Note 485 — Chapter XXXIV · THE PLOT RIPENS. CONSPIRATORS ATTACK MEDINA. DEATH OF OTHMAN. A.H. XXXV. A.D. 656.

The authorities are conflicting as to the length of the siege, though the several stages of the attack and investment are sufficiently well defined. After the first uproar Othmân still presided at the daily prayers for thirty days, after which he was besieged for forty days—that is ten weeks in all. Another tradition is that after the blockade had lasted eight and forty days, tidings of coming succour reached the city, and then the investment became severe. But this would leave too long an interval—namely, three weeks—between the report of help being on its way and the final issue, before which the columns, hurrying from Syria and Bussorah, should have had ample time to arrive at Medîna. The Syrian column, we are told, reached as far as Wâdy al Cora, and that from Bussorah as far as Rabadza, when they heard that all was over, and accordingly turned back.