[4] The date ordinarily given as that of the Prophet’s death is the 12th Rabi I. See note p. 280, Life of Mahomet, vol. iv.
For the term ‘Companion,’ technically used to signify all who had a personal acquaintance with the Prophet, see ibid. p. 564.
The era of the Hegira was established by Omar, five or six years after the Prophet’s death. The first Moharram of the first year of the Hegira corresponds with 19th April, A.D. 622. The real hegira, or flight of Mahomet from Mecca, took place two months later (June 20). See ibid. p. 145, and C. de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 17.
[5] Al Siddîck; ibid. vol. ii. 102, 220. He was also called ‘the Sighing one,’ from his compassionate nature.
[6] Meaning a palm-trunk left for the beasts to come and rub themselves upon; a metaphor for a person much resorted to for counsel. Hobâb was the chief whom Mahomet employed to reconnoitre the enemy at Bedr.
[7] The Arabian mode of swearing fealty. The chief held out his hand, and the people one by one struck their hand flat upon it as they passed.
[8] It will be remembered that the native population of Medîna was divided into the Aus and Khazraj, and Sád belonged to the latter. Enmity and fighting had long prevailed between them before Mahomet’s arrival (Life of Mahomet, p. 119).
[9] The followers of Mahomet were divided into the Muhâjerîn, or Refugees from Mecca and elsewhere; and the Ansâr or Helpers, the citizens of Medîna (Ibid. p. 189).
[10] The tradition regarding Zobeir and Talha, perhaps arose from their attempt at the Caliphate, and refusal to acknowledge Aly, five and twenty years afterwards. As to Aly himself, the traditions vary. By some he is said to have been among the first to swear fealty to Abu Bekr. But the more general tradition is that he did not do so till Fâtima, who had a grudge against Abu Bekr for her father’s patrimony, died (Life of Mahomet, p. 516). There are other tales, but they all bear the stamp of Abbasside fabrication; such as of Omar threatening to burn Aly’s house over his head; Zobeir rushing out with a sword, &c. We are even told that Abu Sofiân taunted Aly and Abbâs with allowing an insignificant branch of the Coreish to seize the Caliphate from them; likened them to a hungry donkey tethered up, or to a tent-peg made only to be beaten; and offered to help them with horse and foot, but that Aly declined his offer. These stories are childish and apocryphal. There is absolutely nothing in the antecedents of Aly, or his subsequent history, to render it in the least probable that during the first two Caliphates, he advanced any claim whatever, or indeed was in a position to do so. It was not till the reign of Othmân that any idea arose of a superior right in virtue of his having been the cousin of Mahomet and husband of Fâtima.
It is said that as the people crowded to the hall, where Sád lay sick, to salute Abu Bekr, one cried out: ‘Have a care lest ye trample upon Sád, and kill him under foot.’ ‘The Lord kill him, as he deserveth!’ was the response of the heated Omar. ‘Softly, Omar!’ interposed Abu Bekr, ‘blandness and courtesy are better than curses and sharp words.’ Indeed, throughout this chapter Abu Bekr appears to great advantage.