god-awful messiness of combat, with men soiling
themselves in fear, with the stink of guts ripped out,
with the wild-eyed panic of horses, the blind frenzy of
humans, and the sheer bloody-minded desperation of
each and every one to ɹnd some way, any way, to end
the day alive.
Talha and Zubayr were both dead by noon. Talha had
taken command of the cavalry and fought valiantly. He
might even have prevailed if he had not been shot in the
back by an arrow—shot, that is, by someone on his own
side. Word was that this someone was none other than
Marwan, and indeed, he later admitted as much.
Justifying himself with the most pious argument, he
pointed out that since Talha had been one of Othman’s
leading critics, encouraging the rebellion that led to
assassination, his claim to be ɹghting in the name of
revenge for Othman was hypocrisy. Thus Marwan, by
his own account, had been merely the instrument of
justice.
As always when it came to Marwan, there were those
who suspected otherwise. Some said he had seized the
opportunity to pick oʃ a rival for the caliphate, since if
Aisha’s side had won the day, Talha would have been
declared Caliph, frustrating Marwan’s own ambitions.
Others said that he had deliberately hung back until he
could see which way the battle was going and had then