and open conflict averted.
After that stoning in the mosque, Othman had
appeared truly shaken and chastened, professing
profound regret at having let things develop to such a
pass. Now at last he acknowledged the justice of the
rebels’ demands and pledged not only to dismiss the two
most controversial of his governors—his half brother
Walid in Kufa and a brother-in-law in the Egyptian
garrison of Fustat—but to appoint Ali’s stepson
Muhammad Abu Bakr the new governor of Egypt.
Moreover, lest anyone doubt the sincerity of this pledge,
Ali would stand as its personal guarantor.
If one could hear a city sigh with relief, it would have
been Medina at that moment. The crisis had been
averted, and justice achieved. With Ali’s word as their
pledge, the rebels struck camp and set oʃ on the long
ride back to their garrisons. All might have been well if
just three days into their journey back to Egypt, the
young Abu Bakr and his men had not seen a messenger
riding full tilt behind them, evidently intent on
overtaking them.
They stopped and questioned the messenger, and when
they realized he was in the service of the Caliph, they
searched his saddlebags. There they found a heavy brass
inkpot of the kind used by professional scribes, with ink
powders and mixing bottles set into a solid base, and
compartments for parchment and quills, knives, and