[456] Masûdy, an unprejudiced witness, dwells on this as one of the causes of demoralisation and disloyalty now setting in so rapidly, and he gives some remarkable instances. Zobeir had 1,000 slaves, male and female, and 1,000 horses. At all the great cities he had palaces, and the one at Bussorah was still to be seen in the fourth century. His landed estate in Irâc was rated at 1,000 golden pieces a day. Abd al Rahmân had 1,000 camels, 10,000 sheep, and 100 horses, and he left property valued at between three and four hundred thousand dinars. Zeid left gold and silver in great ingots, and had land valued at 10,000 dinars.
The Coreishite nobles built themselves grand palaces in Mecca and Medîna, and in their environs such as Jorf and Ackîck. Othmân himself had a splendid palace at Medîna, with marble pillars, walls of costly stucco, grand gates and gardens; he is also said to have amassed vast treasures, though we are not told what came of them after his overthrow.
Masûdy contrasts painfully all this luxury at home and abroad with the frugal severity that prevailed even in the Caliphate of Omar, who grudged to spend sixteen dinars on the pilgrimage to Mecca.
[457] Quoting from the Corân (Sura ix. 36), where these words are applied to Christian priests and monks; but Abu Dzarr gives them here a more general application. See Life of Mahomet, p. 470; and Sprenger’s Leben des Mohammeds, vol. ii. p. cvi.
[458] Attempts are made by Abbasside tradition to show that Abu Dzarr was driven into opposition by the tyranny of Muâvia’s rule in Syria, and by divers ungodly practices at Medîna, which he denounced as certain to bring down judgment on the city. But Ibn al Athîr justly doubts this, and distinctly says that his preaching tended to excite the poor against the rich. Abu Dzarr’s doctrines were based on the equality of all believers; and the danger lay in their popularity with the socialistic faction which decried the pretensions of the Coreish. Before Muâvia, he reasoned thus: ‘Riches, ye say, are the Lord’s; and thereby ye frustrate the people’s right therein; for the Lord hath given them to his people.’ ‘Out upon thee!’ replied Muâvia; ‘what is this but a quibble of words? Are we not all of us the Lord’s people, and the riches belong unto the same?’ Tradition dwells on the poverty of Abu Dzarr’s life at Rabadza to add point to Othmân’s unkind treatment. The Beni Ghifâr, his tribe, are said to have resented his ill-treatment by joining the insurgents when they appeared.
[459] On this subject historians say very little; and it is chiefly from incidental notices in fragments of early poetry that Von Kremer has so ably traced the inroads of profligacy and the practice of forbidden pastimes—music, wine, and gambling. The brief notice of Ibn al Athîr on this matter is as follows: ‘The prevalence of a worldly spirit first showed itself at Medîna in the flying of doves and shooting with pellets (with a gaming aim); and in the eighth year of his Caliphate Othmân appointed an officer to stop the same, who clipped the birds’ wings, and broke the cross-bows.’ A citizen was rebuked by the Caliph for playing at ‘oranges’ (apparently some game of chance); and he thereupon got angry and joined the hostile party. The anti-Omeyyad tendency of the tradition on this subject is evident from Welîd (the drunkard) being named as the person employed by the Caliph to administer the rebuke.
[460] As enlarged by Othmân, the Mosque was 160 cubits long, and 150 broad. As in Omar’s time, it had six gates for entrance.
[461] Othmân defended his innovations as based on the practice of the pilgrims from Yemen, who recited additional prayers on behalf of their distant homes; and he too (he said) had a property at Tâyif, as well as at Mecca. The matter seems at first sight altogether insignificant. But in an established ritual, the smaller the change, the greater oftentimes the scandal and indignation, as we need not go far to see. And although no point of doctrine was apparently involved, yet the practice of the Prophet had come to be regarded as an obligatory precedent in the commonest matters of daily life.
[462] For Abu Hodzeifa, see Life of Mahomet, p. 65. He left his infant son to be brought up by Othmân, who faithfully discharged the trust. When he grew up he asked for a government or military command, but was told that he was not yet fit for it, and must prove his capacity in the wars of Egypt and Africa. He never forgot the slight, and was active in the insurgent ranks. Various other examples are given of personal enmity, such as citizens alienated by the reprimand for gaming, a chief imprisoned for the ill-treatment of a Christian tribe, whose favourite hound he had killed, and so on.
[463] The well was at the distance of two miles from the city. Another well, called Rûma, was bought by Othmân, during the Prophet’s lifetime, from the Jews for the use of the Moslems. He first purchased the half title, the well being used day about by either party; but on their alternate days the Mussulmans emptied the well of enough water to last them two days. Whereupon the Jewish owner insisted on Othmân’s purchasing the entire right, which he did; and Mahomet promised him a fountain in Paradise for the same.