Chapter L (5)

[360] We are told that Amru, to meet the famine, established a shipping service _between Egypt_ and the ports of the Hejâz, that the trade in grain thus begun was permanently established, and that prices were thereafter little higher at Medîna than in Egypt. But Egypt was not conquered till two years later; and in the hostile state of the border preceding the conquest, it is impossible that a peaceful trade in corn could have sprung up. We must therefore conclude that tradition here anticipates that which occurred shortly after, when Omar reopened the communication from the Nile to Lake Timsa and Suez, and Egypt found a rich customer in the markets of Medîna and the Hejâz.

[361] The council was held at Sargh, near Tebûk, on the confines of Syria. During the discussion Abd al Rahmân quoted a saying of Mahomet:--‘If pestilence break out in a land, go not thither; if thou art there, flee not from it.’ Omar’s views were more reasonable, and he justified them by this illustration: ‘Suppose that ye alight in a valley, whereof one side is green with pasture, and the other bare and barren, whichever side ye let loose your camels upon, it would be by the decree of God; but ye would choose the brow that was green.’ And so he judged that in removing the people from the scene of danger into a healthier locality, he was making no attempt to flee from the decree of God.

[362] He purposed to make a circuit of all the provinces subject to his sway. Aly, we are told, even recommended a second _hijra_, or transfer of the Caliph’s court to Kûfa (evidently a proleptic tradition anticipatory of the move eventually made by Aly himself to that capital). What induced Omar to give up the project of visiting Irâc is not very clear. The ordinary story is that Káb the Rabbin (a Jew from Himyar, converted about this time, who will be noticed more hereafter) dissuaded him from it: ‘Of evil,’ he said, ‘the East hath nine parts, and of good but one; while the dwellings of Satan and every kind of plague are there. On the contrary, the West hath nine parts good, and but one of evil.’ Thereupon, the tradition proceeds, Omar abandoned the idea of visiting Irâc.

[363] _Before_, having the double meaning of ‘he is before you,’ that is, in your presence; or (as they took it) ‘in advance of you,’ and farther on the road.

[364] Shorahbîl, who had the command of the province of the Jordan (Ordonna), was put aside as weak and unfitted for the office; or rather his government was apparently placed under that of Amru, who was in command of all the Holy Land. The appointment of Muâvia as the brother of Yezîd, the late governor of Damascus, was in every way natural and expected.

[365] For Bilâl and his office of Muedzzin, see _Life of Mahomet_, p. 204.

[366] The male population alone, we are told, numbered 600,000. There were 70,000 (according to others 40,000) male Jews of an age to pay the poll tax, and 200,000 Greeks, of whom 30,000 effected their escape by sea before the siege. The baths were 4,000 in number, the theatres 400, and the harbour held 12,000 vessels of various size.

[367] The narrative is almost more fugitive, and the chronology less certain, than in the case of Syria. The expedition is variously placed at from A.H. XVI. to XXV. The earlier date is due probably to the notion (before explained) that Amru assisted Medîna with corn in the year of famine; the later date, to the attempt of the Greeks to retake Alexandria, A.H. 25. The best authenticated date is that which I have followed. The received account is this. Amru obtained permission for the campaign from Omar at Jâbia, probably on his last visit to Syria. When the Caliph returned to Medîna and reflected on the seriousness of the enterprise, he repented of having allowed Amru to go on with so small a force, and sent orders that if he had not already entered Egypt, he was to return. Warned probably of its purport, Amru did not open the packet till he had crossed the boundary; and so he went forward. When Omar was informed of this he sent Zobeir with 12,000 men to reinforce him. Other accounts say that Amru’s entire force consisted of 12,000 men, despatched from Palestine and Medîna, in three bodies, one after another. Some stories are told, but they look apocryphal, of Amru having visited Alexandria, before his conversion, many years previously.

[368] For the communications of this Mucoucus with Mahomet see _Life_, pp. 385 and 440.

[369] Memphis, in the vicinity of modern Cairo. The advance was probably made by Salahiya up the Pelusian branch of the Nile, to the north of Ismailia and Wolseley’s recent line of march.

[370] Later historians (whose accounts, however, bear the mark of being apocryphal) represent the Moslem army as at one time in considerable peril, surrounded and hemmed in at Heliopolis by the rising waters of the Nile. Mucoucus having retired to an island on the farther side of the Nile, broke up the bridge across it. Deputations were then sent by boat to and fro; and the Mussulman envoys delivered speeches before Mucoucus, exhorting and threatening the governor, much in the style of those recited at the Persian Court before the battle of Câdesîya. Mucoucus, who is represented as favourable to Islam, at last entered into terms with the invaders.

[371] Heraclius died in February, A.D. 641.

[372] The tale of Amru being taken prisoner in an attack on the outworks is not mentioned by any early authority, and seems to possess no foundation. The story is, that when carried before the authorities, his freedman, who had been captured with him, slapped Amru on the face, and so deceived the Greeks into the belief that he was a common soldier who might be set at liberty.

[373] Here again we see the same nervous fear on the part of Omar, lest his soldiers, wandering too far, or beyond some great river, should be surprised and cut off, as led him at the first to forbid an advance on Persia. Ghîzeh, properly Jîzeh, j in Egypt being pronounced as hard g.

[374] This name _Câhira_, or City of the Victory, is of later date.

[375] There is here, as in respect of other countries, a great profusion and variety of tradition, having for its object to prove that Egypt was taken by force of arms, and could therefore be treated as a conquered country; rather than that it capitulated, and was the subject of treaty and stipulations. There was always a strong pressure to prove the former, as it gave the invaders a better standing in courts of law as against the natives, in such claims as that pressed by Zobeir.

[376] The ancient canal appears to have followed very closely the line of the Fresh-water Canal of the present day. We are not favoured with many particulars; but there is no doubt that during Omar’s reign vessels did make the voyage from Cairo to the coast of Arabia, establishing thus a regular traffic between the two countries; and therefore the work must have been very quickly finished by the forced labour of the teeming population.

The reader who is curious about the previous attempts to unite the Nile with the Red Sea will find the subject discussed by Weil (vol. i. pp. 120–122). The attempt was made so far back as the time of Pharaoh Nechos, and subsequently by Darius, who is said to have made communication practicable from Bubastis, on the eastern or Tanitic estuary of the Nile, to the head of the Red Sea. A second canal was opened, under the Ptolemies at Phacusa (Tel Fakhûs), nearer to the Mediterranean. This (taking apparently the line of the Salahiya canal) must have presented greater difficulties in maintaining communication through the system of lagoons leading to the Red Sea, and so it was too shallow to be of much use, excepting in high flood. One of these lines (the former most probably) was eventually deepened by Trajan, and remained navigable to the end at least of the third century of our era. It was this canal, no doubt, which was now cleared out and deepened by Amru. Reference is made by Weil to the following authorities: Bähr’s _Herodotus_, vol. ii. p. 158; _Revue des Deux Mondes_, vol. xxvii. p. 215.

[377] This tale (which is not given by our earliest authorities) is, no doubt, based upon a custom of the Egyptians, who, as we learn from Lane, cast, year by year, the effigy of a maiden, decked in bridal attire, into the river, calling it ‘the Bride of the Nile.’ But whether the tale be real or fictitious, the sentiment conveyed in it is indicative of that virtue in the Moslem faith which carries the special providence of God into the life of every day.

[378] Amru is said to have been so pleased with Barca as to declare that if he had not possessed a property and home in the Hejâz, he would have settled there.

[379] The circumstances of the siege (a strange contrast to the bombardment, which recently crowded the horrors of months into so many hours) are narrated with the utmost brevity; and indeed tradition very much confuses the second siege with the first. Eutychius speaks of the investment of the city by the Arabs lasting fourteen months. He also tells us that George the Patriarch fled to Constantinople, and that for ninety-seven years there was no Melchite patriarch for Egypt. A Maronite patriarch seems to have succeeded.

I should mention that by later and less reliable authorities a long correspondence is given as having passed between Amru and Omar, in which the latter upbraids his lieutenant for not remitting ‘as large a revenue as that which Egypt yielded to the Pharaohs.’ Amru resented the imputation; whereupon Omar sent his legate, Mohammed ibn Maslama, to set on foot an investigation into the revenues of the country; and also superseded Amru in the government of Upper Egypt by Abdallah Ibn Abu Sarh. The correspondence (though accepted by Weil) appears to me altogether apocryphal. It was contrary to Omar’s character to write in the harsh and unreasonable tone of these letters, or to press his governors for funds at the expense of the provinces which they administered. Nor did he stand in any urgent need of the additional revenue, as these letters would imply; for the treasures of the world were flowing at this time in a full tide into Medîna. As to Ibn Abu Sarh, he did not supersede Amru till the reign of his foster-brother Othmân.

[380] The earlier operations of Otba have been narrated above, p. 91.

[381] The ancient capital of Khuzistan, where extensive ruins and colonnades still mark the extent and magnificence of this once regal city. Weil doubts whether the expedition reached so far as Persepolis. But I can only follow our authorities, who certainly represent Alâ as advancing to its vicinity.--Weil, vol. ii. p. 87.

[382] Omar, as we shall see farther on, had an unconquerable dread of committing his troops to the sea.

[383] Otba died the same year, A.H. 17; and Moghîra succeeded him, as related above (somewhat prematurely), p. 91.

[384] One of the three brothers who defended Medîna in the attack on Abu Bekr--_supra_, p. 14.

[385] Tostar, otherwise named Shuster.

[386] These conquests are variously placed by different traditions in A.H. XVII., XIX. and even XX. They immediately preceded the great campaign of Khorasan.

[387] Shushan, the ancient capital of Media, now called Sûs. Loftus gives an interesting history and description of Sûs, with a picture of the tomb of Daniel. (_Travels in Chaldæa and Susiana_, 1857, p. 322.) Our authorities say that Omar gave orders for _the body_ of Daniel, which (as the legend goes) was still exposed to view, being honourably interred.

Mr. Baring, Secretary of the Teheran Legation, visited the spot in 1881, and found it much altered. The conical steeple, shown in Loftus’ picture, was removed, when three or four years ago the tomb was rebuilt; and it was then surrounded by a gallery with a railing of brass and woodwork overlooking the river.

[388] Two thousand dirhems, the same as was given to warriors of Câdesîya and the Yermûk. And stipends of like amount were granted to the Persian nobles who had recently joined the Moslem army in Khuzistan.

[389] It is remarkable that one of the arguments said to have been used, even on this late occasion, was that if the Caliph quitted Medîna there would be a risk of the Arab tribes of the Peninsula again rising up in apostasy and rebellion.

[390] The spies were the famous Amr ibn Mádekerib (the warrior-poet met with before) and Toleiha. The latter (the quondam prophet of the Beni Asad) was long in returning from his scouting expedition--so much so that the army, becoming anxious, began to speak among themselves: ‘What if Toleiha hath apostatised the second time!’ When he made his appearance, therefore, there was a shout of joy. Toleiha, hearing of it, was much hurt at the imputation. ‘Even had it been the old Arab faith,’ he said, ‘which I once professed much more this blessed faith of Islam, I should have disdained to change it for the jargon of these barbarians.’

[391] The battle was fought at Bowaj Rûd. Nóeim demolished the fortifications of Rei, and laid the foundations of a new city. The ruins of Rei, some five or six miles south-east of Teheran, are still to be seen of considerable extent. See Porter’s _Travels in Georgia and Persia_.

[392] The Zoroastrians must still have been numerous, especially in the outlying provinces, even in the Abbasside reigns. The social and political inducements brought to bear on them, and to induce a profession of Islam that was at first but superficial, are well brought out in ‘The Apology of Al Kindy’ (Smith and Elder, 1882). See especially the speech of Al Mâmûn, pp. xii. and 33.

[393] It is difficult to account for the origin of so strange a tale. It illustrates the heterogeneous materials of which our authorities are still composed.

[394] Ascalon is stated to have fallen as late as A.H. XXIII., i.e. A.D. 643. If so, it must have held out so long only in virtue of its maritime position. But we have no details.

[395] Omar presided every year, excepting the first of his Caliphate, when the struggle with the Byzantine and Persian empires was at its height. He is also said to have thrice visited Mecca for the Omra, or Lesser Pilgrimage. (_Life of Mahomet_, p. xii.)

[396] The superstition attributing the cessation of the volcano to an extraordinary dole of alms is not worse than that which seeks to check the devastations of Vesuvius by the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius in the cathedral of Naples.

[397] Omar consulted Amru on the subject, who was of the same mind, and said--

Dûd ála ûd
Fa in yaksar al ’ûd
Halak al dûd.

‘An insect floating on a splinter; if the splinter break, the insect perisheth;’ signifying thereby the risks of the mariner.

[398] Otba came on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and there besought Omar to allow him to resign his government. Omar refused, and as Otba died on his way back, the Caliph was much distressed. He visited his tomb to pray over it, and said that he would have reproached himself as the cause of his death--‘had it not been already written in the decrees of the Lord.’

[399] We have met Moghîra in the lifetime of the Prophet. First at Hodeibia, where the murder was cast in his teeth by his uncle, and subsequently at the demolition of the great idol of Tâyif, &c. (_Life of Mahomet_, pp. 370, 467.) He was red-haired, one-eyed, obese and repulsive in appearance, but insinuating in manner and speech. One of his eighty concubines, when his ill looks were mentioned, said, ‘Yes, he is a sweet conserve but on a beggarly dish.’

The aged princess whom he demanded in marriage on the fall of Hîra, was Hind, daughter of Nómân V. Some threescore years before she had been married to Adi, who, when tutor to her father, had caught a glimpse of her in the church at Hîra. Adi was executed for some offence by the Chosroes, and Hind then retired into a convent near Hîra, called, after her, Dâira Hind. See the strange story of Moghîra’s coarse conduct towards her as related by M. Caussin de Perceval, vol. ii. p. 150; and _Life of Mahomet_ (1st edition), vol. i. pp. clxxix. _et seq._

For the law of evidence on the charge of adultery, see _Life of Mahomet_, p. 313. The whole story is significant as manifesting the deterioration of Arab life from the ancient spirit and customs, which, amongst the Bedouins, admitted of social intercourse between the sexes without such scandals. The lady’s name was Omm Jamîl, of the Beni Aámir ibn Sassâá, and is said by Tabari to have been a widow. ‘This lady used openly to visit Moghîra and other chief men of Bussora, a custom common amongst some of the ladies of that time.’ But the old Arab chivalry towards the sex was rapidly disappearing under the system which raised the slave-girl giving issue to her lord to the position of _Omm Walad_, or freed-wife, and her children to the same legitimacy as the children of the noble-born. This, coupled with the laxity of divorce and re-marriage, was speedily lowering the position of the sex, and rendered the strict use of ‘the Veil’ an absolute necessity for the decent observances of social life; and gradually, but surely, bringing about the wretched condition of women, together with the seclusion of the harem, as we now find it in Moslem lands.

[400] In the action of Autâs following the field of Honein, his uncle, who commanded, was slain; and Abu Mûsa took up the banner and routed the enemy. He had more physical than moral courage, as we shall see at the great Arbitration.

[401] It is not said that he punished the calumniator. What was the fault of the girl which led to her imprisonment is not clear. Possibly there was some scandal of undue influence over Abu Mûsa, to whom some say she was given as a bribe by his predecessor Moghîra. As regards the gift to the poet, Weil remarks that for a smaller offence of the same kind, Khâlid was deposed with ignominy--which is true. This is the same Ziâd of whom we have heard before, as the putative son of Abu Sofiân, destined hereafter to assume a prominent position.

[402] Above, p. 166.

[403] See _Life of Mahomet_, p. 72. He was one of the friendless converts whose freedom Abu Bekr purchased, and thus saved him from the persecution of the Coreish.

[404] The manner in which Moghîra got hold of the secret is characteristic of his artfulness. He perceived Jobeir in close conference with the Caliph. Now Omar had apprised Jobeir of his intention to appoint him Governor of Kûfa; but bade him, for the present, to keep the matter secret. Moghîra, suspecting the truth, sent one of his wives with a present of viands to Jobeir’s wife, who, caught in the trap, accepted the congratulatory gift. Moghîra, thus assured that his suspicions were well founded, hurried off to Omar, and representing that he had got hold of a weak fellow, who could not even keep the secret of his nomination for a day, got the appointment (as in the text) for himself. Some say that Omar afterwards intended to reappoint Sád (who seems to have been removed on very inadequate grounds) to Kûfa, but that he died before he could give effect to the intention.

[405] Sura xxviii. 4.

[406] See _Life of Mahomet_, p. 64. His height only equalled that of an ordinary man seated.

[407] An extraordinary grant of one hundred dirhems was made to each. The civil list and pensions were settled by Omar in his _Dewân_; but the means of paying the allowances was by local assignments; so that each city was dependent on its endowment, from which all the expenditure of administration had to be met.

[408] According to some authorities, however, neither Abu Bekr nor Omar appointed any Câdhy to Kûfa or Bussorah.

[409] The calculation was already by strictly lunar notation of months, according to the Arab calendar; for that had been fixed by a Divine ordinance at the Farewell Pilgrimage. (_Life of Mahomet_, p. 486.) But the commencement of the era, and numbering of the years, was introduced only now. Note that the _i_ is short in Hegira.

[410] See _Life of Mahomet_, p. 349.

[411] Take, for example, two lines with the play on the name _Leila_, or night--

I thought of Leila, but the heavens are between us;
Neither is her night (Leila) mine; nor my night hers.

[412] Many stories are told of Omar’s stern punishment of wine-drinkers. The house of one who surreptitiously trafficked in spirits, he caused to be burned over his head. Another culprit, expelled for drinking, escaped to the Byzantine territory and apostatised.

[413] See _The Corân: its Teaching and Precepts_, p. 61.

[414] For a description of the shameless demoralisation that prevailed, especially among the youth of Damascus and Baghdad, I must refer to the learned and elaborate work of H. von Kremer, _Culturgeschichte des Orients unter dem Chalifen_.

[415] One of the wives was a captive maiden from Yemen, who, having, as his bond-maid, borne him a son and daughter, became, _ipso facto_, free. No mention is made of other slave-girls in his harem; but this affords no presumption that he did not consort with such; for no account is made of servile concubines, and they are rarely or never mentioned, unless they chanced to bear offspring.

It was his daughter from whom the tradition is derived that he had no special weakness for the sex, and married chiefly for the sake of issue.

[416] In the tradition both the maidens are spoken of as Omm Kolthûm; but that must have been by anticipation, since they were so called as having sons of that name.

[417] On one occasion Hind repaired to Syria and warned Muâvia against giving money to his father, Abu Sofiân, who was in need, lest he should incur the reproach of Omar and the people; and Muâvia accordingly sent him away with only one hundred dinars. But tradition, through Abbasside channels, begins now to take so strong and bitter a tinge of hatred against the Omeyyad family, that tales regarding it must be received with caution.

[418] By some authorities he was now sixty-three; but this was a favourite age with traditionists, being that at which the Prophet died (_supra_, p. 119). He was born before the ‘Sacrilegious War,’ which lasted ten years, A.D. 580–590 (_Life of Mahomet_, p. 14); but his birth was probably at the end of the last great battle, which terminated that war. This would make him twenty-six at his conversion, and fifty-five at his death. If born at the commencement of the war, he would now be ten years older. The true date may lie between the two extremes; and it is not unlikely that he was near sixty years of age at his death.

[419] Moghîra, when recently appointed to Kûfa, may have left him at Medîna; or, more likely, he may have accompanied his master from Kûfa to the Hejâz, it being the season of pilgrimage when the governors presented themselves.

[420] The following story is told even by the earliest authorities:--Káb (the converted Jewish doctor, of whom mention has been made already) came to the Caliph and said, ‘Omar, thou hast but three days to live.’ ‘Strange,’ said Omar, ‘for I feel quite well and strong.’ ‘Nevertheless,’ continued Káb, ‘thus and thus I find it foretold in the Towrât.’ Next day he came again, and told Omar he had but two days left. After he was struck down, Káb came to visit him, and Omar said, on this occasion, to those about him,--‘Káb spake the truth,’ adding this couplet--

Káb warned me that in three days I should die; in the prophecy of
Káb there is no doubt;
I fear not death; and verily I am dying; but the fear of the wolf
followeth in its wake.

For _wolf_ (zeib) some read _sin_ (zanb). It is difficult to say what can have given rise to this strange tradition. Possibly Káb, seeing the sullen and threatening attitude of Abu Lulû, may have warned him accordingly.

[421] It is possible that Abd al Rahmân’s subsequent renunciation of the Caliphate in the coming conclave may have led to the tradition of this supposed conversation with Omar; but I give the tradition as I find it; and the facts as stated in the text are not in themselves improbable.

[422] The selection of Soheib was, no doubt, made advisedly. It will be remembered that Mahomet is thought to have, in a manner, pointed out Abu Bekr as his successor by nominating him, when he was himself laid aside, to preside at the public prayers. Soheib had, of course, no pretensions to the office. He had been a slave at Mecca, but was much revered because of his early conversion (_Life of Mahomet_, p. 72). So his appointment on this occasion was very suitable.

[423] A stalwart warrior. Mahomet used to say that in the field, the voice of Abu Talha was better than a thousand men. At Honein he slew twenty of the enemy with his own hand.

[424] Some traditions omit the words ‘Jews and Christians,’ giving thus to the sentence a general bearing; but the mention of _covenant_ or _treaties_ would seem to imply that tribes or people were meant other than Mahometans; and the best supported traditions are as in the text.

[425] Backî al Gharcad

[426] There is the tradition of a long conversation between Ibn Abbâs and Omar, in which the former pressed the _right_ of his family to the Caliphate; and Omar answered, attributing the claim to envy. The whole is a mere Abbasside invention; for neither Aly nor Abbâs, nor any one of the house of Hâshim, seems even to have dreamed of any such pretension till after the dissensions which broke out after Omar’s death. _Fâtima_ was the only discontented person, and that, as we have seen, was about the property left by the Prophet withheld from her by Abu Bekr, not about any claim to the Caliphate.

[427] As in the Oriental style, the bed, or matting, was spread upon the ground, Abdallah had but to raise his father’s head and remove it outside the pillow; so placing it on the ground, and afterwards raising it upon his lap.

[428] Some traditions give the date of his death three days later, i.e. on the last day of Dzul Hijj. This, no doubt, arises from that having been the date on which the new Caliph was chosen, and Omar’s reign is conventionally spoken of as also lasting up to that day--the last day of the year A.H. 23. There is another tradition that he was wounded on Wednesday, 23rd of Dzul Hijj, and buried on the Sunday following, i.e. on the 27th.

[429] Bilâl used to say that the only way to soothe Omar, when in a rage, was to recite in his hearing passages from the Corân, which invariably assuaged his wrath. This may, perhaps, have reference to the period of his conversion, when having struck his sister, and made blood to flow, he was moved to repentance by the reading of a Sura. (See _Life of Mahomet_, p. 96.)

[430] Such were Abd al Rahmân, Zobeir, Othmân, Aly, and Talha. The tradition as given by the Secretary of Wackîdy (fol. 235) may also mean that he was unwilling to sully their name by subjecting them to the sordid surroundings and associations of provincial government.

[431] Thus, for example, while journeying in Arabia in the year of famine, he came upon a poor woman, seated, with her hungry and weeping children, round a fire, whereon was an empty pot. Omar ran on to the next village, procured bread and meat, filled the pot, and cooked an ample meal; leaving the little ones laughing and at play.

[432] When some one proposed his son Abdallah, Omar was angry and declared that the government had been long enough in his family. ‘Besides’ (alluding apparently to some scandal in his domestic life) ‘how could I appoint a man who was so weak as not to divorce his wife?’ They say, also, that Omar once praised Sâlim, the freedman of Hodzeifa, slain at Yemâma, as one who would have been fit for the Caliphate--‘a man beloved of the Prophet, and a lover of the Lord.’ But this could only have been as a mere figure of speech.

[433] Others say that the conclave was held in the house of Miswar, a citizen of Medîna; and that there Abd al Rahmân spent the last decisive night in separate conference with Aly and then with Othmân. For Micdâd, see _Life of Mahomet_, p. 239. Moghîra and Amru are characteristically said to have sat at the door of the house to make it appear as if they, too, had had a hand in the election. Amru had probably come to Medîna with the other governors on pilgrimage.

[434] For the two rival families see _Life of Mahomet_, pp. xx. and xxviii. The Electors were, in reality, selected very evenly. Zobeir was cousin to Aly both on the father’s side and the mother’s. Sád and Abd al Rahmân belonged to the Beni Zohra, a distant branch of Coreishite descent. Sád, however, was likewise the nephew of Mahomet’s mother, Amina. Some say that he voted for Othmân; others that, being pressed by Aly, he went over to his side. Talha was of the Beni Taym, the clan of Abu Bekr. The impartiality of Abd al Rahmân is impugned by the partisans of Aly, as being the brother-in-law of Othmân, whose uterine sister he married; and this probably was the relationship hinted at by Aly in his appeal to Abd al Rahmân.

We are getting now into the full flood of Abbasside tradition, which becomes entirely partisan and untrustworthy, with the view of exalting the claims of the Prophet’s family and defaming the Omeyyads. Of this class of traditions is the following:--Aly complained to Abbâs that he was sure to be outvoted in the conclave because Sád would go with his kinsman Abd al Rahmân, and vote for Othmân, brother-in-law of the latter; and that then, the votes being equally divided, Abd al Rahmân would have the casting-vote. On this Abbâs reproached Aly for having neglected the advice, given by him now and on former occasions, to claim the Caliphate _as his right_, and to have nothing to do with electors or arbitration. He had told him years before to demand the Caliphate from Mahomet, and he had neglected to do so. ‘And now,’ said Abbâs, ‘the Caliphate will leave our family for ever.’ All this is patent fabrication.

[435] The Beni Makhzûm was a powerful branch of the Coreish, but far removed by descent from the clan of Hâshim, and having little sympathy with it. It was Khâlid’s tribe. To understand the taunts here bandied, it must be remembered that Abu Sarh (his proper name is Abdallah Ibn Abu Sarh) was the foster-brother of Othmân, and bore a bad repute (as we shall see below) as having deceived Mahomet, and been proscribed at the capture of Mecca. Ammâr (as has been stated before) was son of a bond-woman called Sommeyya. See on the tradition of her martyrdom, _Life of Mahomet_ (1st ed.), vol. ii. p. 126.

[436] The inaugural address was delivered on the 3rd Moharram or Nov. 10, the interval between the election and speech at installation being presumably taken up in receiving the oath of allegiance from all present at Medîna.

[437] Quoted from the Corân, Sura xii. v. 19.

[438] His attitude in discharging the invidious task was that of a loyal and unselfish patriot. He disclaimed the Caliphate for himself. Night and day engaged unceasingly in canvassing the sentiments of the leading chiefs, he did his best to compose the antagonistic claims of the selfish Electors. What was the immediate cause of his action when in the Mosque he nominated Othmân, it is not possible to say. Abbasside traditions assume that the cause was the conscientious scruples of Aly in hesitating to swear that he would follow strictly the precedents of Abu Bekr and of Omar in his conduct of the Caliphate. The Corân and the precedent of Mahomet he would implicitly obey, but the precedent of the first Caliphs only so far as he agreed in the same. In the tenor of the traditions relating how Abd al Rahmân first questioned Aly and then Othmân, and in their replies, I hardly find sufficient ground for this assumption; and it looks very much of a piece with the Abbasside fabrications of the day. One tradition ascribes the hesitancy of Aly to the cunning counsel of Amru, who, beforehand, advised him not to give a direct reply, lest Abd al Rahmân should think him too grasping; while he advised Othmân to answer unconditionally--as if Aly were so simple as to have been caught by such transparent guile.

[439] Aly, however, maintained his view, and sought, when he became Caliph, to give practical effect to it. He searched for Obeidallah, and would, we are told, have put him to death. But Obeidallah made his escape to Syria, where he was safe under the rule of Muâvia.

[440] From this point begin the rough waters of the great cataclysm. Tradition becomes deeply affected by faction, especially the envenomed shafts of the party of Aly and the Abbassides, under cover of which they built up their pretensions, and, in the end, succeeded in supplanting the Omeyyad dynasty. The evidence, therefore, must be received with caution as we go along.

[441] Kabul is said to have been first attacked A.H. 24. The early Moslems seem to have been as unfortunate (perhaps as unwise) as ourselves in their expeditions against Afghanistan, where they met with many sad reverses.

[442] Ascalon is said to have been reduced (apparently for the first time) just before Omar’s death, _A.H._ 23; but the delay was purely owing to its maritime position. This excepted, Syria had for some years been under the firm yoke of Islam.

[443] For his full name (Abdallah ibn Sád ibn Abu Sarh), see note at p. 290; but it may conveniently be abbreviated into Abu Sarh.

[444] Party spirit has, no doubt, been freely used to magnify the offence of Abu Sarh. He is supposed to be the person alluded to in Sura vi. 94:--‘Who is more wicked than he who saith, I will produce a Revelation, like unto that which the Lord hath sent down?’ Vide Sale’s note _in loco_. The circumstances as quoted there are altogether apocryphal. He must, however, have deceived, if not betrayed, Mahomet, in some very marked way, to have led to his proscription on the capture of Mecca--an occasion on which the Prophet treated the inhabitants, with but few exceptions, with mercy and even generosity. See _Life_, p. 425. We have seen above (p. 248) that Omar is said by some to have been dissatisfied with Amru’s administration in Egypt--so much so, as to have superseded him partially by appointing Abu Sarh to the command in Upper Egypt. The evidence of Omar’s disapproval of Amru is imperfect, but there is no doubt that he appointed Abu Sarh to Egypt, and that Othmân on his accession found him already in power there.

[445] This is all we are told by Ibn al Athîr. But there is elsewhere a not unlikely tradition that the unhappy maiden, tearing herself from her captor’s embrace, leapt from the camel, and found in death an escape from her humiliation. This campaign furnishes plentiful material for many still wilder stories in the romances of the pseudo-Wâckidy and later writers.

[446] According to some authorities, Othmân presented the royal share of the booty as a free gift to Merwân, and they add that this was one of the grounds of Othmân’s impeachment. But it reads like a party calumny.

[447] Coming there in disguise, he was recognised by a woman, who gave the alarm, and the natives rushed upon the boat. Asked how she recognised the Saracen captain, this woman said, ‘He came as a merchantman; but when I asked an alms of him, he gave as a prince giveth; so I knew it was the captain of the Saracens.’

The payment of _jazia_, or poll-tax, implied the corresponding claim of protection. _Zimmy_ signifies one who, so assessed, becomes part and parcel of the Moslem empire, and as such entitled to its guardianship. The Cypriots were not expected, from their position, to take any active part on the Moslem side; but they were bound to give their new masters warning of any hostile expedition, and generally to facilitate their naval operations.

As the great crowd of prisoners were being shipped, one of the Moslem warriors wept; for, said he, ‘those captives will lead the hearts of their masters astray’--one of the few occasions on which we see a faint perception of the evils of female slavery to the conquerors themselves; for that I take to be the meaning.

[448] According to Theophanes, it was Constans II., grandson of Heraclius, who perished thus for his crimes, but at a later date. See Gibbon, ch. xlviii.

[449] Some authorities make the discontent to arise in consequence of the failure of Abu Sarh to follow up the victory, and give chase to the retiring enemy.

[450] See _Life of Mahomet_, p. 235.

[451] Abbasside tales are multiplied against the unfortunate Welîd. He consorted with the poet Abu Zobeid, a converted Christian of the Beni Taghlib, and was suspected of drinking wine in company with him. Another complaint was, that a conjuring Jew from Baghdad having been condemned in Ibn Masûd’s court for witchcraft, Jondob, one of the factious leaders, killed him with his own hand instead of waiting the regular course of execution; for which unlawful act Welîd imprisoned Jondob, to the great discontent of the people. Hostile tradition, by deep colouring, has improved on these tales, representing Welîd as a brutal sot and sacrilegist. _E.g._ by his command, the Jew performed works of magic in the sacred precincts of the Great Mosque, assumed by sorcery the form of various animals, cut off a man’s head, and then putting it on, brought him to life again, &c. Jondob, scandalised at his devilish tricks, proceeded to cut off the Jew’s head, saying, ‘If thou canst do miracles, then bring thyself to life again.’ Upon this Welîd imprisoned Jondob, and would have put him to death had he not, by the connivance of the jailor, escaped. These tales are given by Masûdi and later writers, whose tendency to vilify Welîd by the most extravagant fiction, is manifest.

Of the same complexion are the traditions which represent the citizens of Medîna as in such bodily fear of Othmân that no one dared to carry out the sentence of scourging against Welîd; so that Aly, at last, stepped forward, and himself inflicted the stripes. Others say that Aly ordered his son, Hasan, to do so; but he refused, saying, ‘The lord of the _hot_ is lord also of the _cold_’ (_i.e._ the sweets and the bitter of office must go together), and that then Aly compelled a grandson of Abu Tâlib (Mahomet’s uncle) to carry out the sentence.

[452] His name was Abdallah, but to distinguish him from the multitude of that name, he is always called Ibn Aámir.

[453] The youth, however, was not satisfied with this pair of wives; for he left twenty sons, and as many daughters, behind him. He was nephew of that Khâlid ibn Saîd who opened the Syrian campaign so ingloriously.

[454] On the text of the Corân, and the history of this recension, see the Excursus on the ‘Sources for the Biography of Mahomet,’ in the _Life of Mahomet_. The manner in which the Abbasside faction perverted the facts and turned the charge to malignant purpose against the Omeyyad house, will be understood from the section on the Corân in the _Apology of Al Kindy_ (Smith and Elder, 1882), pp. 25 _et seq._ The charge against Al Hajjâj of having altered the text is equally groundless. See _Ibid._ p. xi.

[455] The precise nature of the arrangement, as stated by Ibn al Athîr, is not very clear, but its general character seems to have been as given the text.

[456] Masûdy, an unprejudiced witness, dwells on this as one of the causes of demoralisation and disloyalty now setting in so rapidly, and he gives some remarkable instances. _Zobeir_ had 1,000 slaves, male and female, and 1,000 horses. At all the great cities he had palaces, and the one at Bussorah was still to be seen in the fourth century. His landed estate in Irâc was rated at 1,000 golden pieces a day. _Abd al Rahmân_ had 1,000 camels, 10,000 sheep, and 100 horses, and he left property valued at between three and four hundred thousand dinars. _Zeid_ left gold and silver in great ingots, and had land valued at 10,000 dinars.

The Coreishite nobles built themselves grand palaces in Mecca and Medîna, and in their environs such as Jorf and Ackîck. Othmân himself had a splendid palace at Medîna, with marble pillars, walls of costly stucco, grand gates and gardens; he is also said to have amassed vast treasures, though we are not told what came of them after his overthrow.

Masûdy contrasts painfully all this luxury at home and abroad with the frugal severity that prevailed even in the Caliphate of Omar, who grudged to spend sixteen dinars on the pilgrimage to Mecca.

[457] Quoting from the Corân (Sura ix. 36), where these words are applied to Christian priests and monks; but Abu Dzarr gives them here a more general application. See _Life of Mahomet_, p. 470; and Sprenger’s _Leben des Mohammeds_, vol. ii. p. cvi.

[458] Attempts are made by Abbasside tradition to show that Abu Dzarr was driven into opposition by the tyranny of Muâvia’s rule in Syria, and by divers ungodly practices at Medîna, which he denounced as certain to bring down judgment on the city. But Ibn al Athîr justly doubts this, and distinctly says that his preaching tended to excite the poor against the rich. Abu Dzarr’s doctrines were based on the equality of all believers; and the danger lay in their popularity with the socialistic faction which decried the pretensions of the Coreish. Before Muâvia, he reasoned thus: ‘_Riches_, ye say, _are the Lord’s_; and thereby ye frustrate the people’s right therein; for the Lord hath given them to his people.’ ‘Out upon thee!’ replied Muâvia; ‘what is this but a quibble of words? Are we not all of us the Lord’s people, and the riches belong unto the same?’ Tradition dwells on the poverty of Abu Dzarr’s life at Rabadza to add point to Othmân’s unkind treatment. The Beni Ghifâr, his tribe, are said to have resented his ill-treatment by joining the insurgents when they appeared.

[459] On this subject historians say very little; and it is chiefly from incidental notices in fragments of early poetry that Von Kremer has so ably traced the inroads of profligacy and the practice of forbidden pastimes--music, wine, and gambling. The brief notice of Ibn al Athîr on this matter is as follows: ‘The prevalence of a worldly spirit first showed itself at Medîna in the flying of doves and shooting with pellets (with a gaming aim); and in the eighth year of his Caliphate Othmân appointed an officer to stop the same, who clipped the birds’ wings, and broke the cross-bows.’ A citizen was rebuked by the Caliph for playing at ‘oranges’ (apparently some game of chance); and he thereupon got angry and joined the hostile party. The anti-Omeyyad tendency of the tradition on this subject is evident from _Welîd_ (the drunkard) being named as the person employed by the Caliph to administer the rebuke.

[460] As enlarged by Othmân, the Mosque was 160 cubits long, and 150 broad. As in Omar’s time, it had six gates for entrance.

[461] Othmân defended his innovations as based on the practice of the pilgrims from Yemen, who recited additional prayers on behalf of their distant homes; and he too (he said) had a property at Tâyif, as well as at Mecca. The matter seems at first sight altogether insignificant. But in an established ritual, the smaller the change, the greater oftentimes the scandal and indignation, as we need not go far to see. And although no point of doctrine was apparently involved, yet the practice of the Prophet had come to be regarded as an obligatory precedent in the commonest matters of daily life.

[462] For Abu Hodzeifa, see _Life of Mahomet_, p. 65. He left his infant son to be brought up by Othmân, who faithfully discharged the trust. When he grew up he asked for a government or military command, but was told that he was not yet fit for it, and must prove his capacity in the wars of Egypt and Africa. He never forgot the slight, and was active in the insurgent ranks. Various other examples are given of personal enmity, such as citizens alienated by the reprimand for gaming, a chief imprisoned for the ill-treatment of a Christian tribe, whose favourite hound he had killed, and so on.

[463] The well was at the distance of two miles from the city. Another well, called Rûma, was bought by Othmân, during the Prophet’s lifetime, from the Jews for the use of the Moslems. He first purchased the half title, the well being used day about by either party; but on their alternate days the Mussulmans emptied the well of enough water to last them two days. Whereupon the Jewish owner insisted on Othmân’s purchasing the entire right, which he did; and Mahomet promised him a fountain in Paradise for the same.

[464] For traditions regarding Mahomet’s ring, see _Life of Mahomet_, pp. 544 and 596. The despatches sent by him to the several kings in the eighth year of the Hegira were attested by it. The most received account is that the legend on it was ‘Mahomet, Prophet of God’ (_Mohammed Rasûl Allah_, in three lines, beginning from the bottom). It was used for all documents requiring a seal, by Mahomet and his successors. The new ring disappeared at the time of Othmân’s assassination, and, like the original, was never seen again.

[465] One of the four wives who survived him was Omm al Banîn, daughter of the famous freebooter, Oyeina. Othmân had thirteen children, and (so far as we read) no issue by slave-girls, which, looking to the habits of the time, is somewhat remarkable.

[466] The name of this demagogue was Abdallah ibn Saba, but he was usually called Ibn Sauda, and was supposed to come from Yemen. It is notable that this first sect of Alyites (if it can be so called) was founded by a Jewish convert. What led him (if the story of his teaching be not altogether a proleptic fiction of tradition) to magnify Aly, who had hitherto put forth no claim, nor indeed at any time dreamed of the extravagant pretensions in store for him after his death, it is difficult to understand. Nor did these transcendental notions regarding Aly gain any ground whatever till a much later period. Ibn Sauda had evidently imbibed some extreme notions on the dignity of prophets. ‘Strange,’ he is reported to have said;--‘strange that men should believe in the second coming of the Messiah, and not in that of Mahomet.’ The idea, we are told, was inspired by the verse in Sura xxviii. v. 84, ‘Verily, he who hath given thee the Corân will surely bring thee back again;’ which, of course, referred only to Mahomet’s returning again to Mecca. Indeed, the whole account of this man’s teaching is obscure and uncertain; and the Alyite notices of it may be altogether anticipatory and unreal.

[467] The youth and his father belonged to the Beni Asad. On hearing of the riot, Toleiha (the _quondam_ prophet), chief of that tribe, hastened with a body of his men to the palace for their rescue; but found that both had escaped half dead.

Another version is, that on Saîd’s giving expression to the sentiment about ‘the Sawâd being the Garden of the Coreish,’ the whole company sprang to their feet and shouted excitedly: ‘Nay, but the Lord hath given the Sawâd to us and to our swords.’ On this, the captain of the body-guard retorted angrily at their rude reception of his master’s words; whereupon they set upon him and left him half dead. The inflammable material was all around, and wanted only the spark to explode. This unfortunate speech about ‘the Garden of the Coreish’ was in the mouths of the disaffected all through the insurrection.

[468] The chief amongst them was Mâlik al Ashtar, of whom we shall hear more as the most sanguinary amongst the traitors; Zeid ibn Sohan; Jondob (already noticed); Orwa; and Thâbit ibn Cays. Yezîd, a brother of the last, another chief leader of sedition, was not sent. Muâvia wrote to Othmân that they were an ignorant crew, bent on sedition, and on _getting possession of the property of the Zimmies_, that is of the subject races, whose rights of occupancy had been recognised as the hereditary tenants of the Sawâd--a policy, as we have seen, firmly upheld by Omar throughout Chaldæa, and which it was one object of the malcontents to upset. According to one account, the exiles were sent back by Muâvia, after expressing penitence, at once to Kûfa--where, however, resuming their factious courses, Othmân, as a last resource, despatched them again to Syria, this time to Abdallah, Khâlid’s son, at Hims. Muâvia is throughout represented as _upholding the claims of the Coreish_ against the Arab faction, showing thus the real aim of the ringleaders.

A story is told that the exiles, enraged at the menaces of Muâvia, leaped upon him and seized him by the beard; whereupon, shaking them off, he warned them that they knew little of the loyal spirit of the Syrians, who, if they only saw what they were doing, would be so enraged that it would be out of his power to save their lives.

[469] Only two or three names are given of those who kept aloof from seditious action: as Zeid ibn Thâbit (the collector of the Corân); Hassân, the poet, his brother; Káb ibn Mâlik, and Abu Oseid--all natives of Medîna; so that the whole body of Refugees (the Coreish), excepting Othmân’s immediate kinsmen, must have joined the treasonable faction.

[470] No doubt Aly spoke the truth. Yet Othmân’s weakness towards the seditious populace was a far greater peril than his tender treatment of his governors.

[471] I have given all this as I find it in tradition, but not without some misgiving; especially of the part about Merwân, whom, as the evil genius of Othmân, the Abbasside writers are never weary of abusing.

[472] Amru, who had become a petulant malcontent ever since his deposition, is represented as speaking contumeliously of Othmân to his very face; and Othmân is represented as returning it in kind, calling him ‘a louse in his garments.’ On one occasion the Caliph is said to have addressed the people, ‘leaning on the staff of Mahomet’ (a venerable relic that had descended from the Prophet to Abu Bekr and Omar), when an Arab seized and broke it over Othmân’s head. Such stories, however much they may be tinged with Abbasside exaggeration and prejudice, point to the fact that Othmân was falling rapidly in popular esteem.

[473] The four were Mohammed ibn Maslama, often employed by Omar, as he had been by Mahomet himself, on confidential missions; Osâma ibn Zeid, commander of the Syrian expedition at Mahomet’s death; Abdallah, son of Omar; and Ammâr, whose injudicious appointment by Omar to the governorship of Kûfa appears to have turned his head, for he fell into the conspirators’ toils.

[474] We have abundance of conversations professing to have passed between Othmân and his advisers; but they have no further authority than as they represent the sentiments conventionally attributed to the several speakers. As, however, it may give point to the crisis now rapidly approaching, I subjoin the following epitome of the most received account:--