Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

18 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE.
teristics of 'Aly : the rest is in the fond imagination
of his biographers. As to Hasan, his son, the latest
historian of Islam describes him as a voluptuary whom
luxury reconciled to the loss of a crown, and in whose
eyes women and wealth outweighed the ignominy of
a purchased abdication. The story of his being poi-
soned by command of the Khalif Yezid, son of the
hated Mo'awiya, appears to be a fable. Hasan died,
like any common Muslim, in his bed, and was no
martyr after all. The same authority brands Hoseyn
as an adventurer who had laid himself open to the
charge of perjury and high treason. It is possible to
exaggerate as much on one side as the other, and Pro-
fessor Dozy is perhaps as unfair to the House of 'Aly
as Mr. Arnold is unduly partial. The truth seems to
lie between—in the view which accords to 'Aly and his
family all the merits of a worthy but persecuted line
of pretenders to a throne they were ill qualified to fill,
but which cannot grant them the aureoles of saints
and martyrs.
Round this simple story of rival families, impotent
claims, and cruel suppression, has grown up a won-
derful crop of fables, by which the family of 'Aly, and
especially Hoseyn, have been credited with quahties
almost divine. Unable to believe that their Imam was
conquered and killed against his will, the Shi'a have
made the whole tragedy a predestined case of vica-
rious sacrifice. Hoseyn is foretold as a victim in the
^ cause of Islam. " He shall die for the sake of my
people," says Mohammad of his grandson, according
to these legends, and the " Passion Play " is full of