The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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CHAPTER XXXI
THE OUTLOOK DARKENS
34-35 A.H. 655 A.D.
'Othman The unhappy Caliph was now hurried on, by the rapid
treated wuh
contumely.
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course of events, helplessly to his end. 'Abd ar-Rahman,
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who, no doubt, felt
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himself responsible from the share he
took in the nomination of 'Othman, was about this time
removed by death. But even he had been dissatisfied
and one of the first open denunciations of 'Othman's
unscrupulous disregard of law,—small it might be, but
significant,— is attributed to him. A high-bred camel,
part of the tithes of a Bedawi tribe, was presented by the
Caliph, as a rarity, to one of his kinsfolk. 'Abd ar-Rahman,
scandalised at the misappropriation of what belonged to
charity, laid hands upon the animal, slaughtered it, and
divided the flesh among the poor. The personal reverence
attaching heretofore to the " Successor of the Prophet of
the Lord," gave place to slight and disregard. In the streets,
'Othman was greeted with cries that he should depose
Ibn 'Amir and the godless Ibn abi Sarh, and put away
Merwan, his chief adviser and confidant. He had the countenance
of none excepting his immediate kinsmen, and
reliance upon them only aggravated the hostile clamour.
'Othman The conspirators had hitherto burrowed underground,
sends
Now their machinations coming to light, rumours of imtest
feeling pending treason began to float abroad. The better affected
in provinces,
^lasses throughout the Empire felt uneasy ; alarm crept
over all hearts. Letters were continually received at
Medina asking what these ominous sounds meant, and
what catastrophe was now at hand. The chief men of
Medina kept coming to the Caliph's court for tidings; but,
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