Uthman ibn Affan

The third of the Rightly Guided Caliphs; he is known by the epithet Dhu'l-Nûrayn (possessor of the two lights) because he married two daughters of the Prophet. His full name was Abû 'Abdillâh 'Uthmân b. 'Affân b. Abî al-'Âs b. Umayya al-Qurashî al-Umawî.

He was born at Tâ'if in the year 579, six years after the Event of the Elephant. His father 'Affân was among the wealthy merchants of Quraysh and died in the age of ignorance; his mother Arwâ bint Kurayz was the daughter of Umm Hakîm, the Prophet's paternal aunt. His lineage joins that of the Prophet at 'Abd Manâf b. Qusayy. In his youth he came to be among the leading merchants of Mecca.

Through the guidance of Abû Bakr he went to the Messenger of God and became a Muslim, and he was among the first ten Muslims.

He married Ruqayya, a daughter of the Messenger of God, and emigrated with her to Abyssinia in the first party in the year 615. He was given the patronymic Abû 'Abdillâh after the son who was born and died there. A year later he emigrated to Medina. After Ruqayya died in 625-626 he was married to Umm Kulthûm, another daughter of the Messenger of God; when she too died in the year 631 he was called Dhu'l-Nûrayn.

As the Muslims set out for Badr, the Prophet asked him to remain at Medina at the side of the ailing Ruqayya. Before Hudaybiya he was sent to Mecca as an envoy; when his return was delayed the rumour spread that he had been killed, and the Messenger of God took the pledge on his behalf at the Pledge of Ridwân. When drinking water grew scarce at Medina he bought the well of Rûma for 35.000 dirhams and endowed it to the Muslims. He gave the greatest support to the Jaysh al-'Usra prepared for the expedition of Tabûk.

When 'Umar was wounded he entrusted the choice of a caliph to a council of six — 'Uthmân, 'Alî, 'Abd al-Rahmân b. 'Awf, Sa'd b. Abî Waqqâs, Talha and Zubayr — and 'Abd al-Rahmân b. 'Awf, acting as arbiter, gave him the pledge; his caliphate spanned the years 644-656.

In this period the greater part of Iran was conquered; Yazdegerd III, the last ruler of the Sasanians, was killed in the year 651. Raids into Khurâsân began, Alexandria was recovered in North Africa, and the advance ran from Tripoli to Ifrîqiya; Mu'âwiya made Cyprus tributary in 648-649. In the naval battle called Dhât al-Sawârî a Muslim fleet of 200 ships defeated a Byzantine fleet of 500 ships in the years 652-655.

His most lasting act was the copying of the Qur'an. The text gathered in the time of Abû Bakr he had reproduced in five or seven copies, in order to forestall the disputes arising from differences of recitation, and sent one copy each to Mecca, Basra, Kûfa, Damascus, Yemen and Bahrain.

In the last years of his caliphate opposition arose in Kûfa, Basra and Egypt. Groups coming from these regions entered Medina and besieged his house; at the end of a siege reported to have lasted between about twenty days and two months he was killed while reciting the Qur'an, at the age of eighty-two (Rajab of the year 35 / 18 June 656). 146 hadiths are transmitted from him.

His Tomb and Complex — The rebels prevented his burial; through the efforts of his wife Nâ'ila he was buried in secret between the sunset and night prayers with very few present. His grave is at Medina beside the Jannat al-Baqî', at the place called Hashsh Kawkab.

A dome had been built over his grave in 601 (1205) in the time of Saladin. The tombs and gravestones at the Baqî' were demolished in 1806 by Su'ûd b. 'Abd al-'Azîz; the structures later rebuilt were destroyed again in 1926 in the time of 'Abd al-'Azîz b. Su'ûd. Today there is neither tomb nor gravestone in the cemetery, and the ground continues to be used for burial.