The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.D. 66[] DEATH OF 'ALT 287
believed, ^ My father shall yet live." "Then, Lad}-," replied A.H. 40.
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 its wound."
It soon became evident that the wound indeed was Death of 'All,
mortal. They asked the Caliph whether, if he died, it was ll^^'^f^^'^'
his will that his son should succeed to the throne. Still 661 a.d.
true to the elective principle, 'Ali answered :
" I do not
command it, neither do I forbid. See ye to it." Then
he called Al- Hasan and Al-Hosein to his bedside, and
counselled them to be steadfast in piety and resignation, and
kind to their younger brother, the son of his Hanefite wife.
After that he wrote his testament, and continuing to repeat
the name of the Lord, so breathed his last. When they had
performed the funeral obsequies, Al- Hasan arraigned the
assassin before him. Nothing daunted, Ibn Muljam said :
Ibn Muljam
" I made a covenant with the Lord before the Holy House at ^"
Mecca, that I would slay both 'All and Mu'awiya. 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 Al-Hasan, " not before
thou hast tasted of the fire." He was put to death, and
the body, tied up in a sack, was committed to the flames.
'All died sixty years of age. His troubled and contested 'All's wives
reign had lasted but four years and nine months. In his
youth he was one of the most distinguished heroes in
the early wars of Islam. But after the Prophet's death
he took no part in any of the military expeditions. In his
later years he became heavy and obese, and his bald and
portly figure was a subject of ridicule to his enemies. For
a time he was content with a single wife, the Prophet's
daughter P'atima, by whom he had three sons ^ and two
daughters, the progenitors of the Seiyid race—the nobility
of Islam. After she died, he took many women into his
Jianui, both free and servile, by whom he had, in all,
eleven sons and fifteen daughters.
'Ali was a tender-hearted
father. In his later years a little girl was born to him,
with whose prattle he would beguile his troubles ;
he had
her always on his knee, and doted on her with a special
'
One of these died in infancy; the other two were Al-l.Iasan and
Al-Hoscin.
^"'^ children,