The chance of success was greater for the legitimists than for the democratic party. The former wished to make the Khalifate the privilege of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, and his descendants. At first the community did not take much notice of that "House of Mohammed"; and it did not occur to any one to give them a special part in the direction of affairs. Alî and Fâṭima themselves asked to be placed in possession only of certain goods which had belonged to Mohammed, but which the first khalîfs would not allow to be regarded as his personal property; they maintained that the Prophet had had the disposal of them not as owner, but as head of the state. This narrow greed and absence of political insight seemed to be hereditary in the descendants of Alî and Fâṭima; for there was no lack of superstitious reverence for them in later times, and if one of them had possessed something of the political talent of the best Omayyads and Abbasids he would certainly have been able to supplant them.
After the third Khalîf, Othmân, had been murdered by his political opponents, Alî became his successor; but he was more remote than any of his predecessors from enjoying general sympathy. At that time the Shîʿah, the "Party" of the House of the Prophet, gradually arose, which maintained that Alî should have been the first Khalîf, and that his descendants should succeed him. The veneration felt for those descendants increased
