Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/403

 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 381 infancy. Mary, his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the pro- phet 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 AH 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.^^^ The birth, the alliance, the character of Ali, which exalted ^^<:t«r him above the rest of his countrymen, 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 hered- itary 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 shown 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. 1^9 This outline of the Arabian history is drawn from the Bibhotheque Orientale ofd'Herbelot (under the names oi Aboubecre, Omar, Othman, Ali, &c.), from the Annals of Abulfeda, Abulpharagius, and Elmacin (under the proper years of the Hegira), and especially from Ockley's History of the Saracens (vol. i. p. i-io, 115-122, 229, 249, 363-372, 378-391, 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.). 180 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 enthusiasm of a translator ; yet these sen- tences delineate a characteristic, though dark, picture of human life,