Ali’s army from Medina, joined by several thousand men from Kufa, camped on a wide plain outside Basra in Iraq. Facing them on the plain was an equally large army from Mecca, joined by several thousand men from Basra. But everyone was reluctant to begin a battle. Ali rode out to meet Talhah and Zubayr, both of them men who had been close to him all his life. They set up a tent in the no man’s land and began a conference. A’isha doesn’t seem to have been invited, but she received updates. Ali criticized the other two men for bringing along a woman, the Prophet’s wife, while leaving their wives safely at home.
Three days passed, and the others in the army crossed over to visit friends on the other side. Nobody had a heart for creating this battle. I imagine that both armies could see the others praying at the same time, with the same motions. It didn’t make sense. The leaders finally emerged to announce a sort of truce. They didn’t agree about the killers of Uthman or who should be the Caliph, but all of them promised that they would not begin an attack. With the heavy weight of future blood removed, the Muslims of both armies were deeply relieved. A night passed.
Someone began an attack in the pre-dawn hours. Nobody knows whose idea this was. Had Marwan recovered from his wounds in the revolt and joined A’isha’s army? He was underhanded enough to do this. What about secret agents from Mu’awiya? Or had some angry young men from Mecca listened to A’isha’s grievances and lost their heads? Were those who started the attack afraid that they would be held to account for rebelling? Later, some men in Iraq rebelled against Ali; were they the same ones who started the fighting now?
When men are awakened by the sound of screams and metal, they don’t stop to think, they run out of their tents and begin to defend themselves. Fighting spread very fast, like fire. Both armies were fully engaged, and by noon, Talhah and Zubayr were both dead. Some say that Marwan shot Talhah; Zubayr may have left the battle heading for home and been killed along the way.
A’isha joined the battle by riding her camel into the middle of things. She was in a howdah draped with chain mail, and then red silk over the mail. Inside, she watched through the chain mail and sent messengers with battle commands. When the two men were dead, she was the only general left. She also cried out as Arabian women had always done, only they were always at the back of the battle screaming at their men not to give up. She was in the middle. When the battle was winding down otherwise, a knot of men around A’isha would not stop fighting. Someone was always holding the camel’s lead rope and A’isha’s banner; they say seventy men died in this role.
The battle ended when Ali sent someone, perhaps his son Hassan, to cut at the camel’s legs. The camel screamed and fell down, and A’isha was at their mercy. Ali sent Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr to open the howdah, since he was A’isha’s blood relative. One arrow had gotten into the howdah and was stuck in her arm. But Ali treated her gently. When she had recovered, he sent her half-brother to accompany her home to Medina.
There’s one last story about A’isha. Maybe a year later, she rode a donkey through Medina when she found some men quarreling. She rode up to the quarrel to try to intervene. Someone drew her aside and said, “Mother of the Believers, we have had a Battle of the Camel. Do we need a Battle of the Donkey?” She retired to her quieter role, telling stories of the Prophet to students in the nascent Islamic school of Medina.
- After the Prophet, by Lesley Hazelton.
- The Heirs of Muhammad, by Barnaby Rogerson
- The Prophet’s Heir, by Hassan Abbas