CHAPTER XLV.
ASSASSINATION OF ALY.
A.H. XL. A.D. 661.
Three Khârejite fanatics conspire to assassinate Aly, Muâvia, and Amru. A.H. XL. A.D. 661.
The theocratic Separatists were sorely troubled at the prospects of Islam. It was not that raids and robbery, dissension and strife, had been the order of the day. That they could bear, for bloodshed was more tolerable than apostasy. To the Khârejite, the cessation of war brought with it no peace of mind. A settled government was the ruin of his hopes. Aly having come to terms with Muâvia, there was no longer room to expect that the ungodly kingdoms of the earth would be overthrown, and the reign of righteousness established in their stead. Thus the theocratic party brooded over the blood that had been shed in vain upon the plain of Nehrwân and other fields of battle, and for the present abandoned themselves to despair. Many took refuge from the godless tyranny (as they called it) prevailing all around, in the sacred precincts of the Hejâz, where they might lament freely with one another over the miserable fate of Islam. As three of these thus mourned together, a gleam of hope suddenly shot across their path. ‘Our blood need not have been thus shed in vain; let each of us kill one of the three oppressors of the Faithful; Islam may yet again be free, and the reign of the Lord appear.’ It was one of the band of regicides that spoke; and so, as in the case of Othmân, but under another guise and urged by bolder hopes, the three again conspired against the State. The fatal resolve once taken, details were speedily arranged. Aly and Muâvia both must fall; and Amru also, not only as the godless Arbitrator, but also as the likeliest successor to the throne left vacant by the other two. Each was to dispose of his fellow, as he presided at the morning service, on the same Friday when, in the month of Ramadhân, the cathedral Mosques of Kûfa, Damascus, and Fostât would be thronged with fasting worshippers. They dipped their swords in a powerful poison; and separated from one another, swearing that they would either fulfil the task or perish in the attempt. Amru escapes.Amru escaped. He was sick that day, and the captain of his guard, presiding in the Mosque at prayers, fell a victim in his stead.[561] Muâvia wounded, but recovers.At Damascus, Muâvia was not so fortunate.[562] The blow fell upon him, and was near to being fatal. His physician declared that his life could be saved only by the cautery, or by a potent draught that would deprive him of the hope of further progeny. He shrank from the cautery, and chose the draught. The remedy was effectual, and he survived.
Aly attacked by assassins in the Mosque of Kûfa.
At Kûfa things turned out differently. The conspirator Ibn Muljam, one of the Egyptian regicides, was able there to gain two desperate accomplices from the Beni Taym. The tribe, deeply imbued with the fanaticism of the day, had suffered severely in the massacre of Nehrwân, and ever since had nursed its resentment against the Caliph. Ibn Muljam loved Catâm, a beautiful maid of the same tribe, who having on that fatal day lost her father, her brother, and other near relatives, was roused thereby to a savage ardour. ‘Bring me,’ said the maid to her lover, ‘the head of Aly as my dower; if thou escapest alive, thou shalt enjoy me as thy guerdon here; if thou perish, thou shalt enjoy better than me above,’ So she introduced him to Werdân, a warrior burning with the same spirit of revenge, and also to another accomplice, named Shuhîb, On the appointed morning, the latter, with Ibn Muljam, lay in wait on either side of the door leading into the crowded Mosque; if their blows should fail, Werdân, stationed outside, was in the confusion to rush upon Aly, and complete the work. At the time appointed, the Caliph entered the Mosque calling aloud as usual, To prayers, ye people! To prayers! Immediately he was set upon on either hand. Shuhîb’s sword fell upon the lintel; but Ibn Muljam wounded the Caliph severely on the head and side. He was seized. The other two fled; one was cut to pieces, the other escaped in the tumult. Aly was carried into the palace, but retained strength sufficient to question the assassin, who was brought before him. Ibn Muljam declared boldly, that the deed had been forty days in contemplation; and during all that time he had prayed without ceasing to the Lord, ‘that the Wickedest of mankind might meet his fate.’ ‘Then,’ replied Aly, ‘that must have been thyself.’ So saying, he turned to his son, Hasan, and bade him keep the assassin in close custody: ‘If I die, his life is forfeited to justice, and he shall be slain for the deed he hath done; but see,’ said he, ‘that thou mutilate him not, for that was forbidden by the Prophet.’ During the day Omm Kolthûm went into the assassin’s cell and cursed him, adding, what no doubt she was fain to believe, ‘My father shall yet live.’ ‘Then, Lady,’ replied 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 a wound from it.’
It soon became evident that the wound indeed was mortal. They asked the Caliph whether if he died, it was his will that Hasan, his eldest son, should succeed to the throne. Aly’s death. 17 Ramadhân, A.H. XL. Jan. 25, A.D. 661.Still true to the elective principle, Aly answered: ‘I do not command this, neither do I forbid it. See ye to it.’ Then he called Hasan and Hosein to his bedside, and counselled them to be steadfast in piety and resignation to the will of God, and to be kind to their younger brother, the son of his Hanifite wife. After that he wrote his testament, and continuing to repeat the name of the Lord to the end, so breathed his last. When they had performed the funeral obsequies, Hasan arraigned the assassin before him. Nothing daunted, Ibn Muljam said: ‘I made a covenant with the Lord before the holy House at Mecca, that I would slay both Aly and Muâvia. 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 Hasan, ‘not before thou hast tasted of the fire.’ Ibn Muljam put to death.He was put to death, and the body, tied up in a sack, was committed to the flames.[563]
Aly’s burial-place unknown.
Tradition, strange to say, is silent, and opinion uncertain, as to where the body of Aly lies. Some believe that he was buried in the cathedral Mosque at Kûfa, others in the palace.[564] Certainly, his tomb was never, in early times, the object of any care or veneration. The same indifference attached to his memory throughout the realm of Islam, as had attached to his person during life, and it was not till that generation had passed away that the sentiment of reverence and regard for the husband of the Prophet’s daughter, and father of his only surviving progeny, began to show itself.
His family.
Aly died about sixty years of age. His troubled and contested reign had lasted but four years and nine months. For a time (like Mahomet himself) he had been content with a single wife, the Prophet’s daughter Fâtima, by whom he had three sons and two daughters, the progenitors of the Synd race—the nobility of Islam.[565] After she died, he took many women into his harem, both free and servile; by whom he had, in all, eleven sons and fifteen daughters. Aly was a tender-hearted father. In his old age, a little girl was born to him, with whose prattle he would beguile his troubles; for he had her always on his knee, and doted on her with a special love.[566]