[FN#276] The seditions in Kufah were mainly caused by the wilful nepotism of Caliph Othman bin Asákir which at last brought about his death. His main quality seems to have been personal beauty: "never was seen man or woman of fairer face than he and he was the most comely of men:" he was especially famed for beautiful teeth which in old age he bound about with gold wire. He is described as of middling stature, large- limbed, broad shouldered, fleshy of thigh and long in the fore-arm which was hairy. His face inclined to yellow and was pock-marked; his beard was full and his curly hair, which he dyed yellow, fell below his ears. He is called "writer of the Koran" from his edition of the M.S., and "Lord of the two Lights" because he married two of the Prophet's daughters, Rukayyah and Umm Kulthum; and, according to the Shi'ahs who call him Othman-i-Lang or" limping Othman," he vilely maltreated them. They justify his death as the act of an Ijmá' al-Muslimín, the general consensus of Moslems which ratifies "Lynch law." Altogether Othman is a mean figure in history.
[FN#277] "Nár" (fire) is a word to be used delicately from its connection with Gehenna. You say, e.g. "bring me a light, a coal (bassah)" etc.; but if you say "bring me fire! " the enemy will probably remark "He wanteth fire even before his time!" The slang expression would be "bring the sweet." (Pilgrimage i. 121.)
[FN#278] Omar is described as a man of fair complexion, and very ruddy, but he waxed tawny with age, when he also became bald and grey. He had little hair on the cheeks but a long mustachio with reddish ends. In stature he overtopped the people and was stout as he was tall. A popular saying of Mohammed's is, "All (very) long men are fools save Omar, and all (very) short men are knaves save Ali." The Persians, who abhor Omar, compare every lengthy, ungainly, longsome thing with him; they will say, "This road never ends, like the entrails of Omar." We know little about Ali's appearance except that he was very short and stout, broad and full-bellied with a tawny complexion and exceedingly hairy, his long beard, white as cotton, filling all the space between his shoulders. He was a "pocket. Hercules," and incredible tales, like that about the gates of Khaybar, are told of his strength. Lastly, he was the only Caliph who bequeathed anything to literature: his "Cantiloquium" is famous and he has left more than one mystical and prophetic work. See Ockley for his "Sentences" and D'Herbelot s. D. "Ali" and "Gebr." Ali is a noble figure in Moslem history.
[FN#279] The emancipation from the consequences of his sins; or it may mean a holy death.
[FN#280] Battle fought near Al-Medinah A.D. 625. The word is derived from "shad" (one). I have described the site in my Pilgrimage, (vol. ii. 227).
[FN#281] "Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of Mohammed's wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of the Koran. From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites who reigned in Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the Maghrib (Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.
[FN#282] i.e. humbly without the usual strut or swim: it corresponds with the biblical walking or going softly. (I Kings xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15, etc.)
[FN#283] A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.
[FN#284] i.e. to prepare himself by good works, especially alms-giving, for the next world.
[FN#285] A theologian of the eighth century.