To his brother Aqil

[1] When after arbitration Mu‘āwiyah started a campaign of killing and devastation, he sent a force of four thousand under aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays al-Fihrī to attack Amīr al-mu’minīn’s cities. When Amīr al-mu’minīn came to know of his activities he roused the people of Kūfah to put up a defence, but they began to offer lame excuses. At last Ḥujr ibn ‘Adī al-Kindī rose with a force of four thousand men and, chasing the enemy, overtook him at Tadmur. The two parties had only a few grappings when darkness came in and aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk fled away under its cover. This was the time when ‘Aqīl ibn Abī Ṭālib had come to Mecca for ‘umrah. When he came to know that after attacking al-Ḥīrah, aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk had escaped alive and that the people of Kūfah were afraid of war and all their activities had come to a stop, he sent a letter to Amīr al-mu’minīn through ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn ‘Ubayd al-Azdī offering his help. In reply to that Amīr al-mu’minīn wrote this letter wherein he complains of the behaviour of the people of Kūfah and mentions the flight of aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk.