Part 21 (1/2)

But 'Ali had almost every virtue except those of the ruler: energy, decision, and foresight. He was a gallant warrior, a wise counsellor, a true friend, and a generous foe. He excelled in poetry and in eloquence; his verses and sayings are famous throughout the Mu?ammadan East, though few of them can be considered authentic. A fine spirit worthy to be compared with Montrose and Bayard, he had no talent for the stern realities of statecraft, and was overmatched by unscrupulous rivals who knew that ”war is a game of deceit.” Thus his career was in one sense a failure: his authority as Caliph was never admitted, while he lived, by the whole community. On the other hand, he has exerted, down to the present day, a posthumous influence only second to that of Mu?ammad himself. Within a century of his death he came to be regarded as the Prophet's successor _jure divino_; as a blessed martyr, sinless and infallible; and by some even as an incarnation of G.o.d. The 'Ali of s.h.i.+'ite legend is not an historical figure glorified: rather does he symbolise, in purely mythical fas.h.i.+on, the religious aspirations and political aims of a large section of the Moslem world.

[Sidenote: 'Ali against Mu'awiya.]

[Sidenote: Battle of ?iffin (657 A.D.).]

[Sidenote: Arbitration.]

[Sidenote: The award.]

[Sidenote: The Kharijites revolt against 'Ali.]

[Sidenote: Ali a.s.sa.s.sinated (661 A.D.).]

To return to our narrative. No sooner was 'Ali proclaimed Caliph by the victorious rebels than Mu'awiya b. Abi Sufyan, the governor of Syria, raised the cry of vengeance for 'Uthman and refused to take the oath of allegiance. As head of the Umayyad family, Mu'awiya might justly demand that the murderers of his kinsman should be punished, but the contest between him and 'Ali was virtually for the Caliphate. A great battle was fought at ?iffin, a village on the Euphrates. 'Ali had well-nigh gained the day when Mu'awiya bethought him of a stratagem. He ordered his troops to fix Korans on the points of their lances and to shout, ”Here is the Book of G.o.d: let it decide between us!” The miserable trick succeeded. In 'Ali's army there were many pious fanatics to whom the proposed arbitration by the Koran appealed with irresistible force. They now sprang forward clamorously, threatening to betray their leader unless he would submit his cause to the Book. Vainly did 'Ali remonstrate with the mutineers, and warn them of the trap into which they were driving him, and this too at the moment when victory was within their grasp. He had no choice but to yield and name as his umpire a man of doubtful loyalty, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, one of the oldest surviving Companions of the Prophet. Mu'awiya on his part named 'Amr b.

al-'a?, whose cunning had prompted the decisive manuvre. When the umpires came forth to give judgment, Abu Musa rose and in accordance with what had been arranged at the preliminary conference p.r.o.nounced that both 'Ali and Mu'awiya should be deposed and that the people should elect a proper Caliph in their stead. ”Lo,” said he, laying down his sword, ”even thus do I depose 'Ali b. Abi ?alib.” Then 'Amr advanced and spoke as follows: ”O people! ye have heard the judgment of my colleague.

He has called you to witness that he deposes 'Ali. Now I call you to witness that I confirm Mu'awiya, even as I make fast this sword of mine,” and suiting the action to the word, he returned it to its sheath.

It is characteristic of Arabian notions of morality that this impudent fraud was hailed by Mu'awiya's adherents as a diplomatic triumph which gave him a colourable pretext for a.s.suming the t.i.tle of Caliph. Both sides prepared to renew the struggle, but in the meanwhile 'Ali found his hands full nearer home. A numerous party among his troops, including the same zealots who had forced arbitration upon him, now cast him off because he had accepted it, fell out from the ranks, and raised the standard of revolt. These 'Outgoers,' or Kharijites, as they were called, maintained their theocratic principles with desperate courage, and though often defeated took the field again and again. 'Ali's plans for recovering Syria were finally abandoned in 660, when he concluded peace with Mu'awiya, and shortly afterwards he was struck down in the Mosque at Kufa, which he had made his capital, by Ibn Muljam, a Kharijite conspirator.

With 'Ali's fall our sketch of the Orthodox Caliphate may fitly end. It was necessary to give some account of these years so vital in the history of Islam, even at the risk of wearying the reader, who will perhaps wish that less s.p.a.ce were devoted to political affairs.

[Sidenote: The Umayyad dynasty.]

[Sidenote: Moslem tradition hostile to the Umayyads.]

[Sidenote: Mu'awiya's clemency.]

[Sidenote: His hours of study.]

The Umayyads came into power, but, except in Syria and Egypt, they ruled solely by the sword. As descendants and representatives of the pagan aristocracy, which strove with all its might to defeat Mu?ammad, they were usurpers in the eyes of the Moslem community which they claimed to lead as his successors.[362] We shall see, a little further on, how this opposition expressed itself in two great parties: the s.h.i.+'ites or followers of 'Ali, and the radical sect of the Kharijites, who have been mentioned above; and how it was gradually reinforced by the non-Arabian Moslems until it overwhelmed the Umayyad Government and set up the 'Abbasids in their place. In estimating the character of the Umayyads one must bear in mind that the epitaph on the fallen dynasty was composed by their enemies, and can no more be considered historically truthful than the lurid picture which Tacitus has drawn of the Emperor Tiberius. Because they kept the revolutionary forces in check with ruthless severity, the Umayyads pa.s.s for bloodthirsty tyrants; whereas the best of them at any rate were strong and singularly capable rulers, bad Moslems and good men of the world, seldom cruel, plain livers if not high thinkers; who upon the whole stand as much above the 'Abbasids in morality as below them in culture and intellect. Mu'awiya's clemency was proverbial, though he too could be stern on occasion. When members of the house of 'Ali came to visit him at Damascus, which was now the capital of the Mu?ammadan Empire, he gave them honourable lodging and entertainment and was anxious to do what they asked; but they (relates the historian approvingly) used to address him in the rudest terms and affront him in the vilest manner: sometimes he would answer them with a jest, and another time he would feign not to hear, and he always dismissed them with splendid presents and ample donations.[363] ”I do not employ my sword,” he said, ”when my whip suffices me, nor my whip when my tongue suffices me; and were there but a single hair (of friends.h.i.+p) between me and my subjects, I would not let it be snapped.”[364] After the business of the day he sought relaxation in books. ”He consecrated a third part of every night to the history of the Arabs and their famous battles; the history of foreign peoples, their kings, and their government; the biographies of monarchs, including their wars and stratagems and methods of rule; and other matters connected with Ancient History.”[365]

[Sidenote: Ziyad ibn Abihi.]

Mu'awiya's chief henchman was Ziyad, the son of Sumayya (Sumayya being the name of his mother), or, as he is generally called, Ziyad ibn Abihi, _i.e._, 'Ziyad his father's son,' for none knew who was his sire, though rumour pointed to Abu Sufyan; in which case Ziyad would have been Mu'awiya's half-brother. Mu'awiya, instead of disavowing the scandalous imputation, acknowledged him as such, and made him governor of Ba?ra, where he ruled the Eastern provinces with a rod of iron.

[Sidenote: Yazid (680-683 A.D.).]

Mu'awiya was a crafty diplomatist--he has been well compared to Richelieu--whose profound knowledge of human nature enabled him to gain over men of moderate opinions in all the parties opposed to him. Events were soon to prove the hollowness of this outward reconciliation. Yazid, who succeeded his father, was the son of Maysun, a Bedouin woman whom Mu'awiya married before he rose to be Caliph. The luxury of Damascus had no charm for her wild spirit, and she gave utterance to her feeling of homesickness in melancholy verse:--

”A tent with rustling breezes cool Delights me more than palace high, And more the cloak of simple wool Than robes in which I learned to sigh.

The crust I ate beside my tent Was more than this fine bread to me; The wind's voice where the hill-path went Was more than tambourine can be.

And more than purr of friendly cat I love the watch-dog's bark to hear; And more than any lubbard fat I love a Bedouin cavalier.”[366]

[Sidenote: ?usayn marches on Kufa.]

[Sidenote: Ma.s.sacre of ?usayn and his followers at Karbala (10th Mu?arram, 61 A.H. = 10th October, 680 A.D.).]

Mu'awiya, annoyed by the contemptuous allusion to himself, took the dame at her word. She returned to her own family, and Yazid grew up as a Bedouin, with the instincts and tastes which belong to the Bedouins--love of pleasure, hatred of piety, and reckless disregard for the laws of religion. The beginning of his reign was marked by an event of which even now few Moslems can speak without a thrill of horror and dismay. The facts are briefly these: In the autumn of the year 680 ?usayn, the son of 'Ali, claiming to be the rightful Caliph in virtue of his descent from the Prophet, quitted Mecca with his whole family and a number of devoted friends, and set out for Kufa, where he expected the population, which was almost entirely s.h.i.+'ite, to rally to his cause. It was a foolhardy adventure. The poet Farazdaq, who knew the fickle temper of his fellow-townsmen, told ?usayn that although their hearts were with him, their swords would be with the Umayyads; but his warning was given in vain. Meanwhile 'Ubaydullah b. Ziyad, the governor of Kufa, having overawed the insurgents in the city and beheaded their leader, Muslim b.

'Aqil, who was a cousin of ?usayn, sent a force of cavalry with orders to bring the arch-rebel to a stand. Retreat was still open to him. But his followers cried out that the blood of Muslim must be avenged, and ?usayn could not hesitate. Turning northward along the Euphrates, he encamped at Karbala with his little band, which, including the women and children, amounted to some two hundred souls. In this hopeless situation he offered terms which might have been accepted if Shamir b. Dhi 'l-Jawshan, a name for ever infamous and accursed, had not persuaded 'Ubaydullah to insist on unconditional surrender. The demand was refused, and ?usayn drew up his comrades--a handful of men and boys--for battle against the host which surrounded them. All the harrowing details invented by grief and pa.s.sion can scarcely heighten the tragedy of the closing scene. It would appear that the Umayyad officers themselves shrank from the odium of a general ma.s.sacre, and hoped to take the Prophet's grandson alive. Shamir, however, had no such scruples. Chafing at delay, he urged his soldiers to the a.s.sault. The unequal struggle was soon over. ?usayn fell, pierced by an arrow, and his brave followers were cut down beside him to the last man.