Documents of the Right Word

monstrosity,” he says, and adds that he borrows this information
from the book Rawdat-ul-Ebrâr.
Now let us see what Qisâs-i-Enbiyâ has to say in this
connection: “Muhammad bin Ebî Bekr, hadrat Alî’s governor of
Egypt, perpetrated so much oppression on the people that the
people finally took up arms. On the other hand, Mu’âwiya bin
Hadîdj ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’, one of the Sahâba, who was in Egypt in
those days, attempted to conduct feud for the blood of hadrat
’Uthmân and gathered many people around himself. Hadrat
Mu’âwiya sent hadrat Amr Ibni Âs to resume control of Egypt.
Yet Muhammad bin Ebî Bekr put up a military resistence.
Mu’âwiya bin Hadîdj arrived and joined his forces into the army
led by Amr Ibni Âs. The Egyptians were routed and Muhammad
bin Ebî Bekr hid himself. Mu’âwiya bin Hadîdj found and killed
him. He put his body into a donkey’s carcass and burned it. For
Muhammed bin Ebî Bekr had joined the bandits marching from
Egypt to Medîna and provoked the people aganist hadrat
’Uthmân. He was one of those who had crowded around hadrat
’Uthmân’s house. Hadrat Hasan bin Alî, who was among the
people guarding hadrat ’Uthmân, was wounded by an arrow.
Panicking at the blood running from hadrat Hasan’s body,
Muhammad bin Ebî Bekr said, ‘If the sons of Hâshim see this, they
will attack us and spoil everything. Let us try and find a shorter
way.’ He took two people with him and together they climbed over
the wall of an adjacent house and entered hadrat ’Uthmân’s room.
Muhammad bin Ebî Bekr was the first to enter. Saying, ‘Mu’âwiya
cannot save you,’ he held the Khalîfa by the beard. The Khalîfa,
who was reading the Qur’ân, looked at Muhammad on the face
and said, ‘If your father saw you in this manner, how sorry he
would be.’ Being ashamed, Muhammad left the place. Then his
friends entered the room and martyred the Khalîfa.” As is seen,
this retribution was visited on him for having caused the Khalîfa’s
martyrdom. The author of the so-called book laments over the
burning of this person and relates the event to young people.
However, if he wrote how most of the Umayyad Khalîfas had been
burnt by the Abbasids and how Hurûfîs had burnt scholars of Ahl
as-sunna, especially Shirwanshâh and the governor of Baghdâd
Bekir Paşa, both of whom were burnt alive, and how they had
exhumed hadrat Beydâwî’s bones and burnt them, it would be
easier to decide which people were more savage. When hadrat
Mu’âwiya took control of Egypt, he appointed Amr Ibni Âs
governor of the province. Amr had already served as the governor
– 280 –