Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/410

 388 THE DECLINE AND FALL grasp of Ali by the disobedience and enthusiasm of his troops. Their conscience was awed by the solemn appeal to the books of the Koran which Moawiyah exposed on the foremost lances ; and Ali was compelled to yield to a disgraceful truce and an insidious compromise. He retreated with sorrow and indignation to Cufa ; his party was discouraged ; the distant provinces of Persia/'"'^ of Yemen, and of Egyjjt were subdued or seduced by his crafty rival ; and the stroke of fanaticism which was aimed against the three chiefs of the nation was fatal only to the cousin of Mahomet. In the temple of Mecca, three Charegites or enthusiasts discoursed of the disorders of the church and state : they soon agreed that the deaths of Ali, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou, the viceroy of Egypt, would restore the peace and unity of religion. Each of the assassins chose his victim, poisoned his dagger, devoted his life, and secretly repaired to the scene of action. Their resolution was equally desperate ; but the first mistook the person of Amrou and stabbed the deputy who occupied his seat ; the prince of Damascus was dangerously hurt by the second ; the lawful caliph in the mosch of Cufa received a mortal MOund from the hand of the third. [Jan. 21, He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, and mercifully recommended to his children that they would dispatch the murderer by a single stroke. The sepulchre of Ali ^-'^ was con- cealed from the tyrants of the house of Ommiyah ; ^*'" but, in the fourth age of the Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a city, arose near the ruins of Cufa. ^'-'^ Many thousands of the Shiites repose in holy ground at the feet of the vicar of God ; and the desert is vivified by the numerous and annual visits of the Persians, who esteem their devotion not less meritorious than the pilgrimage of Mecca. Eeimof The persecutors of Mahomet usurped the inheritance of his A^D^uisror children ; and the champions of idolatry became the supreme I9«a [Not Persia.] 19' Abulfeda, a moderate Sonnite, relates the different opinions concerning the burial of Ali, but adopts the sepulchre of Cufa, hodie fania numeroque religiose fre- quentantium celebratum. This number is reckoned by Xiebuhr to amount annu- ally to 2000 of the dead, and 5000 of the living (toni. ii. p. 208, 209). 19- All the tyrants of Persia, from Adhad el Dowlat (A.u. 977, d'Herbelot, p. 58, 59, 95) to Nadir Shah (.•.D. 1743, Hist, de Nadir Shah, torn. ii. p. 155), have en- riched the tomb of Ali with the spoils of the people. The dome is copper, with a bright and massy gilding, which glitters to the sun at the distance of many a mile. i9»The city of Meshed Ali, five or six miles from the ruins of Cufa, and one hun- dred and twenty to the south of Bagdad, is of the size and form of the modern Jerusalem. Meshed Hosein, larger and more populous, is at the distance of thirty miles. A.D. 661] ai-GiiO