[322] This verse has already been quoted, [page 6].
[323] Allusion is here made to the four immediate successors of Mohammed; these were Abubeker, Omár, Osman, and Alí.
The first who took the title of khalif, that is “lieutenant of the Prophet,” was Abdallah, better known by the name of ابو بِکْر, Abúbeker, “Father of the Virgin,” so called because Aíshá, his daughter, was the only one of Mohammed’s wives who had not been before married to another man. He was also distinguished by the title of صديق sadik, or “the faithful witness,” given to him because he, the first Muselman after Mohammed’s preaching, attested the miracle of the Prophet’s ascension to heaven. It was he who collected the verses of the Koran, which were written upon separate leaves, into one volume, called Almoshaf, “the book by excellence,” the original text of which was deposited in the hands of Hafsat, daughter of Omar and widow of Mohammed. After a reign of two years and three months, he died in the year 13 of the Hejira, 634 A. D., not without having named his successor.
This was Omar Ben al-Khetab, known under the title of فاروق, fárúk´, “the separator,” so called by Mohammed, because he had separated the head from the body of a Muselman who, not satisfied with the decision which the Prophet had given in a law-suit, came to submit the case to Omar’s revision. Under Abubeker’s khalifat, Omar acted as chief of justice, or chancellor. As khalif he was the first who took the title of امير ألمومنين, Emir al-Mu´mením, “prince or commander of the faithful,” which title devolved to all his successors. He conquered Syria, Chaldæa, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt, and built the town of Bassora at the mouth of the Tigris, in order to prevent the Persians from taking the route to India by the gulph of Persia. After a reign of ten years he was killed by the hand of a Persian slave, who, having complained of his master’s cruelty to him, did not receive the expected redress. Omar, a judge cruel but just, would not fix the right of succession upon his son, but wishing to keep the khalifat elective, named six persons, called اهل الشوري, ahel al-shurah, “people of council,” who should choose a khalif among themselves.
Among these were Osman and Ali. After a hard contest between these two competitors, the former, supported by his four colleagues, was proclaimed khalif at the end of the year 23, or the beginning of 24 of the Hejira, 643 or 644 A. D. Osman Ben Affan was called by his partisans ذو النورين, zo ul naráin, “the possessor of two lights,” because he had married Rakíah and Omm al Kachúm, both daughters of Mohammed, whose prophecy was supposed to be the source of light diffused over his whole posterity. Osman published the Koran such as it was in the original text, deposited (as was before said) in the hands of Hafsat, one of Mohammed’s widows, and he caused all copies, differing from this one, to be suppressed. The domination of the Mohammedans was established and extended, to the east, in Khorassen and in Upper Asia; to the west, over the whole northern coast of Africa and even a part of Spain, during this khalif’s reign, which, after eleven years, terminated by his violent death in an insurrection which took place against him in Egypt.
The Egyptians offered the government to Ali. As before mentioned, he was one of the six persons named by Omar as fit for the khalifat, which Ali claimed as his right, being the cousin-german and son-in-law (husband of Fatima, the eldest daughter) of Mohammed, and thus the head of the family of the Hashemites, who were distinguished by the name of “the house of the Prophet.” After Osman’s death, Ali was by his party proclaimed the head of the Muselmans. His title was اسد الله الغالب, assad allah al-ghaleb, “the lion of God, the victorious.” Possessed of great learning, he composed several celebrated works in prose and in verse, although he had to sustain a continual struggle with the adverse party. He was assassinated in Kufa, in the year 40 of the Hejira, 660 A. D. After him, his sons Hassan and Hossain (see note 3, pp. 47-48) fell victims to Moavia, a relation of Osman, and the mortal enemy of the whole race of Ali. The contest between these two parties was, after the death of their chiefs, carried on by their numerous adherents, and, connected as it is with some difference in their religious opinions and rites, continues to our days. Ali is acknowledged the head of the شيعة, Shiâts, which word means in general “a troop, a party,” but is particularly applied to those who believe that the Imamat, or the supreme dignity over the Muselmans, belongs by right to Alí and his descendants, who call themselves Aladiliats, or “the party of the just.” Opposed to them are the Sonnites, so called from the Arabic word sonnat, which signifies “precept, rule,” or the orthodox faith of Muselmans, comprehending the traditional laws relative to whatever has not been written by the great legislator (see Herbelot, sub voc.).—A. T.
[324] Zu-l-Ulum, “master of sciences,” was a title of Kaiván.
[325] Nushirvan, called by the Arabs Kesra, by the Persians Khosru, is reckoned by some authors the 19th (by others the 20th) Persian king of the Sassáníán dynasty, which, according to different opinions, was composed of 31, 30, or 29 princes, and lasted 527, 500, or 431 years. Nushirvan reigned from 531 to 579 after J. C. He was called “the just:” from the outside of his palace to his room was drawn a chain, by the motion of which he could have notice of any complainant who wanted redress. He was victorious in the east and west of Asia; he destroyed the prophet Mazdak (of whom see hereafter, section XV); he brought from India to Persia the fables of Pilpay, called Anvarí Sohíli, “the Canopian lights,” and a game similar to chess. During his reign Mohammed was born. Nushirvan’s favorite minister, Buzerg-Mihr, called also Buzer-Jmihr, was famous for virtue and wisdom; about both these personages a great number of marvellous and fabulous accounts forms the matter of favorite poems in the East.—A. T.
[326] Ardeshir Babegan was the first king, and founder of the IVth dynasty of Persian kings, called the Sasssáníáns, or the Khosroes. His father was Sassan, a descendant of another Sassan, the son of Bahman Isfendiar, the 6th king of the IId Persian dynasty, called the Kayánian. The latter Sassan was reduced to a low station, having become the shepherd of Babek, a wealthy man, whose daughter he married;—he had by her a son named Ardeshir, who took the name of his maternal grandfather (which is to be noted as an Indian custom): hence he was called Babegan. He is identified with the Artaxerxes of the Greeks, a contemporary of the Roman emperor Commodus (A. D. 180-193). The epoch of his reign is one of the most uncertain points of Persian history. It may be fixed from the year 200 to 240 of the Christian era.—A. T.
[327] The 5th Sassan, above mentioned, is said to be the last of fifteen Persian prophets, the first of whom was Mahábad, and the 13th Zoroaster. The fifth Sassan lived in the time of Khosru Parviz, who reigned, the 21st or 22nd king of the Sassáníáns, from 591 to 628 of the Christian era. We read in the Persian preface of the Desatir, that five years after the death of Khosru Parviz (that is in the year 634), the Persian empire being shaken by the conquests of the Arabs, the fifth Sassan translated the Desatir. The English preface of the same work states, that “he died only nine years before the destruction of the ancient Persian monarchy,” or nine years before 652, which would be in the year 643 of our era. It appears from the Desatir (English transl. p. 192), that the fifth Sassan, not less than his father, the fourth Sassan, was attached to the king Parviz, of whom he says (ibid. p. 202): “From the wickedness of mankind did it arise that such an angel-tempered king was taken from the Hirtasis (Persia).”—A. T.