Chapter XXXIV

THE PLOT RIPENS. CONSPIRATORS ATTACK MEDINA.
DEATH OF OTHMAN.

A.H. XXXV. A.D. 656.

[Sidenote: Plot to surprise Medîna. End of A.H. XXXIV. Summer of A.D. 655.]

The plot was now rapidly coming to a head, and a plan of action had been already fixed. While the lieutenants of the Caliph were absent from their posts on the occasion just described, the conspirators were to issue from Kûfa, Bussorah, and Fostât, so as to converge upon Medîna in combined and menacing force. There, in answer to the Caliph’s challenge, they would present an endless roll of complaints, and cry loudly for redress, reform, and the removal of their governors. If the request were denied, they would demand the abdication of Othmân, and, in the last resort, enforce their demand at the point of the sword. But as to a successor they were not agreed. Kûfa was for Zobeir; Bussorah was for Talha; Egypt’s favourite was Aly.

[Sidenote: The conspirators set out for Medîna. Shawwâl, XXXV. April, A.D. 656.]

The scheme, being immature, at first miscarried. But months later, in the middle of the following year, it was revived and preparations made in secret for giving it effect. Under the pretext of visiting Mecca, and there performing the Lesser Pilgrimage, the concerted movement at last took place, two or three months before the annual pilgrimage.[476] Abu Sarh, the Governor of Egypt, on learning of the treasonable design, at once despatched a messenger to apprise Othmân. In reply he was ordered to pursue the rebels; he did so, but it was too late; they had marched beyond his reach. On turning back, he found Egypt in the hands of the traitor, son of Abu Hodzeifa,[477] and fleeing for his life, took refuge across the border, in Palestine. Amongst the insurgent leaders of Egypt was Mohammed, son of Abu Bekr.

[Sidenote: The insurgents encamp near Medîna; but retire.]

On receiving the intelligence that the insurgents were marching on Medîna, Othmân ascended the pulpit of the Great Mosque and made known to the citizens the real object of attack. ‘It is against myself,’ he said; ‘soon they will look back with a longing eye to this my Caliphate, and wish that each day of the same had been a year in length, because of the tumult and bloodshed, anarchy and ungodliness, that will flood the land.’ The rebels were not long in making their appearance, and they pitched three camps, the men of Kûfa, Bussorah, and Egypt, each encamping separately, in the neighbourhood of Medîna.[478] The citizens put on their armour, a thing unheard of since the days of the Apostasy in the reign of Abu Bekr, and prepared for resistance. The insurgents, foiled thus far, sent deputies to the widows of Mahomet, and the chief men of the city. ‘We come,’ they said, ‘to visit the Prophet’s home and resting-place, and to ask that certain of the governors be deposed. Give us leave to enter.’ But leave was not granted. Then the insurgent bands despatched each a deputation to its respective candidate. Aly stormed at the messengers sent to him as soon as they appeared, and called them rebels accursed of the Prophet; and the others met with no better reception at the hands of Talha and Zobeir. Unable to gain over the citizens, without whose consent their object was out of reach, the rebel leaders declared themselves satisfied with a promise from the Caliph of reform, and, breaking up their camp, retired in the order in which they came. They made as if each company was taking its way home again, but really with the concerted plan of returning shortly, when they expected to find the city less prepared to resist.[479] The citizens cast aside their armour, rejoicing in the apparent deliverance from a pressing danger; and for some days things went on as before, Othmân leading the prayers. Suddenly, the three bands reappeared at the city gates. A party headed by Aly went forth to ask the reason. [Sidenote: They return with document bearing the Caliph’s seal.]The strangers pointed to a document attested by the Caliph’s seal; this, they said, had been taken from a servant of Othmân’s whom they caught hastening on the road to Egypt; and it contained orders that the insurgents were to be seized and imprisoned, some tortured, and some put to death. Aly, suspecting collusion, asked how the discovery made by the Egyptian company on the road to Fostât had become so promptly known to the others marching in quite a different direction, to Kûfa and Bussorah, as to bring them all back together? ‘Speak of it as ye will,’ they said, ‘here is the writing, and here the Caliph’s seal.’ Aly repaired to Othmân, who denied all knowledge of the document; but, with the view of clearing up the matter, consented to receive a deputation of the rebel leaders. Introduced by Aly, they made no obeisance to the Caliph, but with defiant attitude approached and recounted their grievances. [Sidenote: Angry altercation with the Caliph.]They had retired with the promise of redress; but, instead of redress, here was the Caliph’s own servant whom they had caught posting onward to Egypt with the treacherous document now produced. Othmân swore solemnly that he knew nothing of it. ‘Then say who it was that wrote this order.’ ‘I know not,’ said the aged Caliph. ‘But it was passed off as thine; thy servant carried it; see, here is thy seal, and yet thou wast not privy to it!’ Again Othmân affirmed that it was even so.[480] ‘Either thou speakest truth,’ they cried in accents loud and rude, ‘or thou art a liar. Either way, thou art unworthy of the Caliphate. We dare not leave the sceptre in the hands of one who is either a knave or a fool too weak to govern others. Resign, for the Lord hath deposed thee!’ Othmân made answer:--‘The garment wherewith the Lord hath girded me I will in no wise put off; but any evil ye complain of, that I am ready to put away from me.’ It was all too late, they cried; he had often made, and as often broken, the promise to amend; they could no longer put any trust in him; now they would fight until he abdicated, or else was slain. ‘Death,’ said Othmân, gathering himself up, with the firmness and dignity which marked his last days--‘Death I prefer; as for fighting, I have said it already, my people shall not fight; had that been my desire, I had summoned legions to my side.’ The altercation becoming loud and violent, Aly arose and departed to his home. The conspirators also retired to their fellows; but they had now secured what they wanted, a footing in the city. They joined in the ranks of worshippers at the daily prayers in the Great Mosque, cast dust in the face of Othmân as he officiated, and threatened the citizens to make them keep away. The fatal crisis was hurrying on.

[Sidenote: Tumult in the Mosque; Othmân struck down.]

On the Friday following this scene, when the prayers were done, Othmân ascended the pulpit. He first appealed to the better sense of the citizens, who (he knew), however cowed by the threats of the rebels, condemned their lawless attitude. Then turning to the conspirators themselves, who had been taking part in the service, he continued, ‘Ye are aware that the men of Medîna hold you to be accursed at the mouth of the Prophet, for that ye have risen up against his Caliph and Vicegerent. Wherefore wipe out now your evil deeds by repentance, and by good deeds atone for the same.’ One and another of the loyal citizens arose earnestly to confirm the Caliph’s words and plead his cause; but they were silenced and violently set down.[481] A tumult arose. The men of Medîna were driven from the Mosque and its court, by showers of stones. One of these struck Othmân, who fell from the pulpit to the ground, and was carried to his house adjoining in a swoon. He soon recovered, and for some days was still able to preside at the daily prayers. But at last the insolence and violence of the insurgents, rising beyond bounds, forced him to keep to his house, and a virtual blockade ensued. But a body-guard of armed retainers, supported by certain of the citizens, succeeded for the present in keeping the entrance safe.

[Sidenote: Attitude of Aly, Zobeir, and Talha.]

From the day of the first tumult, Aly, Zobeir, and Talha (the three named by the rebels as candidates for the Caliphate) each sent a son to join the loyal and gallant band planted at the palace door. But they did little more; and, in fact, throughout the painful episode, they kept themselves altogether in the background. After the uproar and Othmân’s swoon, they came along with others to inquire how he fared. But no sooner did they enter, than Merwân and other kinsmen tending the Caliph, cried out against Aly as the prime author of the disaster, which would recoil, they said (and said truly) upon his own head. Thereupon Aly arose in wrath, and, with the rest, retired home. It was, in truth, a cruel and dastardly desertion, and in the end bore bitter fruit for one and all. It was not only a crime, but a fatal mistake. Alarm at the defiant rising against constituted authority, and loyalty to the throne, equally demanded bold and uncompromising measures. The truth was outspoken by one of the Companions at the time. ‘Ye Coreish,’ he said, ‘there hath been till now a strong and fenced door betwixt you and the Arabs; wherefore do ye now break down the same?’[482]

[Sidenote: Othmân closely besieged, holds parley with Aly, Zobeir, and Talha.]

So soon as the conspirators had shown their true colours, Othmân despatched an urgent summons to Syria and Bussorah for help. Muâvia, who had long foreseen the dire necessity, was ready with a strong force which, as well as a similar column sent by Ibn Aámir from Bussorah, hurried to their master’s rescue. But the march was long, and the difficulty was for Othmân to hold out until these columns reached. The insurgents had entire possession of the Mosque and of the approaches to the palace; and, in the height of insolence, their leader now took the Caliph’s place at public prayers.[483] There were no troops at Medîna, and Othmân was dependent on the little force that barely sufficed to guard the palace entrance. It was composed of train-band slaves, some eighteen near kinsmen, and other citizens including (as we have said) the sons of Aly, Zobeir, and Talha. Apprehending, from the ferocity with which the attack began now to be pressed, that the end might not be far, Othmân sent to tell Aly, Zobeir, and Talha that he wished to see them once more. They came and waited without the palace, but within reach of hearing. The Caliph, from the flat roof of his house, bade them to sit down; and so for the moment they all sat down, both foes and friends, together. ‘My fellow citizens!’ cried Othmân with a loud voice, ‘I have prayed to the Lord for you, that when I am taken, he may set the Caliphate aright.’ After this, he made mention of his previous life, and how the Lord had made choice of him to be the Successor of his Prophet, and Commander of the Faithful. ‘And now,’ said he, ‘ye have risen up to slay the Lord’s elect. Have a care, ye men! (and here he addressed the besiegers); the taking of life is lawful but for three things, Apostasy, Murder, and Adultery. Taking my life without such cause, ye but suspend the sword over your own necks. Sedition and bloodshed shall not depart for ever from your midst.’ They gave him audience thus far, and then cried out that there was yet a fourth just cause of death, namely the quenching of truth by iniquity, and of right by violence; and that for his ungodliness and tyranny he must abdicate or be slain. For a moment Othmân was silent. Then calmly rising, he bade the citizens go back to their homes; and himself, with but faint hopes of relief, turned to re-enter his dreary abode.[484]

[Sidenote: The blockade pressed. Sufferings from thirst.]

The blockade had now lasted several weeks, when a mounted messenger reached the city with tidings that succour was on its way.[485] But this, coming to the knowledge of the Caliph’s enemies, only made them redouble their efforts. They now closed every approach, allowing neither outlet nor ingress to a single soul. Water could be introduced by stealth only at night, and, there being no well within the palace, the little garrison suffered the extremities of thirst. On the appeal of Othmân, Aly interposed, and expostulated with the besiegers. ‘They were treating their Caliph,’ he told them, ‘more cruelly than they would treat Greek or Persian captives in the field. Even Infidels did not deny water to a thirsty enemy.’ But they were deaf to his entreaty. Omm Habîba, the Prophet’s widow, and sister of Muâvia, touched with pity, sought herself, with Aly’s aid, to carry water upon her mule through the rebel lines into the palace; but neither her sex nor rank, nor her relation to the Prophet, was safeguard enough to prevent her being roughly handled. They cut her bridle with their swords, so that she nearly fell to the ground, and then drove her rudely back. The better part of the inhabitants were shocked at the violence and inhumanity of the rebels; but none had the courage to oppose them. Sick at heart, most kept to their houses; while others, alarmed for themselves, as well as to avoid the cruel spectacle, quitted Medîna. It is hard to believe that, even in the defenceless state of the city, Aly, Zobeir, and Talha, the great heroes of Islam, could not, had they really wished it, have raised an effective opposition to the lawless work of these heartless regicides. History cannot acquit them, if not of actual collusion with the insurgents, at least of cold-blooded indifference to their Caliph’s fate.[486]

[Sidenote: Annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Dzul Hijj, A.H. XXXV. June, A.D. 656.]

The solemnities of the Káaba worship were now at hand, and Othmân, still mindful of his obligation as head of Islam to provide for their due observance, once more ascended the palace roof. From thence he called the son of Abbâs, one of the faithful party guarding the entrance, to come near, and bade him assume the leadership of the band of pilgrims proceeding from Medîna;--a duty which, much against his will, as taking him away from the defence, he undertook at the Caliph’s repeated command. Ayesha joined the party. She is accused of having formerly stirred up the people against Othmân. Now, at any rate, this impulsive lady not only shook herself free from the insurgents, but, in order to detach her brother Mohammed, son of Abu Bekr, also from their company, she besought him to accompany her to Mecca. But he refused.[487]

[Sidenote: The palace stormed. 18 Dzul Hijj. June 17.]

The approach of relief at last goaded the rebels to extremities, and they resolved on a final and murderous attack. A violent onset was made from all quarters, and the forlorn band of defenders (including still the sons of Aly, Zobeir, and Talha), unable longer to hold their ground, retired at Othmân’s command, but not without difficulty, within the palace gate, which they closed and barred. In doing this they covered their retreat with a discharge of archery, and one of the rebels was killed thereby. Infuriated at their comrade’s death, the insurgents rushed at the gate, battered it with stones, and finding it too strong, sat down to burn it. Meanwhile others, swarming in crowds from the roof of an adjoining building, gained an easier access, and, rushing along the corridor, attacked the guard still congregated within the palace gate. One was slain, Merwân was left half dead, and the rest were overpowered.[488] Othmân had retired by himself into an inner chamber of the women’s apartments; and, seated there awaiting his fate, read from the Corân, spread open on his knees. Three ruffians, sent to fulfil the bloody work, rushed in one after another upon him thus engaged. Awed by his calm demeanour, his pious words and mild appeal, each one returned as he went. ‘It would be murder,’ they said, ‘to lay hands upon him thus.’ Mohammed, son of Abu Bekr, in his hate and rage, had no such scruples. He ran in, seized him by the beard, and cried, ‘The Lord abase thee, thou old dotard!’ ‘Let my beard go,’ said Othmân, calmly; ‘I am no dotard, but the aged Caliph, whom they call Othmân.’ Then, in answer to a further torrent of abuse, the old man proceeded, ‘Son of my brother! Thy father would not have served me so. The Lord help me! To Him I flee for refuge from thee.’ The appeal touched even the unworthy son of Abu Bekr, and he too retired. [Sidenote: And Othmân slain.]The insurgent leaders, on this, crowded in themselves, smote the Caliph with their swords, and trampled on the Corân he had been reading from. Severely wounded, he yet had strength enough to stretch forth his aged arms, gather up the leaves, and press them to his bosom, while the blood flowed forth upon the sacred text.[489] Thus attacked, the faithful Nâila cast herself upon her wounded lord, and, endeavouring to shield him, received a sword-cut which severed some of the fingers from her hand, and they fell upon the ground. The band of slaves attempted his defence. One of them slew Sudân, the leader, but was immediately himself cut down and killed. Further effort was in vain. They plunged their weapons into the Caliph’s body, and he fell lifeless to the ground. The infuriated mob now had their way. A scene of riot followed. They stabbed the corpse, and leaped savagely upon it; and they were proceeding to cut off the head, when the women screamed, beating their breasts and faces, and the savage crew desisted. The palace was gutted; and even Nâila, all wounded and bloody, was stripped of her veil. Just then the cry was raised, ‘To the Treasury!’ and suddenly all departed.[490]

[Sidenote: Burial of Othmân.]

As soon as they had left, the palace gate was barred, and thus for three days the dead bodies of Othmân, Moghîra, and the slave, lay in silence within. Then Zobeir ibn Motím, and Hakîm ibn Hizâm (Khadîja’s nephew), chief men of the Coreish, obtained leave of Aly to bury the Caliph’s body.[491] In the dusk of evening, the funeral procession, including Zobeir, Hasan son of Aly, and the kinsmen of Othmân, wended their way to the burying-ground of Backî, outside the city. Death had not softened the rebels’ hearts, and they pelted the bier with stones. Not in the graveyard itself, but in a field adjoining, the body, with a hurried service, was committed to the dust. In after years the field was added by Merwân to the main burying-ground--a spot consecrated by the remains of the heroes of Ohod, and many names famous in the early days of Islam; and there the Beni Omeyya long buried their dead around the grave of their murdered kinsman.[492]

[Sidenote: His character.]

Thus, at the age of eighty-two, died Othmân, after a reign of twelve years. The misfortunes amongst which he sank bring out so sharply the failings of his character that further delineation is hardly needed. Narrow, weak, and vacillating, he had yet a kindly nature which might have made him, in less troublous times, a favourite of the people. Such, indeed, for a season he was at the beginning of his Caliphate. But afterwards he fell on evil days. The struggle between the Coreish and the rest of the Arabs was hurrying on the nation to an internecine war. The only possible safety was for the class still dominant to have opposed a strong and united front to their adversaries. By his vacillation, selfishness, and nepotism, Othmân broke up into embittered factions the aristocracy of Mecca, and threw this last chance away.