According to the well-known report, the siege of ʿUthmān (may Allah be pleased with him) in his house lasted about forty days. According to another report, it lasted a little over forty days. According to Saʿdī, his being kept under siege lasted twenty-two nights. Then he was killed on a Friday, about which there is no disagreement.
Sayf b. ʿUmar, quoting from his teachers, said: "ʿUthmān was killed at the last hour of Friday." Muṣʿab b. ʿUmayr and others also stated definitively that ʿUthmān was killed at the last hour of Friday. According to others, he was killed during the forenoon, which seems more reasonable. That is, ʿUthmān was killed on the night of the eighteenth of Dhū al-Ḥijja, which is the most widely accepted report. There is a weak report that he was killed during the days of tashrīq.
According to al-Zuhrī, ʿUthmān was killed during the days of tashrīq. Some have said he was killed on the third day of Dhū al-Ḥijja, on a Friday. There is also a weak report that he was killed on the first day of Eid al-Aḍḥā.
The caliphate of ʿUthmān lasted for twelve years, less twelve days. For he was given bayʿa (pledge of allegiance) at the beginning of Muḥarram in the twenty-fourth year after the Hijra. At the time of his death, he was over eighty-two years old.
According to Ṣāliḥ b. Kaysān, ʿUthmān died at the age of eighty-two, which is also the most widely accepted report. There is a weak report that he died at eighty-four. According to Qatāda, ʿUthmān died at eighty-eight or ninety. Qatāda also said he died at seventy-five, which is quite unusual. There is another report from Sayf b. ʿUmar, which is even more unusual, stating that ʿUthmān died at sixty-three. May Allah be pleased with him.
As for ʿUthmān's grave, there is no disagreement that he was buried in Ḥashsh Kawkab, east of al-Baqīʿ. During the Umayyad period, a large dome was built over his grave, which has survived to this day.
Imām Mālik said: "I have heard that when ʿUthmān passed by the place of his grave in Ḥashsh Kawkab, he said: 'A righteous man will be buried here.'"
According to Ibn Jarīr, after ʿUthmān was killed, his body was kept for three days before being buried.
I say: his body was kept because people were occupied with giving bayʿa to ʿAlī. After the bayʿa was completed, ʿUthmān's body was buried. According to another report, his body was kept for two nights before burial. Another report says he was buried the same night. The burial was carried out secretly between the maghrib and ʿishāʾ prayers, out of fear of the rebels. According to one report, permission was sought from some of the rebel leaders for his burial.
A small number of the Companions (ṣaḥāba) took him to his grave and buried him. Among these were: Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām, Huwaylid b. ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā, Abū Jahl b. Ḥudhayfa, Niyār b. Mukrim al-Aslamī, Jubayr b. Muṭʿim, Zayd b. Thābit, Kaʿb b. Mālik, Ṭalḥa, Zubayr, and ʿAlī the son of Abū Ṭālib. Some of ʿUthmān's friends and wives were also present at the funeral. Among his wives, Nāʾila and Umm Banīn bint ʿUtba b. Ḥusayn, and some children attended the ceremony. According to a report from al-Wāqidī and Sayf b. ʿUmar al-Tamīmī, after washing and shrouding the body, they placed it on a door and took it to the cemetery. Some claimed he was neither washed nor shrouded, but the correct report is the first. The funeral prayer was led by Jubayr b. Muṭʿim. There are also reports that it was led by Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām, or Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām, or Marwān b. al-Ḥakam, or Miswar b. Makhrama. Some rebels attacked the funeral, trying to stone the body and throw it from the bier. They wanted him to be buried in the Jewish cemetery at Dayr Sīn. Eventually, ʿAlī sent some men to stop them from this attempt. Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām carried the body. There are also reports that it was carried by Marwān b. al-Ḥakam, or Miswar b. Makhrama, or Abū Jahl b. Ḥudhayfa, or Niyār b. Mukrim, or Jubayr b. Muṭʿim.
According to al-Wāqidī, when the body was placed at the prayer area (muṣallā), some of the Anṣār said that the funeral prayer should not be performed for ʿUthmān. Abū Jahl b. Ḥudhayfa said: "Bury him without performing the prayer over him, for Allah and His angels have already prayed for him." Then some said he should not be buried in the al-Baqīʿ cemetery, but rather behind the wall, so they buried him under some date palms east of al-Baqīʿ.
According to al-Wāqidī, when ʿUthmān's body was placed at the muṣallā for prayer, ʿUmayr b. Dābī threw himself upon it and broke one of his ribs, saying: "You imprisoned a man from the Dābī tribe and kept him in prison until he died."
Later, al-Ḥajjāj killed ʿUmayr b. Dābī. Al-Bukhārī, in his work "Tārīkh," narrated from Muḥammad b. Sīrīn: "I was performing ṭawāf, and I heard a man say, 'O Allah, forgive me, but I do not think You will forgive me.' I said to him:
'O servant of Allah, I have never seen or heard anyone say what you have said.' The man replied:
'I had vowed to Allah that if I had the opportunity, I would slap ʿUthmān's face. When ʿUthmān was placed on the muṣallā in his house and people came to pray over him, I entered as if to pray. I saw an empty spot, lifted the covering from his face and beard, and slapped his face, but my right hand withered.'
Ibn Sīrīn said: 'I saw that man's hand had withered like a piece of wood.'
Afterwards, the bodies of ʿUthmān's slaves, Ṣabīḥ and Najīḥ, who were killed in the house, were brought out and buried beside him at Ḥashsh Kawkab. According to one report, the rebels did not allow them to be buried, and even dragged their bodies by the feet and threw them on the paving stones, so that dogs ate their corpses. During his governorship, Muʿāwiya took care of ʿUthmān's grave, built a wall between it and the al-Baqīʿ cemetery, and ordered people to bury their dead around ʿUthmān's grave, so that his grave would be joined with the graves of the Muslims.