[464] For traditions regarding Mahomet’s ring, see Life of Mahomet, pp. 544 and 596. The despatches sent by him to the several kings in the eighth year of the Hegira were attested by it. The most received account is that the legend on it was ‘Mahomet, Prophet of God’ (Mohammed Rasûl Allah, in three lines, beginning from the bottom). It was used for all documents requiring a seal, by Mahomet and his successors. The new ring disappeared at the time of Othmân’s assassination, and, like the original, was never seen again.
[465] One of the four wives who survived him was Omm al Banîn, daughter of the famous freebooter, Oyeina. Othmân had thirteen children, and (so far as we read) no issue by slave-girls, which, looking to the habits of the time, is somewhat remarkable.
[466] The name of this demagogue was Abdallah ibn Saba, but he was usually called Ibn Sauda, and was supposed to come from Yemen. It is notable that this first sect of Alyites (if it can be so called) was founded by a Jewish convert. What led him (if the story of his teaching be not altogether a proleptic fiction of tradition) to magnify Aly, who had hitherto put forth no claim, nor indeed at any time dreamed of the extravagant pretensions in store for him after his death, it is difficult to understand. Nor did these transcendental notions regarding Aly gain any ground whatever till a much later period. Ibn Sauda had evidently imbibed some extreme notions on the dignity of prophets. ‘Strange,’ he is reported to have said;—‘strange that men should believe in the second coming of the Messiah, and not in that of Mahomet.’ The idea, we are told, was inspired by the verse in Sura xxviii. v. 84, ‘Verily, he who hath given thee the Corân will surely bring thee back again;’ which, of course, referred only to Mahomet’s returning again to Mecca. Indeed, the whole account of this man’s teaching is obscure and uncertain; and the Alyite notices of it may be altogether anticipatory and unreal.
[467] The youth and his father belonged to the Beni Asad. On hearing of the riot, Toleiha (the quondam prophet), chief of that tribe, hastened with a body of his men to the palace for their rescue; but found that both had escaped half dead.
Another version is, that on Saîd’s giving expression to the sentiment about ‘the Sawâd being the Garden of the Coreish,’ the whole company sprang to their feet and shouted excitedly: ‘Nay, but the Lord hath given the Sawâd to us and to our swords.’ On this, the captain of the body-guard retorted angrily at their rude reception of his master’s words; whereupon they set upon him and left him half dead. The inflammable material was all around, and wanted only the spark to explode. This unfortunate speech about ‘the Garden of the Coreish’ was in the mouths of the disaffected all through the insurrection.
[468] The chief amongst them was Mâlik al Ashtar, of whom we shall hear more as the most sanguinary amongst the traitors; Zeid ibn Sohan; Jondob (already noticed); Orwa; and Thâbit ibn Cays. Yezîd, a brother of the last, another chief leader of sedition, was not sent. Muâvia wrote to Othmân that they were an ignorant crew, bent on sedition, and on getting possession of the property of the Zimmies, that is of the subject races, whose rights of occupancy had been recognised as the hereditary tenants of the Sawâd—a policy, as we have seen, firmly upheld by Omar throughout Chaldæa, and which it was one object of the malcontents to upset. According to one account, the exiles were sent back by Muâvia, after expressing penitence, at once to Kûfa—where, however, resuming their factious courses, Othmân, as a last resource, despatched them again to Syria, this time to Abdallah, Khâlid’s son, at Hims. Muâvia is throughout represented as upholding the claims of the Coreish against the Arab faction, showing thus the real aim of the ringleaders.
A story is told that the exiles, enraged at the menaces of Muâvia, leaped upon him and seized him by the beard; whereupon, shaking them off, he warned them that they knew little of the loyal spirit of the Syrians, who, if they only saw what they were doing, would be so enraged that it would be out of his power to save their lives.
[469] Only two or three names are given of those who kept aloof from seditious action: as Zeid ibn Thâbit (the collector of the Corân); Hassân, the poet, his brother; Káb ibn Mâlik, and Abu Oseid—all natives of Medîna; so that the whole body of Refugees (the Coreish), excepting Othmân’s immediate kinsmen, must have joined the treasonable faction.
[470] No doubt Aly spoke the truth. Yet Othmân’s weakness towards the seditious populace was a far greater peril than his tender treatment of his governors.
[471] I have given all this as I find it in tradition, but not without some misgiving; especially of the part about Merwân, whom, as the evil genius of Othmân, the Abbasside writers are never weary of abusing.