Aly invades Northern Syria. Dzul Câda, A.H. XXXVI. April, A.D. 657.
Seeing that Muâvia was hopelessly alienated, Aly resolved no longer to delay the attack upon Syria, and he proclaimed an expedition accordingly. At first the people were slack in answering the call. But after a time, the Caliph succeeded in gathering together from Bussorah, Medâin, and Kûfa, an imposing force of 50,000 men. His plan was to march first by Upper Mesopotamia, and so to invade Syria from the north. A detachment was sent as an advance-guard up the western bank of the Euphrates, but meeting with active opposition there, it was forced to cross back again into Mesopotamia. Aly himself, with the main body, marched across the plain of Dura to Medâin, and thence up the Tigris. Then turning, short of Mosul, towards the west, he crossed the great desert of Mesopotamia, and, outstripping his advanced column, reached the Euphrates in its upper course at Ricca.[527] An unfriendly population lined the banks of the river; and it was not without sanguinary threats that Ashtar forced them to construct a bridge. The army crossed near Ricca; and then marching some little distance along the right bank, westward, in the direction of Aleppo, they met the Syrian outposts at Sûr.[528]
Muâvia, advancing, meets Aly, on field of Siffîn.
On learning Aly’s preparations, Muâvia lost no time in marshalling his forces, which greatly outnumbered the enemy, and, having no desert to cross, were soon to the front. Amru was in command, having his two sons, and his freedman Werdân, as lieutenants.[529] Aly, desirous of averting bloodshed, had given orders that, as soon as his troops came upon the enemy, they should halt, and, confining themselves to the defensive, avoid precipitating hostilities before opportunity had been given for friendly overture. The vanguards of the two armies spent the first few days in skirmishing. Ashtar challenged the Syrian officer to single combat; but the challenge was declined, and Ashtar told that, having imbrued his hands in the blood of the late Caliph, he could not claim the privileges of honourable warfare. When the main armies came in sight of each other, Aly found Muâvia so encamped as to cut him off from the river, and reduce his army to straits for water. He therefore brought on an engagement, in which Muâvia was forced to change his ground, and occupy the ill-starred field of Siffîn.[530a] Some days of inaction followed; after which Aly sent three of his chief men to demand that, for the good of the commonwealth, Muâvia should tender his allegiance. No mention is made of any offer (though perhaps it may be presumed) on the part of Aly to confirm Muâvia, in case of his submission, in the government of Syria. A scene ensued of fruitless recrimination. On the one hand, Muâvia demanded that the murderers of Othmân should be brought to justice; on the other, the demand was stigmatised as a mere cat’s-paw covering ambitious designs upon the Caliphate. This was resented as a base calumny by Muâvia. ‘Begone, ye lying scoundrels!’ he cried; ‘the sword shall decide between us;’ and, so saying, he drove them from his presence. Finding all attempts at compromise to be useless, Aly marshalled his army into seven or eight separate columns, each under a Bedouin chieftain of note. As many separate columns were similarly formed on the Syrian side. And every day one of these columns, taking the field in turn, was drawn up against a corresponding column of the other army. Desultory fighting, Dzul Hijj, A.H. XXXVI. May, A.D. 657.Desultory fighting in this singular way was kept up throughout the month, there being sometimes as many as two engagements in a single day. But the contest could not up to this time have been very earnest or severe, since little mention is made of sanguinary results.[530] On both sides they feared, we are told, to bring the whole forces out into a common battle, ‘lest the Moslems should be destroyed, root and branch,’ in the internecine struggle.
Truce during final month of A.H. XXXVII. June, A.D. 657.
A new year, the 37th of the Hegira, opened on the combatants, wearied by this endless and indecisive strife, and inclined to thoughts of peace. A truce was called, to last throughout Moharram, the first month of the year. The interval was spent in deputations; but these proved as fruitless as those which had gone before. Aly, influenced by the anti-Omeyyad faction around him, was not disposed even now to admit the injustice of Othmân’s having been put to death. When pressed upon the point by the Syrian envoys, he declined to commit himself. Fruitless negotiations.‘I will not say,’ was his evasive answer, ‘that he was wrongfully attacked, nor will I say that the attack was justified.’ ‘Then,’ answered the Syrians, ‘we shall fight against thee, and fight likewise against everyone else who refuseth to say that thy predecessor was not wrongfully put to death;’ and with these words they took their final leave. On his side, Muâvia declared to the messengers of Aly that nothing short of the punishment of the regicides would induce him to quit the field. ‘What?’ exclaimed some one; ‘wouldest thou put Ammâr to death?’ ‘And why not?’ answered Muâvia; ‘wherefore should the son of the bond-woman not suffer for having slain the freedman of Othmân?’[531] ‘Impossible,’ they cried; ‘where will ye stop? It were easier to bale out the floods of the Euphrates.’
[Renewal of hostilities, Safar, A.H. XXXVII. July, A.D. 657.]
So passed away the first month of the year. At the beginning of the second, Aly, seeing things unchanged, commenced hostilities afresh. He caused proclamation to be made along Muâvia’s front, recalling the Syrians from rebellion to their proper allegiance. But it only made them rally with the more enthusiasm around Muâvia; and a great company took an oath, girding themselves in token with their turbans, that they would defend him to the death. The warfare was, however, carried on at the first in the same indecisive style as before. Six leaders on Aly’s side took, in daily turn, the command against as many captains on the other side.[532] But though still desultory, the conflict was becoming severer and more embittered. Many single combats were fought. One of Aly’s sons went forth on the challenge of a son of Omar, but was recalled by his father.[533] And so eight or nine days passed, one differing little from the other, till the beginning of the second week, when Aly made up his mind to bring on a general, and, as he hoped, decisive battle. The night was spent by his followers in preparation, and (as the Abbasside historians relate) in recitation from the Scripture, and in prayer. Thus, ten days after the renewal of hostilities, both armies were drawn out in their entire array. Battle of Siffîn. 11 and 12 Safar; July 29 and 30.They fought the whole day, but the shades of evening fell, and none had got the better. The following morning, the combat was renewed, and with greater vigour. Aly posted himself in the centre with the flower of his troops from Medîna; the wings were composed separately, one of the warriors from Bussorah, the other of those from Kûfa. Muâvia had a pavilion pitched upon the field; and there, surrounded by five compacted lines of his sworn body-guard, watched the day. Amru, with a great weight of horse, bore down upon the Kûfa wing. Before the shock it gave way; and Aly, with his sons, was exposed to imminent peril, as well from the thick shower of arrows, as from a close encounter. Reproaching the men of Kûfa for their cowardice, the Caliph fought sword in hand, and with his ancient bravery withstood the charge. Ashtar, at the head of three hundred Readers[534]—the ‘Ghâzies’ of the day—led forward the other wing, which fell with fury upon Muâvia’s ‘turbaned’ body-guard. Four of its five ranks were already cut to pieces, when Muâvia, alarmed, bethought himself of flight, and had even called for his horse, when certain martial lines came to his lips, and he held his ground. Amru stood by him, ‘Courage to-day,’ he cried; ‘to-morrow victory.’ The fifth rank repelled the danger, and both sides again fought on equal terms. Feats of desperate bravery were displayed by both armies. Many men of rank were slain. On Aly’s side fell Hâshim, the hero of Câdesîya. Of even greater moment was the death of Ammâr, now over ninety years, and one of the leading regicides. As he saw Hâshim fall, he exclaimed to his fellows: ‘O Paradise! how close thou couchest beneath the arrow’s point and the falchion’s flash! O Hâshim! even now I see heaven opened, and black-eyed maidens, all bridally attired, clasping thee in their fond embrace!’[535] So, singing, and refreshing himself with his favourite draught of milk and water, the aged warrior, fired again with the ardour of youth, rushed into the enemy’s ranks, and met the envied fate. It had long been in everyone’s mouth both in town and camp, that Mahomet had once said to him: ‘By a godless and rebellious race, O Ammâr, thou shalt one day be slain;’ in other words (so the saying was interpreted), Ammâr would be killed fighting on the side of right. Thus his death, as it were, condemned the cause of the ranks against whom he fought; and so it spread dismay in Muâvia’s host. When Amru heard of it, he answered readily: ‘And who is it that hath killed Ammâr, but Aly the “rebellious,” that brought him hither?’ The clever repartee ran through the Syrian host, and did much at once to efface the evil omen.[536]
Battle still rages on morning of third day, 13 Safar, July 31.
The fighting this day was in real earnest, and the carnage on both sides great. Darkness failed to separate the combatants; and, like Câdesîya, that night was called a second ‘Night of Clangour.’ The morning broke on the two armies still in conflict. With emptied quivers they now fought hand to hand. Ashtar, the regicide, resolved on victory at whatever cost, continued to push the attack with unflinching bravery and persistence. Muâvia, disheartened, began to speak to Amru of proposing to Aly a judicial combat, Goliath-like, with a champion on either side. ‘Then go forth thyself, and challenge Aly,’ said Amru. ‘Not so,’ answered Muâvia; ‘I will not do that, for Aly ever slayeth his man, and then thou shouldest succeed me.’ Amru, indeed, well knew that this was not in Muâvia’s line; and it was no time for continuing grim pleasantry like this. Hostilities suspended for arbitration by Corân.All at once Amru bethought him of a stratagem. ‘Raise aloft the sacred leaves of the Corân,’ he cried; ‘if any refuse to abide thereby, it will sow discord amongst them; if they accept, it will be a reprieve from cruel slaughter.’ Muâvia caught at the words. And so forthwith they fixed the sacred scrolls on the points of their lances, and raising them aloft, called out along the line of battle: ‘The law of the Lord! The law of the Lord! Let it decide between us!’ No sooner heard, than the men of Kûfa leaped forward, re-echoing the cry: ‘The law of the Lord, that shall decide between us!’ As all were shouting thus with one accord, Aly stepped forth and expostulated with them: ‘It was the device,’ he cried, ‘of evil men; afraid of defeat, they sought their end by guile, and cloaked rebellion under love of the Word.’ It was all in vain. To every argument they answered (and the ‘Readers’ loudest of all): ‘We are called to the Book, and we cannot decline it.’ At last, in open mutiny, they threatened the unfortunate Caliph, that, unless he agreed, they would all desert him, drive him over to the enemy, or serve him as they had served Othmân. Seeing that further opposition would be futile, Aly said: ‘Stay wild and treasonable words. Obey and fight. But if ye will rebel, do as ye list.’ ‘We will not fight,’ they cried; ‘recall Ashtar from the field.’ Ashtar, thus summoned, at the first refused. ‘We are gaining a great victory,’ he said, ‘I will not come;’ and he turned to fight again. But the tumult increased, and Aly sent a second time to say: ‘Of what avail is victory when treason rageth? Wouldst thou have the Caliph murdered, or delivered over to the enemy?’ Ashtar, on hearing this, unwillingly returned, and a fierce altercation ensued between him and the angry soldiery. ‘Ye were fighting,’ he said, ‘but yesterday for the Lord, and the choicest among you lost their lives. What is it but that ye now acknowledge yourselves in the wrong, and the Martyrs gone to hell?’ ‘Nay,’ they answered; ‘it is not so. Yesterday we fought for the Lord; to-day, also for the Lord, we stay the fight.’ On this, Ashtar upbraided them as ‘traitors, cowards, hypocrites, and villains.’ In return, they reviled him, and struck his charger with their whips. Aly interposed. The tumult was stayed. And Asháth, chief of the Beni Kinda, was sent to ask Muâvia ‘what his precise meaning in raising the Corân aloft might be.’ ‘It is this,’ he sent answer back, ‘that we should return, both you and we, to the will of the Lord, as set forth in the Book. Each side shall name an Umpire, and the verdict shall be binding.’ Aly’s army shouted assent. The unfortunate Caliph was forced to the still deeper humiliation of appointing as his arbiter a person who had deserted him. The soldiery cried out for Abu Mûsa, the temporising Governor of Kûfa who had been deposed for want of active loyalty. ‘This man,’ answered Aly, ‘did but lately leave us and flee; and not till after several months I pardoned him. Neither hath he now been fighting with us. Here is a worthy representative, the son of Abbâs, the Prophet’s uncle; choose him as your Umpire.’ ‘As well name thyself,’ they answered rudely. ‘Then take Ashtar.’ ‘What!’ said the Bedouin chiefs in the same rough imperious strain, ‘the man that hath set the world on fire! None for us but Abu Mûsa.’ It was a bitter choice for Aly, but he had no alternative. The Syrian arbiter was Amru, for whose deep and crafty ways Abu Mûsa was no match.[537] He presented himself in the Caliph’s camp, and the agreement was put in writing. Deed of arbitration, 13 Safar, A.H. XXXVII. July 31, A.D. 665.As dictated from Aly’s side, it ran thus: ‘In the name of the Lord Most Merciful! This is what hath been agreed upon between the Commander of the Faithful, and ——’ ‘Stay!’ cried Amru (like the Coreish to the Prophet at Hodeibia); ‘Aly is your Commander, but he is not ours.’ Again the helpless Caliph had to give way, and the names were written down of the contracting parties as simply ‘Aly and Muâvia.’[538] The document went on to say that both sides bound themselves by the judgment of the Corân; and, where the Corân was silent, by the acknowledged precedents of Islam. To the Umpires, the guarantee of both Aly and Muâvia was given of safety for themselves and for their families; and the promise of the people that their judgment should be followed. On their part, the Umpires swore that they would judge righteously, so as to stay hostilities and reconcile the Faithful. The decision was to be delivered after six months, or later if the Umpires saw cause for delay, and at some neutral spot midway between Kûfa and Damascus. Meanwhile hostilities should be mutually suspended.[539] The writing, having been duly executed and signed, was numerously witnessed by leading chiefs on either side. Ashtar alone refused: ‘Never again,’ he said, ‘should I acknowledge this to be mine own right hand, were it to touch a deed the like of this.’