Aly, as the reader will suppose, was not content with heaping imprecations on his antagonist. He resolved on the immediate renewal of hostilities. But he had other work before him first in dealing with the fanatics nearer home.
Hostile attitude of the theocractic faction. Ramadhân, A.H. XXXVII. Jan. A.D. 658.
Ever since they had broken up their camp at Harôra, these, instead of settling down in sentiments of loyalty and peace, had been gaining in aggressive force and stubbornness. There should (such was their cry) be no oath of fealty but to the Lord alone, the Mighty and the Glorious. To swear allegiance either to Aly or Muâvia was in derogation of that great name. ‘Ye are both of you,’ they would say, ‘coursing along, neck and neck, in the race of apostasy: the Syrians run after Muâvia whether the way be right or wrong, and ye swear for Aly through black and white. It is nought but blasphemy.’ So they formulated their creed into one short sentence: No judgment, but the Lord’s alone; and this they insolently flung in Aly’s teeth.[549] In vain the Caliph argued, as he had done before, that the Arbitration had been forced upon him by themselves. ‘It is true,’ they would readily reply; ‘but we have repented of that lapse; and thou must repent of it likewise, or else we shall fight against thee; and if so be that we are slain, we shall meet our Lord with joy.’ Aly’s forbearance.Aly yet hoped to gain them over. He bore with their seditious talk; and in a public address in the Great Mosque at Kûfa, he declared his intention of treating them with forbearance. ‘They should have free access to the mosques for prayer. If they joined his army, they should share the booty like the rest. So long as they refrained themselves from any overt act of disloyalty, he would use no force of arms against them.’
The Khârejites march to Nehrwân. Shawwâl, A.H. XXXVII. March, A.D. 658.
Instead of softening the fanatics, this moderation only tended to embolden them. When the Umpires’ judgment was announced, they were elated at a result which in their eyes amply justified their secession at Siffîn. They held frequent meetings in secret, and resolved on raising the Divine standard. They looked for heavenly interposition; but even if they perished, it would be in a righteous cause, sure to triumph in the end; they would, at any rate, be protesting against a wicked world, and become inheritors of a blessed futurity. In the month following the Arbitration, they began accordingly, in concert with the brethren who sympathised with them at Bussorah, to leave their homes by stealth. The party from Bussorah, five hundred strong, was pursued by the governor, Ibn Abbâs; but they effected their escape, and joined the bands which in greater force had issued forth from Kûfa. Secular power, and the dignity and pomp of this life, were abhorrent from these Covenanters’ creed; and it was only after many had declined the dangerous pre-eminence, and then simply as a temporary expedient to meet the present necessity, that a chief was prevailed on to accept the supreme command. The design was to occupy the city of Medâin, upon the Tigris, and there, under a Council of Representatives, establish theocratic rule as a model to the ungodly cities around. But the governor had timely warning, and repulsed the attempt. They passed on, and crossed the river farther up in various bodies, and, appointing Nehrwân as their rendezvous, assembled there to the number of 4,000.
Aly orders levy for Syrian campaign.
Aly did not at first recognise the serious character and bearing of the movement. The number of the fanatics was comparatively insignificant; and he hoped that, when they saw their former comrades in arms marching against the graceless Syrians, they would not hesitate again to join his standard. So he mounted the pulpit and harangued the men of Kûfa. He reprobated the Umpires, because they had cast the Book of the Lord, equally with the precedent of the Prophet, behind their backs. Both were apostates, rejected of the Lord, of his Prophet, and of all good men. ‘Wherefore,’ he concluded, ‘we must begin to fight our battle again at the point where, on the eve of victory, we were forced to leave it off. Prepare then to march for Syria, and be ready in your camp without the city, by the second day of the coming week.’ And summons the theocrats, who refuse to join him.Then he indited a despatch to the fanatics at Nehrwân. It was couched in terms similar to his address, and ended thus: ‘Now, therefore, when ye have read this, return forthwith and join the army. I am marching against the common enemy, yours and ours alike; and we have come back again to the state of things when aforetime at Siffîn ye were fighting by my side.’ In reply Aly received an insulting message: ‘If he acknowledged his apostasy and repented thereof, then they would see whether anything could be arranged between them; otherwise they cast him off as an ungodly heretic.’ The stiff-necked theocrats were thereupon, for the present, left to their own devices, and the business of raising levies for Syria proceeded with. Aly marches for Syria.But little enthusiasm was anywhere displayed in the cause of Aly. Of the 60,000 fighting men drawing stipendiary allowances in Bussorah, 3,000 were with difficulty got together. At Kûfa, after vain appeal to the loyalty of the city, a conscription was ordered through the heads of clans; and thus at length an army of threescore and five thousand men of every rank and class was brought into the field.[550]
But is diverted by the excesses of the fanatic host.
With this imposing force, Aly had already commenced his march on Syria, when tidings reached him that the fanatics were committing horrid and cold-blooded outrages in the country round about their camp.[551] A messenger was sent to make inquiry; but he too was put to death by the insurgents. The tidings of their proceedings became more and more alarming, and the men of Kûfa demanded to be led against them; ‘for how,’ said they, ‘can we leave such outlaws unpunished and at large behind us, and our homes exposed to their unlicensed cruelties?’ Aly himself, seeing that this must be done, changed his course eastward, crossed the Tigris, and marched against the fanatics. When now near to Nehrwân, he sent a messenger forward, to demand that the murderers should be delivered up. ‘Surrender these to justice,’ he said, ‘and ye shall be left alone, until the Lord grant us victory in Syria, and then haply He shall have turned your hearts again toward us.’ They replied that ‘they were all equally responsible for what had passed, and that the blood of the ungodly heretics they had slain was lawful to them.’ A parley ensued, in which the Caliph through his captains expostulated with the misguided fanatics, and offered quarter to all who should come over to his army, or retire peaceably to their homes. The fanatics at Nehrwân dispersed and slain.Some obeyed the call and came over; 500 went off to a neighbouring Persian town, and many more dispersed in other directions to their homes at Kûfa or elsewhere. Eighteen hundred remained upon the field, martyrs to the theocratic creed. With the wild battle cry, On to Paradise! they rushed upon the Kûfa lances, and were slain to a man. Aly’s loss was trifling.[552]
The Khârejites again appear in the field. A.H. XXXVII. A.D. 658.