[530a]The tendency of tradition, which continues to be cast, as a rule, in an Abbasside mould, is, throughout, to speak disparagingly of Muâvia, and eulogistically of Aly. Thus Aly is represented as sending Sassâa to ask Muâvia’s leave for his army to get water from the river until they had had the opportunity of settling their differences. Amru was for yielding to the request; but Muâvia, counselled by Welîd and Abu Sarh, declined. A skirmish ensued, and the Syrians were beaten from their ground. Then Aly’s people wished to refuse water to the Syrians; but Aly was more generous, and allowed them to take what water they wanted.
Siffîn was to the west of Ricca, about half-way to Balîs (one of Chesney’s steamer stations), opposite the fort of Jabor or Dansa, and about 100 miles from the coast. It lay south-east of Aleppo, and north-east of Hims.
[530]In the Persian version of Tabari, numbers are said to have been slain every day; but no details nor any names are given, so the casualties could not have been very serious. Blood was not yet inflamed.
It is significant that Aly’s deputations to Muâvia, as well as the commanders of his columns (whose names are given), were almost exclusively Bedouin chiefs; that is to say, there were hardly any of the Coreish or of the citizens of Medîna amongst them, excepting Cays, the ex-Governor of Egypt. Muâvia, on the contrary, had many such around him, as Obeidallah son of Omar, Abdallah son of Khâlid, Habîb ibn Maslama, &c.
[531] Ammâr, the ex-Governor of Kûfa, was son of the bond-woman Sommeya. (See above, p. 268.) Othmân’s freedman was slain in the first onslaught of the conspirators. (Ibid. p. 340.) Ammâr’s life was forfeit, they meant to say, for the lesser crime, but much more for the assassination of the Caliph.
[532] Thus the first day Ashtar was in command against Habîb ibn Maslama; then Hâshim ibn Otba (the hero of Câdesîya) against Abul Aûr; on the third day Ammâr against one of Amru’s sons, and so on. After six days the turn came round again to Ashtar and Habîb. But it all reads somewhat too made up.
[533] Mohammed son of Aly was challenged by Obeidallah son of Omar. When Aly saw this, he put spurs to his horse and would have taken his son’s place, whereupon the latter returned to the ranks, saying, ‘Why didst thou not leave me alone, and I should have slain my man? And how couldst thou, my father, offer single combat to such a scoundrel, and the son of one (Omar) who was so inferior to thee?’ ‘Hush!’ said Aly, ‘speak nought of his father but good.’ Many instances are given of brothers and near relatives meeting each other in conflicting ranks, and turning aside from the fight in consequence;—so much was society, even to the domestic circle, rent by the civil war.
[534] Readers or Reciters of the Corân (corâa), those, namely, who, having it by heart, were able to repeat it from beginning to end. They were the most fanatical part of the Moslem forces, answering to the Ghâzies of our own day.
[535] Other versions are given of Ammâr’s last words by the Secretary of Wâckidy, as this: ‘The thirsty man longeth for water; and here, close by, it welleth up. Descend to the spring (death) and drink. This is the joyful day of meeting with friends, with Mahomet and his Companions.’ The various versions all portend the same wild fanatical spirit which influenced the Moslem armies in the first battles against the infidels, and which was now being imported equally into the civil war against their own brethren in the faith.
[536] This curious saying, attributed to the Prophet (the same which alarmed Zobeir at the Battle of the Camel, see p. 363), is thus explained. When Mahomet first arrived in Medîna and began to build the Great Mosque there, his followers all put their shoulders to the work, and began to carry loads of stone, &c. upon their heads. Ammâr was laden with a double burden, and Mahomet, seeing him fatigued, began to blow off the dust from his head, saying kindly to him, ‘Ammâr! a cruel and unjust people will surely slay thee;’ meaning apparently that ‘the people will surely cause thy death by making thee carry such loads.’ Others attribute the saying to the similar occasion when Medîna was besieged, and the citizens dug the great Ditch, carrying away the loads of earth. Whatever the occasion, the saying was treasured up, and when the civil war broke out, was accepted, and ever after quoted by their enemies, as conclusive evidence that the Omeyyads were ‘the rebellious people’ foretold by Mahomet.