[1] Mu‘āwiyah sent a contingent of two thousand soldiers under an-Nu‘mān ibn Bashir to assault ‘Aynu’t-Tamr. This place was a defence base of Amīr al-mu’minīn near Kufah whose incharge was Mālik ibn Ka‘b al-Arḥabī. Although there were a thousand combatants under him, but at the moment only hundred men were present there. When Mālik noticed the offensive force advancing he wrote to Amīr al-mu’minīn for help. When Amīr al-mu’minīn received the message he asked the people for his help but only three hundred men got ready as a result of which Amīr al-mu’minīn was much disgusted and delivered this sermon in their admonition. When Amīr al-mu’minīn reached his house after delivering the sermon ‘Adī ibn Ḥātim aṭ-Ṭā’ī came and said, “O Amīr al-mu’minīn a thousand men of Banu Tayyi‘ are under me. If you say I shall send them off.” Amīr al-mu’minīn said, “It does not look nice that people of one tribe only should meet the enemy. You prepare your force in the Valley of an-Nukhaylah.” Accordingly he went there and called people to jihād, when besides Banu Tayyi‘ one thousand other combatants also assembled. They were still preparing to set off when word reached from Mālik ibn Ka‘b that there was no need for help as he had repulsed the enemy. The reason of this was that Mālik had sent off ‘Abdullāh ibn Ḥawālah al-Azdī hastily to Qaraẓah ibn Ka‘b al-Anṣāri and Mikhnaf ibn Sulaym al-Azdī so that if there was delay in the arrival of support from Kufah he could get help from here in time. ‘Abdullāh went to both, but got no help from Qaraẓah. However, Mikhnaf ibn Sulaym got ready fifty persons under ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn Mikhnaf and they reached there near evening. Upto that time the two thousand men (of the enemy) had not been able to subdue the hundred men of Mālik. When an-Nu‘mān saw these fifty men he thought that their forces had started coming in so he fled away from the battlefield. Even in their retreat Mālik attacked them from rear and killed three of their men.