when he bound Khalid ibn Sa'id's banner Umar disliked it and spoke to Abu Bakr of deposing him — 'he is a proud man who carries his charge with contentiousness and partisanship' — so he deposed him and sent Abu Adwa' al-Dawsi to take his banner, who met him at Dhu al-Marwa and took it, and it was given to Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, who marched with his brother Mu'awiya bearing it before him — others say it was handed to him at Dhu al-Marwa and he took over Khalid's army, Khalid ibn Sa'id marching on as a volunteer in Shurahbil's army; he ordered Amr to take the Ayla road toward Filastin, Yazid the Tabuk road and Shurahbil likewise; each commander set out with three thousand men, then he kept sending reinforcements until each had seven thousand five hundred, and their total completed at twenty-four thousand; al-Waqidi reports Abu Bakr gave Amr Filastin, Shurahbil al-Urdunn and Yazid Dimashq — 'if you have fighting, your commander is the one in whose charge you stand' — and that he ordered Amr verbally to lead the people in prayer.

6. Khalid ibn al-Walid's March to Syria — c. June 634 CE · Rabi' I 13 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr's letter reached him at al-Hira he left al-Muthanna ibn Haritha al-Shaybani over the Kufa side and marched in Rabi' al-Akhir of year 13 with eight hundred — some say five hundred — taking Ayn al-Tamr by force (others say the letter reached him there after its conquest), then Sandawda', held by Kinda, Iyad and Persians, whose people fought and were overcome — he left Sa'd ibn Amr ibn Haram al-Ansari over it, whose descendants dwell there today; hearing of an apostate gathering of Banu Taghlib at al-Mudayyih and al-Musayyid under Rabi'a ibn Bujayr he defeated them, took captives and spoil and sent them to Abu Bakr — among them Umm Habib al-Sahba' bint Habib ibn Bujayr, mother of Umar ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib; he raided Qaraqir, a Kalbi watering-place, then traversed the desert to Suwa, likewise Kalbi, where Bahra' were with them, killing Hurqus ibn al-Nu'man al-Bahrani of Quda'a and sweeping up their wealth; entering the waterless stretch he watered the camels, slit their lips and made them drool so they would not ruminate and thirst, carrying abundant water which ran out on the way — so he slaughtered the camels one by one, drinking with his men the water of their bellies, his guide Rafi' ibn Umayra al-Ta'i earning the poet's verse 'God bless Rafi' — how he guided, traversing from Qaraqir to Suwa'; from Suwa to al-Kawa'il, then Qarqisiya whose lord abandoned it for Byzantine lands, then Arak whose people he besieged until it fell by treaty for a payment to the Muslims, then Dumat al-Jandal which he took, then Qusam whose Banu Mashja'a ibn al-Taym of Quda'a made peace for a written aman, then Tadmur whose people resisted and fortified themselves then asked safety — granted on being dhimma, quartering the Muslims and submitting to them — then al-Qaryatayn whose people fought and were overcome with spoil, then Hawwarin of Sanir whose people fought with reinforcements from Ba'labakk and Busra and were overcome with captives and killing, then Marj Rahit where he raided the Ghassan on their Easter taking captives and killing; he sent Busr ibn Abi Artat al-Amiri of Quraysh and Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri to the Ghouta of Damascus to raid its villages, stood at the pass known as Thaniyyat al-Uqab by Damascus unfurling his banner — a black banner that had been the Prophet's — whence its name that day, camped at the eastern gate of Damascus — some say Bab al-Jabiya — whose bishop brought him hospitality and service receiving a promise to keep the covenant, then marched to join the Muslims at the canal of Busra.

7. The Battle of Ajnadayn — c. 16 July 634 CE · 12 Rabi' II 13 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: then came the battle of Ajnadayn — also Ajtadayn — attended by near a hundred thousand Romans, Heraclius chaining most of them and their bravest gathering from the districts, Heraclius then residing at Hims; the Muslims fought them fiercely, Khalid ibn al-Walid showing fine valour that day, then God defeated His enemies and scattered them utterly, killing many; martyred that day were Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As ibn Umayya and his brother Aban (some say Aban died in year 29), Tulayb ibn Umayr ibn Wahb ibn Qusayy — a Byzantine champion challenged him and severed his right hand so his sword fell with his palm, then covered and killed him, his mother Arwa bint al-Muttalib the Prophet's aunt, his kunya Abu Adi — Salama ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira (some say he fell at Marj al-Suffar), Ikrama ibn Abi Jahl ibn Hisham al-Makhzumi (some say at Mu'ta), Nu'aym ibn Abdullah al-Nahham al-Adawi (some say at the Yarmuk), Hisham ibn al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi (some say at the Yarmuk), Amr ibn al-Tuqayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi (some say at the Yarmuk), Jundub ibn Amr al-Dawsi, and Sa'id, al-Harith and al-Hajjaj sons of al-Harith ibn Qays ibn Adi al-Sahmi — Hisham ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi placing al-Na'am at Mu'ta, Sa'id at the Yarmuk, Tamim at Ajnadayn and his brother Ubaydullah ibn Abd al-Asad at the Yarmuk — and al-Harith ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira fell at Ajnadayn; when the report reached Heraclius his heart sank, his hand failed and he was filled with terror, fleeing from Hims to Antioch — some say his flight came at the Muslims' very arrival in Syria; the battle fell on Monday twelve nights remaining of Jumada I year 13 — some say two nights into Jumada II, some say two remaining of it; the Romans then massed at al-Yaqusa — a valley whose mouth is al-Fawwara — where the Muslims met, exposed and routed them killing many, their remnant reaching Syria's towns; Abu Bakr died in Jumada II year 13, his obituary reaching the Muslims at al-Yaqusa.

8. The Conquest of Damascus — c. 19 March 635 CE · Jumada I 14 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when the Muslims finished fighting those who had gathered at the Marj they stayed fifteen nights, then returned to Damascus fourteen nights remaining of al-Muharram year 14, taking the Futa and its churches by force while the townsfolk fortified themselves and shut their gate; Khalid camped at the eastern gate with some five thousand joined to him by Abu Ubayda (some say Khalid was commander and his deposition reached them while besieging), the monastery at his side being named Dayr Khalid; Amr ibn al-As camped at Bab Tuma, Shurahbil at Bab al-Faradis, Abu Ubayda at Bab al-Jabiya, and Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan at the small gate to Bab Kaysan, Abu al-Darda' posting Uwaymir ibn Amir al-Khazraji on a watch at Barza; the bishop who had hosted Khalid would call and converse with him, saying one day 'Abu Sulayman, your affair ascends — I hold a pledge over you, so make terms with me for this city', and Khalid wrote his famous charter: 'In God's name, this is what Khalid ibn al-Walid grants the people of Damascus when he enters it: safety for themselves, their wealth, their churches and their city wall — it shall not be demolished nor any of their houses dwelt in; they have for it God's covenant and the protection of His messenger, the caliphs and the believers, and nothing but good shall befall them if they pay the jizya'; one of the bishop's men then told him it was a feast-night for the town, the eastern gate being blocked with stones, and advised a ladder — men of the monastery brought two ladders and a company of Muslims climbed the wall, descended on the gate held by a man or two, overpowered it and opened it at sunrise; Abu Ubayda meanwhile had struggled at Bab al-Jabiya, raised men on its wall, the Roman fighters inclining to him until they broke — he forced it open and entered, and he and Khalid met at the Maqsilat, the coppersmiths' quarter, the Baris of Hassan ibn Thabit's verse 'they give to drink whoever comes to Baris — Barada clapping with sweet wine'; Maytham ibn Adi claimed Damascenes compounded for half their houses and churches, but al-Waqidi says he read Khalid's charter and found no halves in it; many Damascenes joined Heraclius at Antioch leaving surplus houses the Muslims occupied; al-Waqidi dates the conquest to Rajab year 14, Khalid's charter being dated Rabi' al-Akhir 15 because he wrote it undated and it was renewed at the Yarmuk; the volume's editor judges the sound account to be Khalid entering the eastern gate by force and Abu Ubayda entering peacefully by Bab al-Jabiya, reasoning that the Muslims held only the mosque's eastern side before its rebuilding and the church stood west of it until al-Walid demolished it; afterwards the Muslims chose churches for which no jizya was paid and kept the church of John until the Christians surrendered all the churches of the Futa, Mu'awiya writing to Umar who was pleased and ratified it.

9. The Taking and Settling of Mar'ash — c. 637 CE · c. 18 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah — he being at Manbij — sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to the Mar'ash region, and he took its fortress on condition its people evacuate, then demolished it; when Sufyan ibn Awf al-Ghamidi raided the Byzantines in year 30 he set out from before Mar'ash and ranged their lands; Mu'awiya built the city of Mar'ash and garrisoned it, but at Yazid ibn Mu'awiya's death Byzantine raids multiplied and its people left, and Abd al-Malik — after his father Marwan ibn al-Hakam's death — compounded with the Byzantines for tribute while seeking the caliphate; in year 74 Muhammad ibn Marwan raided and the truce broke, and in year 75 he again led the summer expedition, the Romans coming out in Jumada I by way of Mar'ash into the depths, where the Muslims under Aban ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt — with him Dinar ibn Dinar, mawla of Abd al-Malik and governor of Qinnasrin and its districts — met them at Amq Mar'ash in a hard battle, routed them and pursued killing and capturing — Dinar having that same year met a Roman body at Jisr Yaghra, some ten miles from Shimshat, and overcome them; then al-Abbas ibn al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik went to Mar'ash, rebuilt and fortified it, transferred people to it, built its congregational mosque and levied an annual contingent on Qinnasrin; in Marwan ibn Muhammad's days — he busy fighting Hims — the Romans besieged Mar'ash until its people compounded to evacuate toward the Jazira with the Qinnasrin troops and their families, then demolished it — Marwan's governor being al-Kawthar ibn Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, the tyrant being Constantine son of Leo; when Marwan had finished with Hims and razed its wall he sent an army to rebuild Mar'ash, and built it was and made a city — but in his civil war the Romans wrecked it again; Salih ibn Ali rebuilt and fortified it in al-Mansur's caliphate, calling people to it with increased pay, and al-Mahdi enlarged its garrison and strengthened its people.

10. The Conquest of the Jazira — c. July 639 CE · Rajab 18 AH

    In al-Baladhuri through the Raqqa judge Dawud ibn Abd al-Hamid's family from Maymun ibn Mihran: 'the whole Jazira is Iyad ibn Ghanm's conquest, after Abu Ubayda's death — Umar appointed him to it, Abu Ubayda having left him over Syria; Umar gave Syria to Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan then Mu'awiya after him and ordered Iyad to raid the Jazira'; Sulayman ibn Ata says Abu Ubayda dispatched him to the Jazira and died while he was there, Umar then confirming him; al-Waqidi's report — the soundest they had on him — is that Abu Ubayda died in the Amwas plague of year 18 having appointed Iyad, and Umar's letter reached him giving him Hims, Qinnasrin and the Jazira, so he marched for the Jazira on Thursday the middle of Sha'ban year 18 in five thousand, Maysara ibn Masruq al-Absi on the vanguard, Sa'id ibn Amir ibn Hudhaym al-Jumahi on the right wing and Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal al-Sulami on the left — some say Khalid ibn al-Walid held his left wing, some that Khalid marched under no banner after Abu Ubayda, staying at Hims till his death in year 21, or dying at Medina.

11. Umar's Expulsion of the Christians of Najran — 640 CE · 20 AH

    In al-Baladhuri: under Umar the people of Najran took usury and multiplied, so he feared them for Islam and exiled them to al-Najraniyya by Kufa — the settlement named after them — buying up their estates and writing for them that wherever they settled in Syria or Iraq they were to be granted arable land in place of their land in Yemen; the Jews of Najran had entered the treaty with the Christians as their followers; in Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'd's report the people of Najran reached forty thousand, quarrelled among themselves, asked Umar 'exile us' — which he did, already fearing them for the Muslims — then regretted it and sought reversal which he refused, and when Ali ibn Abi Talib took office they came to him and he said 'Umar was of sound judgement and I dislike opposing him'; the rulings then ran on: Uthman remitted two hundred hullas by letter to his Kufa governor al-Walid ibn Uqba after Uthman ibn Hunayf told him their exile had harmed the dihqans by driving them off their land; Mu'awiya or Yazid completed them to four hundred hullas; al-Hajjaj restored eighteen hundred after Ibn al-Ash'ath's revolt, accusing them of backing it; Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz set them at two hundred hullas worth eight thousand dirhams on finding them at a tithe of their former number — 'I see this treaty is a jizya on their heads, not a treaty on their lands, and the jizya of the dead and the Muslim lapses'; Yusuf ibn Umar restored them under al-Walid ibn Yazid out of solidarity with al-Hajjaj; Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah confirmed two hundred hullas after they scattered basil on his procession at Kufa and Abdullah ibn al-Rabi' al-Harithi interceded for their kinship claim through Banu al-Harith ibn Ka'b his maternal uncles, seconded by al-Hajjaj ibn Arta; and Harun al-Rashid confirmed it by a letter the transmitters saw, ordering them freed from dealing with the tax agents to pay directly to the treasury at the capital.

12. The Treaty with the Christian Taghlib — c. 640 CE · c. 20 AH

    In al-Baladhuri through multiple chains: Umar ibn al-Khattab meant to take jizya from the Christian Taghlib, who fled — a body crossing the Euphrates for Byzantine lands — until al-Nu'man ibn Zur'a — or Zur'a ibn al-Nu'man — adjured him: 'Banu Taghlib are Arabs who would scorn the jizya and are a people of stout valour; let not your enemy gain strength against you by them'; Umar sent after them, brought them back and compounded with them for a doubling of the sadaqa taken from the Muslims on every grazing herd and acre — another chain has Umar ordering they be fought till destroyed or converted if they refused — and they accepted, saying 'since it is no jizya like the jizya of foreigners, we accept and keep our religion'; the treaty bound them not to baptize a child nor coerce one into their faith — Dawud ibn Kurdus holding they therefore had no dhimma, meaning they baptized in their faith — and Ali would say 'were I free to deal with Banu Taghlib I should have my way: kill their fighters and take their children captive, for they broke the covenant, their dhimma lapsing when they Christianized their children'; Umar sent Ziyad ibn Hudayr al-Asadi to take of them a half-tithe of their wealth, forbidding him to tithe a Muslim or a kharaj-paying dhimmi; Uthman ordered only gold and silver accepted of them until word came that Umar had taken double-sadaqa, whereupon he retracted; al-Zuhri held there is no sadaqa on the People of the Book's herds save the Christian Taghlib; and Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Awza'i, Malik ibn Anas, Ibn Abi Dhi'b, Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf all hold that the Taghlibi pays double what a Muslim pays on his land, livestock and wealth — the Iraqis taking double-sadaqa from the minor and the incompetent's land but nothing of their livestock, the Hijazis from both — all agreeing that what is taken of Taghlib's wealth is disposed as kharaj-money, being a substitute for jizya.

13. The First Raid on Cyprus — c. 648 CE · 28 AH

    In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi and others: Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan led the first sea raid on Cyprus — the Muslims had never before sailed the Byzantine sea; he had asked Umar's leave to raid by sea and was refused, and when Uthman took office he wrote asking leave for Cyprus, noting its nearness and ease; Uthman wrote back 'you witnessed what Umar replied when you consulted him about the sea', and when year 27 opened Mu'awiya again made light of the crossing, so Uthman wrote 'if you sail, take your wife with you — else do not'; he sailed from Acre with many vessels, carrying his wife Fakhita bint Qaraza the Qurashite, and Ubada ibn al-Samit carried his wife Umm Haram bint Milhan the Ansari — in year 28; when they reached its shore — an island some eighty farsakhs square, it is said — its archon sent seeking terms, its people consenting, and he compounded with them for seven thousand two hundred dinars paid yearly, while the Byzantines compounded with them for the like — so they pay two tributes — stipulating that the Muslims not bar them paying the Byzantines, and the Muslims stipulating that they not be made to fight those who came from beyond them and that they warn the Muslims of Byzantine movements; so when the Muslims sailed they did not trouble them, and Cyprus's people neither aided them nor fought them; on this raid went Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, Abu al-Darda', Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Ubada ibn al-Samit, Fadala ibn Ubayd al-Ansari, Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari, Wathila ibn al-Asqa', Abdullah ibn Bishr al-Mazini, Shaddad ibn Aws ibn Thabit — nephew of Hassan ibn Thabit — al-Miqdad, Ka'b al-Ahbar and Jubayr ibn Nufayr al-Hadrami; Umm Haram left the ship and was brought a mount which stumbled and killed her — her grave in Cyprus is called the grave of the righteous woman; Mu'awiya afterwards compounded with them a lasting peace at seven thousand dinars, upon good counsel to the Muslims and warning them of their Byzantine enemy.

14. Uthman's standardization of the mushaf — c. 650 CE · c. 30 AH

    Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, alarmed at the readers' divergence during the Armenia-Azerbaijan campaign, pressed Uthman to save the community before it split over the Book; Uthman borrowed Hafsa's codex, commissioned Zayd ibn Thabit and three Qurashis to copy it into masahif — 'write it in the tongue of Quraysh' — sent a copy to every garrison city and ordered all other codices burned .