The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 33
CHAPTER XXXIII
ELECTION OF ʿALĪ
35–36 A.H. 656 A.D.
Revulsion of feeling.On the Caliph's death, his kinsfolk, and such as had helped in his defence, retired from the scene. The City was horror-struck. They had hardly anticipated the tragic end. Many who had favoured or even joined the rebels, started back now the deed was done. The relatives of the murdered Caliph fled to Mecca with vows of vengeance. A citizen of Medīna, wrapping carefully the severed fingers of Nāʾila in the blood-stained shirt of ʿOthmān, meet symbols of revenge, carried them off to Damascus, and laid them at Muʿāwiya's feet.
ʿAlī elected Caliph,
24 xii. 35
June 23, 656.For several days anarchy reigned in Medīna. The regicides had mastery of the city. The Egyptians were foremost amongst these in the first days of terror; and prayer was conducted in the Mosque by their leader. Of the inhabitants few ventured out. At last on the fifth day the rebels insisted that, before they quitted Medīna, the citizens should elect a Caliph, and restore the empire to its normal state. Shrinking, no doubt, from the task which ʿOthmān's successor would have to face, ʿAlī held back, and offered to swear allegiance to either Ṭalḥa or Az-Zubeir. But in the end, pressed by the threats of the regicides and entreaties of his friends, he yielded; and so, six days after the fatal tragedy, ʿAlī took the oath to rule "according to the Book of the Lord," and was saluted Caliph. Az-Zubeir and Ṭalḥa were themselves the first to acknowledge him. They asserted afterwards that they swore unwillingly, through fear of the conspirators. The mass of the people followed. There were exceptions; but ʿAlī was lenient, and would not press the adherents of the late Caliph to swear allegiance. The insurgents, having themselves done homage, departed to tell the tale at Al-Kūfa, Al-Baṣra, and Fusṭāṭ.
Declines to punish regicides.No bed of roses was strewn for ʿAlī. Whether at home or abroad, work rough and anxious was before him. To the standing contention between the Bedawīn and Ḳoreish was now added the cry of vengeance on the regicides. Red-handed treason had loosened the bonds of society, and constituted authority was set at nought. Bands of Bedawīn, scenting plunder from afar, hung about the City. Encouraged by the servile population now broken loose, they refused to depart.[1] ʿAlī was pressed to vindicate the majesty of law, and punish the men who had stained their hands with the blood of ʿOthmān. Even Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir, awakening too late to the portentous nature of the crime enacted, with little check from them, and before their very eyes, urged this. "My brothers," replied ʿAlī, "I am not indifferent to what ye say, but helpless. The wild Bedawīn and rampant slaves will have their way. What is this but an outburst of paganism long suppressed;—a return, for the moment, to the days of Ignorance, a work of Satan? Just now they are beyond our power. Wait; and the Lord will guide us." This waiting, hesitating mood was the bane of ʿAlī's life. He was over fifty years of age, and, though vigorous in his earlier years, had become corpulent and inactive now. He loved ease; and while sometimes obstinate and self-willed, his ordinary maxim was that things left to themselves would surely mend.
Ḳoreish alarmed.Ḳoreish were anxious and alarmed. The revolt, ostensibly against ʿOthmān's ungodly rule, was taking now far wider range. The Bedawīn were impatient of Ḳoreishite control; and that which had happened to the Umeiyad family, now forced to flee Medīna, might any moment happen to themselves, Yet ʿAlī, though he denounced the work of the regicides as high treason, took no steps to punish it, but temporised. Prompt and vigorous pursuit would no doubt have been joined in, heart and soul, by all the leaders and better classes of Islām. He chose rather to let the vessel drift, as it shortly did, into the vortex of rebellion.
ʿAlī would depose Muʿāwiya in Syria,The confirmation, or supersession, of the provincial governors was another pressing matter; and here ʿAlī, turning a deaf ear to his friends, proved wilful and precipitate. When Ibn al-ʿAbbās returned from the pilgrimage at Mecca, he found Al-Moghīra wisely urging ʿAlī to retain the governors generally in their posts, at least till the Empire at large had recognised his succession to the throne. But ʿAlī refused. Ibn al-ʿAbbās now pressed the same view: "At anyrate," he said, "retain Muʿāwiya; it was ʿOmar, not ʿOthmān, who placed him there; and all Syria followeth after him." The advice, coming from so near a kinsman, deserved consideration. But ʿAlī, with family hatred against the Umeiyad line, answered sharply, "Nay; I will not confirm him even for a single day." "If thou depose him," reasoned his friend, "the Syrians will question thine election :and, still worse, accusing thee of the blood of ʿOthmān, rise up as one man against thee. Confirm him in the government of Syria, and they care not who is Caliph. When thou art firmly seated, depose him if thou wilt. It will be easy then." "Never," answered ʿAlī; "he shall have nought but the sword from me." "Thou art brave," Ibn al-ʿAbbās replied, "but innocent of the craft of war; and hath not the Prophet himself said, What is war but a game of deception?" "That is true," responded ʿAlī, "but I will have none of Muʿāwiya." "Then," said Ibn al-ʿAbbās, "thou hadst better depart to thy property at Yenboʿ, and close the gates of thy stronghold there behind thee; for everywhere the Bedawīn are hounding along; and if thou makest others thine enemies, these will surely find thee out, and lay the blood of ʿOthmān at thy door." "Come," said ʿAlī, trying another line, "thou shalt go forth thyself to Syria. See, now, I have appointed thee." "That," replied Ibn al-ʿAbbās, "can never be. Muʿāwiya would surely behead me or cast me into prison because of ʿOthmān's death, and my being kin to thee. Hearken, and make terms with him ere it be too late." But ʿAlī turned a deaf ear.
and appoints new governors throughout the Empire,
i. 36 A.H.
July, 656.Acting on this wayward impulse, ʿAlī sent men of his own to replace existing governors throughout the Empire. In most places these met with but a sorry reception. At Al-Baṣra, indeed, Ibn ʿĀmir, unwilling to provoke hostilities, retired to Mecca, and his successor, ʿOthmān ibn Ḥoneif, entered unopposed; but the faction which clung to the memory of the late Caliph was as strong there as that which favoured ʿAlī, while a third party waited the out-turn of events at Medīna. In Egypt it was much the same. Ḳeis, appointed to the command, was a wise and able ruler; but he only succeeded in crossing the frontier by feigning attachment to the cause of ʿOthmān; while a strong and aggressive faction throughout the country, swore that they would not submit until the regicides were brought to justice. In the Yemen, the new Governor obtained possession, but only after his predecessor had carried off to Mecca all the treasure. The two officers nominated to Al-Kūfa and Syria met with so rough a reception, that they were glad to escape with their lives back to Medīna.
Sends letters to Muʿāwiya and Abu Mūsa.Dispirited by these events, ʿAlī took counsel with Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir. The sedition he had apprehended was already kindled, and would spread like wild-fire, catching whatever might come in its way. "Then," replied they, "let us depart, that we may do thee service in the field." "Wait," answered ʿAlī; "the cautery must be the last resort." So he resolved in the first instance to address letters to Muʿāwiya, and also to Abu Mūsa at Al-Kūfa, demanding their allegiance. Abu Mūsa replied in loyal terms, but withal, bade the Caliph beware of the disaffection which in Al-Kūfa was rife around him. With Syria, communication was utterly cut off; weeks elapsed, and there was no reply. In truth, a strange scene meanwhile was being enacted there.
Emblems of vengeance hung up at Damascus.Muʿāwiya had no sooner received the emblems of ʿOthmān's murder,—the gory shirt and Nāʾila's mangled joint up at fingers,—than he hung them on the pulpit of the Damascus mosque. There suspended, they remained a spectacle maddening the Syrians to bloody revenge. Still, he took no immediate action. Biding his time, he waited to see what the new Caliph might do. Had ʿAlī been wise, he would have used the angry Syrians to take vengeance on the regicides, and in so doing crush as well the rising rebellion of the Arab tribes. In this work they would have been his strongest help; for Syria never suffered from the Bedawi turbulence which kept Al-ʿIrāḳ and Egypt in continual turmoil. It had been the early and favourite field of Ḳoreish, who, settling there more largely than elsewhere, found their influence, in consequence, all the better recognised. Moreover, they inhabited the Syrian cities in common with the Christian population, which had surrendered for the most part on favourable terms. Society was thus throughout all classes orderly and loyal; whereas Al-Baṣra and Al-Kūfa were filled with restless headstrong Arab tribes which held the conquered lands to be their own especial patrimony. Law prevailed in Syria; in Al-ʿIrāḳ and Egypt petulance and pride of arms. Syria was, moreover, attached to the Umeiyad stock, and so remained faithful to the end.
Muʿāwiya sends defiant answer,
ii. 35 A.H.
August, 656 A.D.The Syrians had not long to wait the outcome of ʿAlī's plans. His abortive attempt to supersede Muʿāwiya, and refusal to arraign the regicides, gave colour to the charge of collusion with them; and having the bloody shirt ever before their,eyes, the Syrians soon raised the cry against the Caliph. The majesty of outraged law must now be vindicated; and if the assassins were not pursued to justice, who but ʿAlī was to blame? Damascus was in this excited temper when ʿAlī's letter reached Muʿāwiya. At the first no answer was vouchsafed. The envoy kept in waiting witnessed day by day the gathering storm. At last Muʿāwiya sent a despatch—stranger than ever had been seen before.. The cover was superscribed with this address; From Muʿāwiya to ʿAlī, and bore the seal of State. There was no other word, all was blank within. The despatch was carried by Ḳabīṣa, a Bedawi chief, and with him the Caliph's envoy was given permission to depart. Arriving at Medīna three months after ʿOthmān's death, Ḳabīṣa presented the letter to ʿAlī, who broke the seal impatiently. "What meaneth this?" he cried, starting at the blank despatch;—"let the enigma be explained." Ḳabīṣa first inquired whether his life was safe. "Safe," answered ʿAlī; "the person of an Ambassador is sacred. Speak on." "Know, then," proceeded Muʿāwiya's envoy, "that but now I left behind me, weeping under the blood-stained shirt of ʿOthmān, sixty thousand warriors, bent on revenging the Caliph's death,—and revenging it on thee!" "What!" exclaimed ʿAlī, aghast, "On me! Seest thou not that I am powerless to pursue the murderers? O Lord! I take Thee to witness that I am guiltless of ʿOthmān's blood. Begone! See, thy life is safe." As the envoy withdrew, the petulant slaves and rabble shouted after him, "Slay the dog; slay the envoy of Syrian dogs!" He turned, and, apostrophising Ḳoreish, cried at the pitch of his voice, "Children of Moḍar! Children of Ḳeis! The horse and the bow! Four thousand picked warriors close at hand. See to your camels and your steeds!"
ʿAlī proclaims campaign against Muʿāwiya.Medīna was roused and startled by the envoy's cry. The time was come when ʿAlī could no longer put his decision off. Al-Ḥasan, his elder son, ever poor in spirit, counselled waiting; but ʿAlī saw too plainly the hour for action to be now or never. He gave vent to his troubled soul in martial lines, which, soon in everyone's mouth, told the people his resolve to make the sword the arbiter betwixt Muʿāwiya and himself. An expedition against Syria was proclaimed; captains were appointed to command the various companies of the expected levies, and banners were presented to them by ʿAlī; but he was careful to name no one who had taken part in the attack on ʿOthmān. Orders were also sent to Al-Kūfa, Al-Baṣra, and Egypt, to raise troops for the war. This done, ʿAlī mounted the pulpit and harangued the citizens. If they failed to fight now, he told them, the power would pass away from them, never more to be regained. "Fight, then, against the cursed schismatics, who would destroy the unity of Islām .and rend in twain the body of the Faithful. Haply the Lord will set that right which the Nations are setting wrong." But the people did not respond to the appeal, and the ranks were slow of filling.
Ṭalḥa and Zubeir depart to Mecca.Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir, when they saw affairs thus drifting, again asked leave to quit Medīna; and so they now set out for Mecca, on pretext of performing the lesser Pilgrimage.
- ↑ A servile population, captives of war, had been pouring for years into Medīna as into other centres. They were employed as domestics, warders, bodyguards, or followed trades, paying profits to their masters. On the outbreak they broke away into defiant attitude. This would occur the more readily at Medīna, as they formed the guards of the Treasury and mansions of the great men; and, being the only trained force there, they felt their power. We find them similarly taking part in the outbreaks at Al-Baṣra and elsewhere. Like the Janissaries or Memlūks of later days, they were a petulant brood. Immediately on homage being done to ʿAlī, they lampooned him in minatory verses, to which ʿAlī (not to be outdone in the poetry even of slaves) replied in extempore couplets. Proclamation was made that slaves not returning to their masters would be treated as outlaws; but it had no effect.