"she relieved my wants, when I was poor and CHAP. persecuted by the world."

66

L.

dren.

In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the and chilfounder of a religion and empire might aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous posterity and a lineal succession. The hopes of Mahomet were fatally disappointed. The virgin Ayesha, and his ten widows of mature age and approved fertility, were barren in his potent embraces. The four sons of Cadijah died in their infancy. Mary, his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over his grave; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his enemies, and checked the adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assurance that an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by the death of the infant. Cadijah had likewise given him four daughters who were married to the most faithful of his disciples the three eldest died before their father; but Fatima, who possessed his confidence and love, became the wife of her cousin Ali, and the mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit and misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me to anticipate, in this place, the series of the Saracen caliphs, a title which describes the commanders of the faithful as the vicars and successors of the apostle of God."

d Abulfeda in Vit. Moham. p. 12, 13, 16, 17, cum notis Gagnier. This outline of the Arabian history is drawn from the Bibliotheque Orientale of d'Herbelot, (under the names of Aboubecre, Omar, Othman, Ali, &c.); from the Annals of Abulfeda, Abulpharagius, and Elmaciu, (under the proper years of the Hegira), and especially from Ockley's His

tory

СНАР.

L.

of Ali.

The birth, the alliance, the character of Ali, which exalted him above the rest of his counCharacter trymen, might justify his claim to the vacant throne of Arabia. The son of Abu Taleb was, in his own right, the chief of the family of Hashem, and the hereditary prince or guardian of the city and temple of Mecca. The light of prophecy was extinct; but the husband of Fatima might expect the inheritance and blessing of her father: the Arabs had sometimes been patient of a female reign; and the two grandsons of the prophet had often been fondled in his lap, and shewn in his pulpit, as the hope of his age, and the chief of the youth of paradise. The first of the true believers might aspire to march before them in this world and in the next; and if some were of a graver and more rigid cast, the zeal and virtue of. Ali were never outstripped by any recent proselyte. He united the qualifications of a poet, a soldier, and a saint his wisdom still breathes in a collection of moral and religious sayings; and every antagonist, in the combats of the tongue or of the sword, was subdued by his eloquence and valour. From the first hour of his mission to the

tory of the Saracens, (vol. i, p. 1-10, 115-122, 229, 249, 363-372, 378391, and almost the whole of the second volume). Yet we should weigh with caution the traditions of the hostile sects; a stream which becomes still more muddy as it flows farther from the source. Sir John Chardin has too faithfully copied the fables and errors of the modern Persians, (Voyages tom ii, p. 235-250, &c.).

f Ockley (at the end of his second volume) has given an English version of 169 sentences, which he ascribes with some hesitation, to Ali, the son of Abu Taleb. His preface is coloured by the enthusiasın of a translator; yet these sentences delineate a characteristic, though dark, picture of Human life.

L.

last rites of his funeral, the apostle was never CHAP. forsaken by a generous friend, whom he delighted to name his brother, his vicegerent, and the faithful Aaron of a second Moses. The son of Abu Taleb was afterwards reproached for neglecting to secure his interest by a solemn declaration of his right, which would have silenced all competition, and sealed his succession by the decrees of heaven. But the unsuspecting hero confided in himself; the jealousy of empire, and perhaps the fear of opposition, might suspend the resolutions of Mahomet; and the bed of sickness was besieged by the artful Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker, and the enemy of Ali.

A. D. 632,

The silence and death of the prophet restorReign of ed the liberty of the people; and his compa- Abubeker, nions conveyed an assembly to deliberate on June 7; the choice of his successor. The hereditary claim and lofty spirit of Ali, were offensive to an aristocracy of elders, desirous of bestowing and resuming the sceptre by a free and frequent election: the Koreish could never be reconciled to the proud pre-eminence of the line of Hashem; the ancient discord of the tribes was rekindled; the fugitives of Mecca and the auxiliaries of Medina asserted their respective merits, and the rash proposal of choosing two independent caliphs would have crushed in their infancy the religion and empire of the Saracens. The tumult was appeased by the disinterested resolution of Omar, who, suddenly renouncing his pretensions, stretched forth his hand, and declared himself the first subject

CHAP. of the mild and venerable Abubeker.

ما

The urgency of the moment, and the acquiescence of the people, might excuse the illegal and precipitate measure; but Omar himself confessed from the pulpit, that if any Mussulman should hereafter presume to anticipate the suffrage of his brethren, both the elector and the elected would be worthy of death. After the simple inauguration of Abubeker, he was obeyed in Medina, Mecca, and the provinces of Arabia; the Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity; and their chief, in his own house, maintained, above six months, a sullen and independent reserve; without listening to the threats of Omar, who attempted to consume with fire the habitation of the daughter of the apostle. The death of Fatima, and the decline of his party, subdued the indignant spirit of Ali: he condescended to salute the commander of the faithful, accepted his excuse of the necessity of preventing their common enemies, and wisely rejected his courteous offer of abdicating the government of the Arabians. After a reign of two years, the aged caliph was summoned by the angel of death. In his testament, with the tacit approbation of the companious, he bequeathed the sceptre to the firin and intrepid virtue of Omar. "I have no occasion," said the modest candidate, for the

66

* Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i, p. 5, 6), from að Arabian MS. represents Ayesha as adverse to the substitution of her father in the place of the apostle. This fact, so improbable in itself, is unnoticed by Abulfeda, Al Jannabi, and Al Bochari, the last of whom quotes the tradition of Ayesha herself, (Vit. Mohammed. p. 136; Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii, p. 236).

L

place." "But the place has occasion for you," CHAP. replied Abubeker: who expired with a fervent prayer that the God of Mahomet would ratify his choice, and direct the Mussulmans in the way of concord and obedience. The prayer of Omar, was not ineffectual, since Ali himself, in a life . D. 634, July 24; of privacy and prayer, professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of his rival; who comforted him for the loss of empire, by the most flattering marks of confidence and esteem. In the twelfth year of his reign, Omar received a mortal wound from the hand of an assassin; he rejected with equal impartiality the names of his son and of Ali, refused to load his conscience with the sins of his successor, and devolved on six of the most respectable companions, the arduous task of electing a commander of the faithful. On this occasion, Ali was again blamed by his friends" for submitting his right to the judgment of men, for recognising their jurisdiction by accepting a place among the six electors. He might have obtained their suffrage, had he deigned to promise a strict and servile conformity, not only to the Koran and tradition, but likewise to the determinations of two seniors. With these li- of Othmitations, Othman, the secretary of Mahomet, A. D. 644,

" Particularly by his friend and cousin Abdallah, the son of Abbas, who died A. D. 687, with the title of grand doctor of the Moslems. In Abulfeda he recapitulated the important occasions in which Ali had neglected his salutary advice, (p. 76, vers. Reiske); and concludes, (p. 85), O princeps fidelium, absque controversia tu quidem vere fortis, es, at inops boni consilii, et rerum gerendarum parum calleus.

i I suspect that the two seniors (Abulpharagius, p. 115; Ockley, tom. i, p. 371) may signify not two actual counsellors, but his two predecessors, Abubeker and Omar.

man,

Nov, 6.