Note 468 — Chapter XXXII · DANGEROUS FACTION AT KUFA. GROWING DISAFFECTION. A.H. XXXII.—XXXIV. A.D. 653–655

The chief amongst them was Mâlik al Ashtar, of whom we shall hear more as the most sanguinary amongst the traitors; Zeid ibn Sohan; Jondob (already noticed); Orwa; and Thâbit ibn Cays. Yezîd, a brother of the last, another chief leader of sedition, was not sent. Muâvia wrote to Othmân that they were an ignorant crew, bent on sedition, and on getting possession of the property of the Zimmies, that is of the subject races, whose rights of occupancy had been recognised as the hereditary tenants of the Sawâd—a policy, as we have seen, firmly upheld by Omar throughout Chaldæa, and which it was one object of the malcontents to upset. According to one account, the exiles were sent back by Muâvia, after expressing penitence, at once to Kûfa—where, however, resuming their factious courses, Othmân, as a last resource, despatched them again to Syria, this time to Abdallah, Khâlid’s son, at Hims. Muâvia is throughout represented as upholding the claims of the Coreish against the Arab faction, showing thus the real aim of the ringleaders.

A story is told that the exiles, enraged at the menaces of Muâvia, leaped upon him and seized him by the beard; whereupon, shaking them off, he warned them that they knew little of the loyal spirit of the Syrians, who, if they only saw what they were doing, would be so enraged that it would be out of his power to save their lives.