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 Above all, Uthman continued the policy of military conquest, adding Cyprus and Spain as well as the remaining provinces of North Africa, Anatolia (modern Turkey), Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, most of modern Afghanistan and parts of western India (modern Pakistan) to the Islamic empire.<ref>Jarrett/Suyuti pp. 159-161.</ref> He built a navy to challenge that of Byzantium.<ref>Restatement of Islamic History</ref> None of this required help from Aisha.
-But Uthman was elderly,<ref>{{Tabari|15|p. 252}}</ref> and his competence declined with his age. After 650 the people became disillusioned by his nepotism and his embezzling of the state treasury.<ref>{Tabari|16|p. 100}}; Jarrett/Suyuti p. 161.</ref> Abu Dharr al-Ghifari preached against Uthman’s opulent lifestyle: “Your gold and silver shall burn red-hot in Hellfire and brand your foreheads!” Uthman exiled Abu Dharr to the desert, where he died,<ref>Muir (1924), pp. 211-213.</ref> and the only economy he made was to reduce Aisha’s pension to the same sum allowed to Muhammad’s other widows.<ref></ref> He appropriated the common pastures around Medina for the Umayya clan and forbade anyone else to graze their animals there.<ref>Restatement of the History of Islam.</ref> A group of his detractors composed a letter criticising his “un-Islamic” policies, which was delivered by Ammar ibn Yasir, an early convert to Islam<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 117.</ref> who had fought at Badr.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 329.</ref> Uthman reacted to the criticism by ordering the octogenarian Ammar to be flogged. At this point, Aisha interrupted Friday prayers to address Uthman in public: “How soon indeed you have forgotten the ''sunna'' of your Prophet, when his hairs, a shirt and sandal have not yet perished!”<ref>Abbott, N. (1942, 1998). ''Aishah: the Beloved of Muhammad''. London: Saqi Books.</ref> When Uthman’s brother Walid ibn Uqba, Governor of Kufa, turned up drunk to lead the prayers,<ref>Jarrett/Suyuti p. 159</ref> Uthman overlooked it and withheld the customary punishment. Aisha complained to Uthman, who responded with a remark that she had no right to approach him since she had been “ordered to stay at home.”<ref>Abbott (1942, 1998).</ref> At this suggestion that a woman should not be involved in public affairs, some people “demanded to know who indeed had better right than Aisha in such matters.”<ref>Abbott (1942, 1998).</ref> Uthman belatedly sentenced his brother to 80 lashes, which Ali delivered.<ref>{{Bukhari|5|57|45}}; {{Bukhari|5|58|212}}.</ref>
+But Uthman was elderly,<ref>{{Tabari|15|p. 252}}</ref> and his competence declined with his age. After 650 the people became disillusioned by his nepotism and his embezzling of the state treasury.<ref>{Tabari|16|p. 100}}; Jarrett/Suyuti p. 161.</ref> The residents of Medina were angry when he appropriated the common pastures around the city for the Umayya clan and forbade anyone else to graze their animals there.<ref>Restatement of the History of Islam.</ref> Abu Dharr al-Ghifari preached against Uthman’s opulent lifestyle: “Your gold and silver shall burn red-hot in Hellfire and brand your foreheads!” Uthman exiled Abu Dharr to the desert, where he died.<ref>Muir (1924), pp. 211-213.</ref> The Caliph’s only economy he made was to reduce Aisha’s pension to the same sum allowed to Muhammad’s other widows.<ref></ref> This was tactless, and not only because the Islamic state, in both forbidding the widows to marry and making it difficult for them to earn a living, had a moral duty to provide for them. Aisha, who worked harder than any of the other widows in promoting Islam through her teaching, probably perceived her pension more in the light of a salary; and as she was the reverse of selfish in how she used her money, she could easily claim that her annoyance at the slight<ref></ref> was not greed but very much a matter of principle.
+A group of Uthman’s detractors composed a letter criticising his “un-Islamic” policies, which was delivered by Ammar ibn Yasir, an early convert to Islam<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 117.</ref> who had fought at Badr.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 329.</ref> Uthman reacted to the criticism by ordering the octogenarian Ammar to be flogged. At this point, Aisha interrupted Friday prayers to address Uthman in public: “How soon indeed you have forgotten the ''sunna'' of your Prophet, when his hairs, a shirt and sandal have not yet perished!”<ref>Abbott, N. (1942, 1998). ''Aishah: the Beloved of Muhammad''. London: Saqi Books.</ref> When the Governor of Kufa (who was Uthman’s brother) turned up drunk to lead the prayers,<ref>Jarrett/Suyuti p. 159</ref> Uthman overlooked it and withheld the customary punishment. Aisha complained to Uthman, who responded with a remark that she had no right to approach him since she had been “ordered to stay at home.”<ref>Abbott (1942, 1998).</ref> At this suggestion that a woman should not be involved in public affairs, some people “demanded to know who indeed had better right than Aisha in such matters.”<ref>Abbott (1942, 1998).</ref> Uthman belatedly sentenced his brother to 80 lashes, which Ali delivered.<ref>{{Bukhari|5|57|45}}; {{Bukhari|5|58|212}}.</ref>
 Matters came to a head when Uthman’s governor in Egypt committed a murder, and 700 Egyptians arrived in Medina to petition for a new incumbent. Aisha supported the delegation: “You have refused the request of Muhammad’s Companions to remove this man, yet he has killed one of their people. Therefore do them justice against your governor.” After similar urgings from Talha ibn Ubaydullah and Ali, Uthman promised to appoint Aisha’s brother Muhammad as the replacement governor. But on his journey to Egypt, Muhammad intercepted a letter bearing Uthman’s seal that ordered the old governor to kill him. He returned to Medina to show the letter (which Uthman then denied writing), “and there was not one of the people of Medina but was wroth against Othman, and it increased the wrath and anger of those who were enraged on account of Ibn Masa’ud, Abu Darr, and Ammar-b-Yasir.”</ref>Jarrett/Suyuti p. 163.</ref> Aisha was among many who now claimed that Uthman was a “dotard”<ref></ref> who had “become an unbeliever”.<ref>{{Tabari|16|pp. 52-53}}.</ref> Letters signed with her name called for his assassination, though she later claimed they had been forged:<ref>Ibn Saad, ''Tabaqat'' vol. 3 p. 60; Baladhuri, ''Ansab al-Ashraf'' vol. 5 pp. 596-597.</ref> “No, by the One in whom believed the believers and disbelieved the disbelievers, I did not write to them with the black [ink] on the white [paper]!” Even if, as her friends chose to believe,<ref>Baladhuri, ''Ansab al-Ashraf'' vol. 5 p. 597.</ref> she was telling the truth – even if her real desire was only to depose Uthman and not to kill him – she did nothing to help him.