Al-Zubayr left the scene and promised the Imam that he will not fight him.

Al-Zubayr left the scene and promised the Imam that he will not fight him.[^6] Al-Tabari reported that the Imam said to Talhah: You have brought the wife of the Messenger of God trying to fight with her while you have hidden your wife at your house (in Medina). Did you not pledge your allegiance to me? Talhah said: I pledged my allegiance to you while the sword was over my neck.

‘Ali said to his camp: Who shall display this Holy Qur'an and invite the opposite camp to agree with us to abide by its contents and the one who does that should know that he will be killed? A Kufite youth said I. The Imam said to him: Offer them this (the Qur'an) and say to them it is between you and us from its beginning to its end and fear God by refraining from shedding our blood and your blood. The Kufite youth did what the Imam told him to do and he was killed.

‘Ali at that time said: Now the fight is legitimate. They started fighting and seventy men died and each one of them was holding the rein of the camel.[^7] This report like the report that preceded it is evidence that the fight did not begin until the Imam offered the other camp peace and surrender of the matter to the Book of God. This was after the Imam and his two opponents Talhah and Al-Zubayr faced each other and after he debated with them.

All this was in front of people and the two camps were witnessing it. This was of course in the daytime. Thus there was no secret conspiracy and no battle that the conspirators started during the night. Al-Tabari reported also that Al-Shi-abi reported that the battle of Basra started during the height of the day till the afternoon.[^8] Ammar Al-Duhani and Al-Zuhri and Al-Shi-abi narrated witnessable events and consistent with the logic of the events.

Yet these reports were not chosen by the historians who came after Al-Tabari because these reports seem to convict the three leaders and place the responsibility of the Battle of Basra upon their shoulders. The historians chose Saif's report of the conspiracy though it reports something that was not witnessable and at the same time was not consistent with the logic of the events. The three leaders did not come to Basra for a picnic or for spreading peace.

They came to start a war against the Imam and they started the battle before his arrival to Basra.