Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

84 The Battles ofthe Camel and Siffeen, and the issue of arbitration
narration.z75 Al-Ya'qoobi exaggerated fuaher and gave a higher
figure; he put the number of slain at thirty-two thousand.276 This
figure is highly inflated, the reasons for this overstatement include
the following:
(a)
(b)
(c)
The desire of the enemies of the Companions, namely the
Saba'is and their followers, to deepen the dispute and division
among the members of the Ummah who are united by the love
of the Companions and who are following their example, after
that of the Messenger of Allah (g).
The contribution of some poets and ignorant people from
numerous tribes to inflating and magnifying the number, so as
to match the poetry that they attributed to some of their leaders
and knights. In addition to that, the storytellers wanted to
attract people's attention with the exciting events of which
they spoke.
The building of confidence for the followers of the thugs and
Saba'is in order to prove the success of their plans and
arrangements.277
As for the true number of people slain in the Battle of the
Camel, it is probably very small, for the following reasons:
*:* The short duration of the fight. Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated
with a sound chain of narrationz78 that the combat started
in the afternoon and that by the time the sun set, no one
who had been defending the camel was still there.
*:* The defensive nature of the fighting, since each side was
merely defending itself and doing no more than that.
* The hue number of those slain at the Battle of the Camel is
regarded as very low in comparison to the number of
Muslim martyrs at the Battle of Yannook (3,000) and the