Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

152 The Battles of the Camel and Siffeen, and the issue ofarbitration
reached Siffeen, by the lower part of the Euphrates, he camped in a
vast plain beside a branch of the Euphrates; in that place there was no
other branch on the river. so he made it his
2.1.8. The fight for the water
The army of 'Ali (&) reached Siffeen, where Mu'iwiyah
(&) was already camping. 'Ali (&) could not find sufficient level
ground for the army, so they camped in a place that was somewhat
rugged, on land that was mostly covered with jagged His
army was caught by surprise when Mu'iwiyah prevented them from
reaching the water, and some of them rushed to complain to 'Ali
(4) about that. He sent d-Ash'ath ibn Qays out with two thousand
men, and the first battle took place between the two sides. Al-Ash'ath
was victorious and gained control of the water.538
Mowever, there is a repoa denying that any fighting took place at all.
This report says that d-Ash'ath ibn Qays went to Mu'iwiyah and
said: "I urge you by Allah, 0 Mu'iwiyah, to think of the Ummah of
Muhammad (g)! Suppose you kill the people of Iraq. Who will
guard the border and the women and children? Allah (&) says: (And
if two paaies [or groups] among the believers fall to fighting, then
make peace between them both.8 (Qur'an 49: 9) Mu'iwiyah said:
"What do you want?' They said: "Let us reach the water." He said to
Abu d-A'war: "Let our brothers reach the water.")539
The fight for the water took place on the first day they met at
the beginning of Dhul-IJijjah, and this was a had start for both parties
of Muslims, because fighting continued between them for the entire
month. The fighting took the form of encounters between small
groups. 'Ali(4)
would send out a small group led by a commander,
and it would engage in fighting once a day, either in the morning or
the afternoon; on a few occasions they fought twice in a day. On most
occasions, the commanders in 'Ali's army who would go out with