ASSASSINATION OF ALY.
A.H. XL. A.D. 661.
[Sidenote: Three Khârejite fanatics conspire to assassinate Aly,
Muâvia, and Amru. A.H. XL. A.D. 661.]
The theocratic Separatists were sorely troubled at the prospects of
Islam. It was not that raids and robbery, dissension and strife, had
been the order of the day. That they could bear, for bloodshed was
more tolerable than apostasy. To the Khârejite, the cessation of war
brought with it no peace of mind. A settled government was the ruin
of his hopes. Aly having come to terms with Muâvia, there was no
longer room to expect that the ungodly kingdoms of the earth would
be overthrown, and the reign of righteousness established in their
stead. Thus the theocratic party brooded over the blood that had been
shed in vain upon the plain of Nehrwân and other fields of battle,
and for the present abandoned themselves to despair. Many took refuge
from the godless tyranny (as they called it) prevailing all around,
in the sacred precincts of the Hejâz, where they might lament freely
with one another over the miserable fate of Islam. As three of these
thus mourned together, a gleam of hope suddenly shot across their
path. ‘Our blood need not have been thus shed in vain; let each of us
kill one of the three oppressors of the Faithful; Islam may yet again
be free, and the reign of the Lord appear.’ It was one of the band
of regicides that spoke; and so, as in the case of Othmân, but under
another guise and urged by bolder hopes, the three again conspired
against the State. The fatal resolve once taken, details were speedily
arranged. Aly and Muâvia both must fall; and Amru also, not only as
the godless Arbitrator, but also as the likeliest successor to the
throne left vacant by the other two. Each was to dispose of his fellow,
as he presided at the morning service, on the same Friday when, in the
month of Ramadhân, the cathedral Mosques of Kûfa, Damascus, and Fostât
would be thronged with fasting worshippers. They dipped their swords
in a powerful poison; and separated from one another, swearing that
they would either fulfil the task or perish in the attempt. [Sidenote:
Amru escapes.]Amru escaped. He was sick that day, and the captain of
his guard, presiding in the Mosque at prayers, fell a victim in his
stead.[561] [Sidenote: Muâvia wounded, but recovers.]At Damascus,
Muâvia was not so fortunate.[562] The blow fell upon him, and was near
to being fatal. His physician declared that his life could be saved
only by the cautery, or by a potent draught that would deprive him of
the hope of further progeny. He shrank from the cautery, and chose the
draught. The remedy was effectual, and he survived.
[Sidenote: Aly attacked by assassins in the Mosque of Kûfa.]
At Kûfa things turned out differently. The conspirator Ibn Muljam,
one of the Egyptian regicides, was able there to gain two desperate
accomplices from the Beni Taym. The tribe, deeply imbued with the
fanaticism of the day, had suffered severely in the massacre of
Nehrwân, and ever since had nursed its resentment against the Caliph.
Ibn Muljam loved Catâm, a beautiful maid of the same tribe, who having
on that fatal day lost her father, her brother, and other near
relatives, was roused thereby to a savage ardour. ‘Bring me,’ said
the maid to her lover, ‘the head of Aly as my dower; if thou escapest
alive, thou shalt enjoy me as thy guerdon here; if thou perish, thou
shalt enjoy better than me above,’ So she introduced him to Werdân, a
warrior burning with the same spirit of revenge, and also to another
accomplice, named Shuhîb, On the appointed morning, the latter, with
Ibn Muljam, lay in wait on either side of the door leading into the
crowded Mosque; if their blows should fail, Werdân, stationed outside,
was in the confusion to rush upon Aly, and complete the work. At the
time appointed, the Caliph entered the Mosque calling aloud as usual,
_To prayers, ye people! To prayers!_ Immediately he was set upon
on either hand. Shuhîb’s sword fell upon the lintel; but Ibn Muljam
wounded the Caliph severely on the head and side. He was seized. The
other two fled; one was cut to pieces, the other escaped in the tumult.
Aly was carried into the palace, but retained strength sufficient to
question the assassin, who was brought before him. Ibn Muljam declared
boldly, that the deed had been forty days in contemplation; and during
all that time he had prayed without ceasing to the Lord, ‘that the
Wickedest of mankind might meet his fate.’ ‘Then,’ replied Aly, ‘that
must have been thyself.’ So saying, he turned to his son, Hasan, and
bade him keep the assassin in close custody: ‘If I die, his life is
forfeited to justice, and he shall be slain for the deed he hath done;
but see,’ said he, ‘that thou mutilate him not, for that was forbidden
by the Prophet.’ During the day Omm Kolthûm went into the assassin’s
cell and cursed him, adding, what no doubt she was fain to believe,
‘My father shall yet live.’ ‘Then, Lady,’ replied the fanatic, ‘whence
these tears? Listen. That sword I bought for a thousand pieces, and a
thousand more it cost to poison it. None may escape a wound from it.’
It soon became evident that the wound indeed was mortal. They asked
the Caliph whether if he died, it was his will that Hasan, his eldest
son, should succeed to the throne. [Sidenote: Aly’s death. 17 Ramadhân,
A.H. XL. Jan. 25, A.D. 661.] Still true to the elective principle, Aly
answered: ‘I do not command this, neither do I forbid it. See ye to
it.’ Then he called Hasan and Hosein to his bedside, and counselled
them to be steadfast in piety and resignation to the will of God, and
to be kind to their younger brother, the son of his Hanifite wife.
After that he wrote his testament, and continuing to repeat the name
of the Lord to the end, so breathed his last. When they had performed
the funeral obsequies, Hasan arraigned the assassin before him.
Nothing daunted, Ibn Muljam said: ‘I made a covenant with the Lord
before the holy House at Mecca, that I would slay both Aly and Muâvia.
Now, if thou wilt, I shall go forth and kill the other, or perish in
the attempt. If I succeed, I will return and swear allegiance unto
thee.’ ‘Nay,’ said Hasan, ‘not before thou hast tasted of the fire.’
[Sidenote: Ibn Muljam put to death.]He was put to death, and the body,
tied up in a sack, was committed to the flames.[563]
[Sidenote: Aly’s burial-place unknown.]
Tradition, strange to say, is silent, and opinion uncertain, as to
where the body of Aly lies. Some believe that he was buried in the
cathedral Mosque at Kûfa, others in the palace.[564] Certainly, his
tomb was never, in early times, the object of any care or veneration.
The same indifference attached to his memory throughout the realm of
Islam, as had attached to his person during life, and it was not till
that generation had passed away that the sentiment of reverence and
regard for the husband of the Prophet’s daughter, and father of his
only surviving progeny, began to show itself.
[Sidenote: His family.]
Aly died about sixty years of age. His troubled and contested reign
had lasted but four years and nine months. For a time (like Mahomet
himself) he had been content with a single wife, the Prophet’s daughter
Fâtima, by whom he had three sons and two daughters, the progenitors of
the Synd race--the nobility of Islam.[565] After she died, he took many
women into his harem, both free and servile; by whom he had, in all,
eleven sons and fifteen daughters. Aly was a tender-hearted father. In
his old age, a little girl was born to him, with whose prattle he would
beguile his troubles; for he had her always on his knee, and doted on
her with a special love.[566]
[Sidenote: Forbearance and magnanimity of Aly.]
In the character of Aly there are many things to commend. Mild and
beneficent, he treated the rebel city of Bussorah, when prostrate at
his feet (as Mahomet had done the ungrateful city of his birth) with
a generous forbearance. Towards the theocratic fanatics, who wearied
his patience by incessant intrigue and insensate rebellion, he showed
no vindictiveness. Excepting Muâvia (the man of all others whom he
ought not to have estranged) he carried his policy of conciliation to
a dangerous extreme. [Sidenote: Procrastination and compromise, his
failings.]In compromise indeed, and in procrastination, lay the failure
of his Caliphate. With greater vigour, spirit, and determination, he
might have maintained the integrity of the empire and averted the
schism which for a time threatened the existence of Islam, and is felt
in its debilitating influences to the present day.
[Sidenote: Aly wise in counsel.]
Aly was wise in counsel, and many an adage and sapient proverb has
been attributed to him. But, like Solomon, his wisdom was more for
others than for himself. His career cannot be characterised otherwise
than as a failure. On the election of Abu Bekr, influenced probably by
Fâtima, who claimed and was denied a share in her father’s property,
Aly retired for a time into private life. Thereafter we find him
taking part in the counsels of Abu Bekr and his successors, and even
performing the functions of chief judicial officer. But he never
asserted the leading position, which, as the cousin and son-in-law
of the Prophet, might have been expected of him; nor is there aught
(excepting party-coloured and distorted tradition) to show that this
was due to any other cause than his own easy and inactive temperament.
[Sidenote: The blot upon his escutcheon.]There is one indelible blot
on the escutcheon of Aly--the flagrant breach of duty he was guilty
of towards his sovereign ruler. He had sworn allegiance to Othmân,
and by him he was bound to have stood in his last extremity. Instead,
he held ignobly aloof, while the Caliph fell a victim to red-handed
treason. Nor can the plea avail that he was himself in the hands of
the insurgents. Had there been a loyal will to help, there would have
been a ready way. In point of fact, his attitude gave colour to the
charge even of collusion.[567] And herein Aly must be held accountable
not only for a grave dereliction of duty, but for a fatal error, which
shook the stability of the Caliphate itself, as he was not long in
finding to his cost.
[Sidenote: Divine Imâmate, a late fiction.]
There is no trace whatever, in the history of those times, of the
extravagant claims made in later days for Aly and his family. Clearly
none of these were regarded during their lifetime with any respect
or veneration beyond that which was due to their relationship with
the Prophet.[568] On the contrary, we find that even in their own
capital and provinces, there prevailed towards them an utter want of
enthusiasm and loyalty, amounting at times to positive disaffection.
The fiction of the Divine _Imâmship_ was a reaction from the
tragedy at Kerbala (to be told below) and the cruel fate of the
Prophet’s descendants. And the superstition, fostered by Alyite and
Abbasside faction, soon formed a powerful lever which was skilfully
and unscrupulously used in the busy canvass to overthrow the Omeyyad
dynasty.