There was more correspondence with no result, so, as negotiations had stalled, Mu‘awiyah summoned all the commanders of his forces in Ash-Sham, the region that stretches from Syria and southern Anatolia in the north, to Palestine and Transjordan in the south, and began preparations for war. Soon, he marched his army of sixty thousand men through Mesopotamia to Maskin, on the Tigris boundary of Mosul, towards the Sawad. Meanwhile, he attempted to negotiate with Al-Hasan, sending the young heir letters asking him to give up his claim. According to Jafri, Muawiyah hoped to either force Hasan to come to terms; or attack the Iraqi forces before they had time to strengthen their location. However, Jafri says, Muawiyah believed that, even if Hasan was defeated and killed, he was still a threat, for another member of the clan of Hashim could simply claim to be his successor. Should he abdicate in favor of Mu‘awiyah, however, such claims would have no weight and Mu‘awiya's position would be guaranteed. According to Jafri, he was correct, for ten years later, after the death of Al-Hasan, when the Iraqis turned to his younger brother, Al-Husayn, to support an uprising, Al-Husayn instructed them to wait as long as Mu‘awiyah was alive due to Al-Hasan's peace treaty with him.