Siege and Martyrdom of ʿUthman ﵁

In Shawwal 35 AH, three separate groups of malcontents gathered in Egypt, Kufa and Basra. The Egyptian group — roughly three to four thousand men — was the most motivated, led by figures such as Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa and Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, who harbored personal grievances against ʿUthman ﵁. The Kufan group gathered around grievances against Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs ﵁ and the earlier removal of Saʿd ﵁; the Basran group around accusations of mistreatment by local governors.

The three groups moved toward the Hijaz seemingly independently, but their timing was so precise that coordination presumably took place. Their professed aim was to lodge complaints with the khalifah; their true intention differed per group. Some rebels wanted political reforms — the removal of certain governors, the return of certain waqf funds to the treasury, redistribution of state resources. Others — above all within the Egyptian vanguard — had already resolved to put ʿUthman ﵁ to death.

By mid Dhul-Qaʿdah the first rebel detachments arrived around Medina. They established themselves in three rings around the city: the Egyptian ring on the south side, the Kufan ring on the east side, the Basran ring on the west side. The total rebel force — between eight and ten thousand armed men — was not large enough to destroy Medina, but sufficient to isolate the city and besiege the authority of ʿUthman ﵁ within his own house.

ʿUthman ﵁ received the first rebel envoys with the courtesy that was characteristic of him. He heard their complaints, promised to open investigations, and held out the prospect of removing certain governors. The envoys returned to their camps. What they claimed to have seen is not recorded; what is certain is that the siege, instead of ending, only worsened.

At the start of Dhul-Hijjah, the rebels surrounded ʿUthman ﵁'s house within Medina. The house lay on the north side of the Masjid an-Nabawi, right beside the al-Baqiʿ cemetery. The rebels established four camps at the cardinal directions around Medina, and direct guard posts on the streets leading to ʿUthman ﵁'s house.

The first demands formally submitted were: the abdication of ʿUthman ﵁ as khalifah; the replacement of the governors regarded as corrupt (in particular Marwan ibn al-Hakam and ʿAbdullah ibn Saʿd ﵁); and the return of certain waqf properties to the treasury. ʿUthman ﵁ accepted no abdication. He declared, in a statement conveyed by Sahabah ﵃ such as ʿAli ﵁, az-Zubayr ﵁ and Talha ﵁, that he would not take off a garment that Allah ﷻ had clothed him in, until he would meet Him.

Three Sahabah ﵃ actively positioned themselves as mediators. ʿAli ﵁ repeatedly sent envoys between the rebel camps and ʿUthman ﵁'s house; az-Zubayr ﵁ and Talha ﵁ proposed to defend ʿUthman ﵁ by force of arms, but ʿUthman ﵁ refused all bloodshed. He allowed al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁ — the young grandsons of the Prophet ﷺ — to take post at the door of his house as symbolic guards, but they were not meant as a fighting force; their presence was meant to remind the rebels of the sacred status of the house they were besieging.

In the first week, the supply lines to ʿUthman ﵁'s house were restricted ever further. The rebels blockaded the official city well; trusted inhabitants of Medina secretly brought water and food by night. ʿUthman ﵁ received his wife Naʾila bint al-Furafisa ﵂ and his closest friends inside the house; al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁ stood outside at the door.

In the second week of Dhul-Hijjah, the rebels tightened the blockade. The public well was permanently occupied by armed guards; every attempt to bring water to ʿUthman ﵁'s house was intercepted. It was high summer in Medina, and the heat was heavy. Naʾila ﵂ divided the few stores of dates and small supplies of sweet milk present inside the house among its occupants.

ʿUthman ﵁ endured the blockade with striking calm. He read the mushaf every day — several juz per day — while Naʾila ﵂ sat at his side. According to a narration of Anas ibn Malik ﵁, recorded from the mouth of a nephew of ʿUthman ﵁, ʿUthman ﵁ spoke several times in those days about the dream in which he had seen the Prophet ﷺ, who told him: “ʿUthman, you will break your fast with us today.” He slept little, fasted often, and refused every attempt at armed resistance.

ʿAli ﵁, though himself voicing growing concern about the rebels’ intentions, kept sending al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁ to remain at the door. Az-Zubayr ﵁ and Talha ﵁ withdrew further; some sources suggest that they tacitly tolerated the rebels, others deny this emphatically and maintain that they were simply cut off from the situation. ʿAʾisha ﵂ departed around this time for the Hajj to Mecca, and the Hajj itself was led that year by Ibn ʿAbbas ﵁ — appointed by ʿUthman ﵁.

On the third day of the water blockade, a trusted Sahabi smuggled a few water jugs to ʿUthman ﵁'s house across a neighboring roof. The following night other attempts were intercepted; the smuggler was recognized by a rebel guard and sent away under threat. From that moment on, ʿUthman ﵁ drank nothing but what was present in the house, rationed in small sips per day.

On the evening of 17 Dhul-Hijjah, it came to a final round of negotiations. The rebels — dominated by their hard line (notably Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa and his direct followers) — gave ʿUthman ﵁ an ultimatum: abdicate before the Fajr salat of the following morning, or the house would be stormed. ʿAli ﵁ tried to mediate one more time; he sent both his sons through the city gates with a message: “Give them what they ask in the replacement of governors; resist no reasonable demand; but stay silent on abdication.” The message reached ʿUthman ﵁ around midnight.

ʿUthman ﵁ received a number of visitors in the course of that evening. Talha ﵁ came by and spoke softly with him; he left without any mention of what they had discussed. Az-Zubayr ﵁ was not present; he had remained in his own house on the west side of Medina. Marwan ibn al-Hakam had already been wounded in an earlier skirmish, and remained in seclusion. The Sahabah ﵃ closest to ʿUthman ﵁ — Hassan ibn Thabit ﵁, ʿAbdullah ibn Salam ﵁, and a few others — sat with him in the innermost part of the house.

Naʾila ﵂ read from the mushaf with ʿUthman ﵁. He had reached Surah al-Baqarah, in a passage on patience in trial. He spoke little, but what he did speak was transmitted by Hassan ﵁: “I have received a promise from the Prophet ﷺ, and I will be patient upon it.” At the outer door, al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁ stood the last vigil; the battle-weary young men leaned against the wall, their swords between their knees.

Outside, the rebel commanders gathered. The assault force — a small group of ten to fifteen swordsmen under the direct command of Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa — was drawn up from the Egyptian ring. The plan: not through the front door, which was defended by the two young Sahabah ﵃; but over the roof of the neighboring house, straight across the narrow street, onto the roof of ʿUthman ﵁'s house, and then inside through a roof opening.

In the hour before the Fajr salat of 18 Dhul-Hijjah 35 AH, the assault force climbed onto the roof of the neighboring house. The roof directly adjoined that of ʿUthman ﵁'s house; over a low dividing wall the attackers stepped across, and set foot on the roof of ʿUthman ﵁'s dwelling. A roof opening — presumably a light shaft — gave them access to the upper floor.

ʿUthman ﵁ sat in the main room, in his usual place, with the mushaf open before him. He was reading Surah al-Baqarah. The tradition records the exact verse on which his finger rested at the moment the attackers entered the room: “And Allah ﷻ will protect you against them; and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” (2:137). Naʾila ﵂ sat beside him; when they heard the strange footsteps on the stairs, she sprang up and placed herself between ʿUthman ﵁ and the door.

Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr was the first to seize ʿUthman ﵁'s beard. ʿUthman ﵁ looked at him, and spoke words that Tabari records verbatim: “By Allah, if your father Abu Bakr ﵁ could see you here, he would die of shame.” Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr withdrew his hand; he lowered his sword. But the two men behind him did not. They stabbed at ʿUthman ﵁. The first blow was to his head; the second to his chest; the third, a cross-stroke, pierced his belly. The blood of the khalifah flowed onto the mushaf, onto the page bearing the verse he was reading.

Naʾila ﵂ threw herself upon her husband to protect him; her hands were struck off — Tabari is explicit about the loss of her fingers. al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁, hearing the tumult from the front door, stormed inside; al-Hasan ﵁ was gravely wounded by a sword-blow to his shoulder, al-Husayn ﵁ in his arm. But they could no longer save what had already happened. ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan ﵁, Dhū al-Nūrayn, third khalifah, fell upon his mushaf, and died in the silence between the Adhan and the Iqamah of the Fajr salat.

At the break of dawn on 18 Dhul-Hijjah 35 AH, the news spread through Medina. The attackers had already fled, confused by what they had done. Their coordination fell apart; many left Medina that very morning, back to Egypt and Kufa, apprehensive about the consequences.

ʿAli ibn Abi Talib ﵁ arrived at the house with his sons; he found ʿUthman ﵁ lying on the mushaf, embraced by the weeping Naʾila ﵂. His words, heard by several Sahabah ﵃, were: “How did the Amir al-Muʾminin meet his death, while you two stood at the door?” He struck al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁ — not hard, but in reproach. The young men were too wounded to answer.

Talha ﵁ and az-Zubayr ﵁ came shortly afterward. Both wept. Accusations were voiced; some of those present pointed fingers at Talha ﵁, as though he were complicit in the rebel sentiments; Talha ﵁ denied it emphatically. Az-Zubayr ﵁ said nothing; he went outside and remained secluded in his house for two days.

Per ʿUthman ﵁'s own testament — drawn up years earlier — Az-Zubayr ﵁ led the janazah salat. The burial took place in the night after his death, in silence, in Hawsh Kawkab in the al-Baqiʿ cemetery. ʿUthman ﵁ was the first to be buried in Hawsh Kawkab; from that moment on, the spot became the burial ground of the Banu Umayya branch in Medina.

Naʾila ﵂ survived the attack, though her wounds were severe; she refused remarriage after ʿUthman ﵁'s death and lived the rest of her life in his memory. al-Hasan ﵁ and al-Husayn ﵁ recovered from their wounds in the weeks that followed. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman ﵁, who received the reports in Kufa, spoke the words that Suyuti has recorded: “The first of the trials was the murder of ʿUthman ﵁; the last is the appearance of the Dajjal.”

In the three days after the murder, a political vacuum arose in Medina. The Muslims turned to ʿAli ﵁ for the baiʿah; he refused at first, but ultimately accepted. The fitna that followed — the Battle of the Camel, the Battle of Siffin, the split into the Khawarij, and ultimately the Umayyad dynasty — was the long-term consequence of that morning before the Fajr salat.