وقعة الجمل

وقعة الجمل

36 ھ

Ali set out for Basra after Talha and al-Zubayr had asked his leave; he camped at Dhi Qar and sent al-Hasan and Ammar ibn Yasir to Kufa to rouse the people. Then the Battle of the Camel took place, in which al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was killed. Ali then entered upon Aisha, and the people of Basra gave him their allegiance ¹. The index places the account of the battle in 36 AH ¹. According to al-Suyuti, Talha and al-Zubayr went to Mecca, took Aisha with them, and went to Basra seeking vengeance for the blood of Uthman; Ali met them at Basra. The battle took place in Jumada II 36 AH; Talha and al-Zubayr were killed there, and the dead numbered thirteen thousand. Ali stayed at Basra fifteen nights and then returned to Kufa ². Al-Mas'udi mentions that the dead of the Camel, from Basra and elsewhere, numbered thirteen thousand, and that Ali's side lost five thousand, though people disputed this: the one who minimized it said seven thousand and the one who maximized it said ten thousand, depending on each person's leaning toward one side or the other ³. Ali ordered that no wounded man be finished off, no captive killed, no fugitive pursued, no one's nakedness exposed, no corpse mutilated, and that no one approach their property except for the weapons, mounts, and male and female slaves in their camp. He went out bareheaded on the mule of the Messenger of God; al-Zubayr recalled the Prophet's words to him, 'You will fight him while you are wronging him', and turned back. Al-Zubayr was killed by Amr ibn Jurmuz while at prayer in Wadi al-Siba'. Marwan ibn al-Hakam shot Talha in the arm-vein and killed him, while Talha recited: 'The regret of al-Kasi, when I sought the pleasure of Banu Jurm, as I imagined' ⁴. Ali entered the treasury of Basra and said, 'O yellow one, deceive another than me! O white one, deceive another than me!' Then he ordered it divided among those with him, five hundred each, they being twelve thousand, and took for himself a single share like one of them. He appointed Abd Allah ibn Abbas over Basra and went to Kufa ⁵.