Chapter XXXVII: Battle of the Camel

JUMAD II., A.H. XXXVI. DECEMBER, A.D. 656.

[Sidenote: Aly, strengthened by contingent from Kûfa, advances on Bussorah, Jumâd II. A.H. XXXVI. Nov. A.D. 656.]

Finding that the insurgent troops, with Ayesha, Zobeir, and Talha, had already passed, Aly, as we have seen, halted for a while at Dzu Câr in Nejd, with the view of strengthening his army; for, although joined on his march by the Beni Tay and some other loyal tribes, he still felt too weak for an offensive step. To Kûfa he addressed a special summons, inhabited as it was by many veteran Companions on whose loyalty to the Caliphate he might reasonably depend; and he added force to the call by holding out the prospect that their city should be the seat of his government. ‘See,’ he wrote to them, ‘have I not chosen Kûfa before all the cities for mine own? Unto you do I look, in these hard times, for succour, if haply peace and unity again prevail as it behoveth among brethren in the Faith.’ But the summons was at the first unheeded. The overgrown city was made up of many factions; and from some of these the message of Ayesha, demanding revenge for Othmân’s blood, had already found response. Abu Mûsa was altogether unequal to the emergency. Loyal to the memory of the murdered Caliph, he yet sought to allay the ferment by a neutral course, and urged the citizens to join neither party, but remain at home. A second deputation meeting with no better success, the Caliph bethought him of sending his eldest son, in company with Ammâr, the former Governor of Kûfa, to urge his cause. The personal appeal of Hasan, the grandson of the Prophet (albeit a spiritless creature devoted only to his harem), had the desired effect.[512] The chord of loyalty in the fickle city’s heart was touched; a tumult arose, and Abu Mûsa, unable to maintain his weak neutrality, was deposed. The Arab tribes rallied, and for the moment heartily, around such noted leaders as Cacâa, and Adî the son of Hâtim. And soon ten thousand men, partly by land, partly embarking on the river, set out to join the Caliph, who, advancing slowly from Dzu Câr, awaited their arrival. Thus reinforced, Aly was able to take the field effectively, and to march on the rebellious city with an imposing force.

[Sidenote: Aly opens negotiations with Talha and Zobeir.]

Bussorah itself was not wholly hostile. A considerable portion of the Beni Bekr and Abd al Cays went forth and joined the camp of Aly. The Beni Temîm, another tribe inhabiting the city, perplexed by conflicting obligations, stood aloof, and encamped, under their leader Ahnaf, within a few miles of the city, watched what the result might be. Still the numbers bound to the insurgent cause nearly equalled the Caliph’s army; and on its approach they marched forth with Talha and Zobeir at their head, and Ayesha in a well-fenced litter on her camel. But Aly’s thoughts were for peace, if it were possible. He was a man of compromise; and here he was ready, in the interests of Islam, magnanimously to forget the insult offered to his throne. Apart, indeed, from personal jealousies, there was no disagreement sufficient to bar the hope of reconciliation. The cry of Talha and Zobeir was for vengeance against the murderers of Othmân. As yet, Aly did not deny that justice should be dealt out against them. But he was obliged to temporise. He had in his army great numbers of these very men, and he felt that to inflict punishment on them, as his adversaries required, would be, for the present at least, impossible. Holding these views, he halted while still some little way from Bussorah, and sent forward Cacâa to expostulate with Talha and Zobeir. ‘Ye have slain six hundred men of Bussorah,’ said Cacâa to them, ‘for the blood of Othmân; and lo! to avenge _their_ blood, six thousand more have started up. Where in this internecine work are ye to stop? It is peace and repose that Islam needeth. Give that, and again the majesty of law shall be set up, and the guilty brought to justice.’ As he spoke, the truth flashed on the minds of Zobeir and Talha, and even of Ayesha; and they returned word that if these really were the sentiments of Aly, they were ready to submit. After several days were spent in such negotiations, Aly, rejoicing at the prospect of a bloodless compromise, advanced.

[Sidenote: Tactics of the regicide.]

But as we have seen, Aly’s army, recruited at random from the Bedouin settlements, comprised a great number of notorious regicides. Afraid of bringing these into contact with the heated army of his opponents, which was still breathing out fire and slaughter against them, Aly gave command that none who had shared in the attack on Othmân should for the present accompany him in his advance.[513] These in their turn, with Ashtar and Ibn Sawda at their head, became alarmed. Talha’s adherents, sworn to their destruction, were double their number. If peace, then, were patched up, as was now proposed, what were they all but doomed men? Reasoning thus, they held a secret conclave, and came to the conclusion that their only safety lay in precipitating hostilities, and thus forcing Aly’s hand to crush their enemies. Accordingly, when the Caliph marched, they remained behind, but with the resolve that, when the right moment came, they would advance and throw themselves upon the enemy.

[Sidenote: Continued peaceful negotiations.]

The army of Bussorah, numbering from twenty to thirty thousand men, remained encamped on the outskirts of the city. Aly’s force, advancing unopposed, halted within sight of them. The citizens, as well as Talha and Zobeir, sent deputations to the Caliph; and negotiations for peace went on, evidently of a sincere and substantial character. Aly himself approached on horseback, and Talha with Zobeir rode forth to confer with him. ‘Wherefore came ye out?’ asked Aly; ‘did ye not swear homage to me?’ ‘Yea,’ replied Talha, ‘but with the sword over our necks; and now our demand is that justice be executed against the regicides.’ Thereupon Aly said that he too held them guilty; and in no measured terms exclaimed, ‘The Lord blast the murderers of Othmân!’ But they must bide their time. Zobeir on his side was softened by a passage from some conversation of the Prophet recalled by Aly to his mind; and he bound himself by an oath that he would not fight.[514] Then they all retired. And both armies, understanding that pacific negotiations were in progress between their leaders, went to rest that night in such security as they had not felt for many weeks.

[Sidenote: Armies both surprised by regicides.]

But the spell was rudely broken. Towards morning, a sudden shock changed the scene. The regicides, finding that the time for action was fully come, had, during the night, carried their design into execution. Squadron upon squadron of Bedouin lances bore down, while it was yet dark, upon the Bussorah tents, and in a moment all was confusion. Each camp believed that it was being treacherously attacked by the other; and the dawn found both armies drawn up, just as the conspirators desired, in mortal combat one against the other. In vain Aly, perceiving the cause, endeavoured to hold back his men. The sense of treachery embittered the conflict. It was a strange engagement, and the first occasion on which Moslems crossed swords with Moslems. It resembled one of the deadly battles of old Arab times, only that for tribal rivalry were now substituted other passions. The clans were broken up, and it became rather a contest between the two rival settlements: ‘The Beni Rabia of Kûfa fought against the Beni Rabia of Bussorah, the Beni Modhar of the one against the Beni Modhar of the other;’ and so on, we are told, with the various tribes of the Peninsula, and even with families, one part arrayed against the other. The Kûfa ranks were urged on by the regicides, who felt that, unless Aly conquered, they were altogether lost. The field was contested with an obstinacy and sanguinary issue which can be only thus accounted for. An eye-witness tells us that ‘when the opposing sides came breast to breast, it was with a furious shock, the noise whereof was like that of washermen at the ghaut.’[515] The attitude of the leaders was in marked contrast with the bitter struggle of the ranks. Zobeir, half-hearted since his interview with Aly, had left the battle-field according to his promise, and was killed in an adjoining valley by a soldier of Ahnaf’s neutral company. [Sidenote: Zobeir and Talha killed.]Talha, disabled by an arrow in the leg, was carried into Bussorah, where he died. Bereft of their leaders, the insurgent troops gave way. They were falling back upon the city, when they passed by the camel of Ayesha, stationed in the rear. Attacked fiercely all round, she was screaming unceasingly, with fruitless energy, from within her litter, the old cry, ‘Slay the murderers of Othmân.’ The word ran through the retiring ranks, that ‘the Mother of the Faithful was in peril,’ and they gallantly stayed their flight to rescue her. Long and cruelly the renewed conflict raged around the fated camel. One after another, brave warriors rushed to seize the standard by its side, and one after another they were cut down. Of the Coreish, seventy perished by the bridle. At last, Aly, perceiving that the camel was the rallying point of his enemy, sent one of his captains to hamstring and disable it. With a loud scream, the animal fell to the ground.[516] [Sidenote: The insurgents defeated. Ayesha escapes unhurt.]The struggle ceased and the insurgents retired into the city. The litter, bristling all round with arrows like a hedgehog, was taken down, and, by desire of Aly, placed in a retired spot, where Ayesha’s brother, Mohammed, pitched a tent for her. As he drew aside the curtain of the litter, she screamed at the unknown intrusion;--‘Are thine own people, then,’ he said, ‘become strange unto thee?’ ‘It is my brother!’ she exclaimed, and suffered herself to be led into the tent. The brave but wayward lady had escaped without a wound.

[Sidenote: Losses in the battle.]

The carnage in this ill-starred battle was very great. The field was covered with ten thousand bodies in equal proportion from either side;[517] and this, notwithstanding that there was no pursuit. For Aly had given stringent orders that no fugitive should be followed, nor any wounded soldier slain, nor plunder seized, nor the privacy of any house invaded. A great trench was dug, and in it the dead were buried, friends and foes together. Aly, who encamped for three days without the city, himself performed the funeral service. It was a new experience to bury the dead slain in battle not against the infidel, but believer fighting against believer. Instead of cursing the memory of his enemies (as became too soon the fashion in these civil wars), Aly on this occasion spoke hopefully of the future state of those who had entered the field, on whichever side, with an honest heart. When they brought him the sword of Zobeir, he cursed the man who had taken his life; and, calling to mind the feats of the deceased warrior in the early battles of Islam, he exclaimed: ‘Many a time hath this sword driven away care and sorrow from the Prophet’s brow.’ The Moslems might well mourn over the memory both of Talha and Zobeir, when they remembered how on the field of Ohod the former had saved the life of Mahomet at the peril of his own; and how often the latter, conspicuous from afar in his saffron turban, carried confusion into the ranks of the idolaters while they yet held possession of Mecca. Their fall, and that of many amongst the Companions, was a loss to the empire itself, because seriously weakening the Coreish in the struggle that yet remained to be fought out betwixt them and the Arab tribes. In fact, this victory of Aly was virtually the victory of these latter--that is to say, of the regicides, and of the factious citizens of Kûfa. Thenceforward Aly himself was almost wholly dependent on them. If, instead, he had succeeded in effecting a strong and lasting compromise with Talha and Zobeir, his position would have been incomparably strengthened.

[Sidenote: Aly’s magnanimity towards the enemy.]

The bearing of Aly after the victory was generous towards the fallen foe. Having entered the city, he divided the contents of the treasury amongst the troops which had fought on his side, promising them a still larger reward when the Lord should have delivered Syria into his hands. But otherwise he treated friends and foes alike, and buried in oblivion the animosities of the past. Merwân and the immediate adherents of the house of Omeyya fled back into the Hejâz, or found refuge in Syria. All that remained in the city swore fealty to Aly. The only class dissatisfied was that of the slaves and rabble, who murmured at having no share in the treasure, nor any chance of plunder. These, gathering into marauding bands, occasioned much disquietude to the Caliph, and indeed hastened his departure with the view of checking the mischief they were bent on.[518]

[Sidenote: Ayesha retires to Medîna.]

Ayesha was treated by Aly with the honour and reverence due to ‘the Spouse of the Prophet both in this life and in the life to come.’ She was now five-and-forty years of age, but had lost little of the fire and vivacity of her early days. After the battle, the Caliph visited her tent, and expressed his satisfaction at finding her unhurt; adding mildly, but half reproachfully: ‘The Lord pardon thee for what hath passed, and have mercy upon thee.’ ‘And upon thee!’ was her ready answer. The best house in Bussorah was given up to her; and there she was waited on by her own adherents. Not many days after, she was dismissed, with a retinue of forty handmaids, and attended by her brother. Aly himself accompanied her for a mile or two on foot; and a large party went as far as the first stage, to bid her farewell. At Mecca she performed the Lesser Pilgrimage; and then retiring to Medîna, no more attempted to interfere with the affairs of State. Her nephew Abdallah son of Zobeir (and of her sister Asma[519]) retired with her. He is famous as the nearly successful usurper of the Caliphate; but that was not till Ayesha had passed away. She spent the remainder of her days at Medîna. There crowds of pilgrims visiting the Prophet’s tomb (her own apartment) gazed wonderingly at her as the once beautiful and favourite wife of Mahomet; while she, becoming the garrulous and fertile source of tradition, entertained them with stories of the Prophet, ascending as far back as the earliest memories of her childhood. She died in the fifty-eighth year of the Hegira, aged about sixty-six, having passed forty-seven years in widowhood.[520]

[Sidenote: Ibn Abbâs governor of Bussorah.]

Aly did not stay long in Bussorah. Having appointed his cousin, Abdallah son of Abbâs, as governor of the city, with Ziâd, the able administrator, to aid him, as in charge of the treasury, he set out for Kûfa.