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 the year  600. His father, Abū Talib, was an uncle of the prophet, and Ali himself was adopted by Mahomet and educated under his care. As a mere boy he distinguished himself by being one of the first to declare his adhesion to the cause of Mahomet, who some years afterwards gave him his daughter Fatima in marriage. Ali proved himself to be a brave and faithful soldier, and when Mahomet died without male issue, a few emigrants thought him to have the best claim to succeed him. Abu Bekr, Omar and Othman, however, occupied this position before him, and it was not until 656, after the murder of Othman, that he assumed the title of caliph. The fact that he took no steps to prevent this murder is, perhaps, the only real blot upon his character. Almost the first act of his reign was the suppression of a rebellion under Talha and Zobair, who were instigated by Ayesha, Mahomet’s widow, a bitter enemy of Ali, and one of the chief hindrances to his advancement to the caliphate. The rebel army was defeated at the “Battle of the Camel,” near Bassorah (Basra), the two generals being killed, and Ayesha taken prisoner. Ali soon afterwards made Kufa his capital. His next care was to get rid of the opposition of Moawiya, who had established himself in Syria at the head of a numerous army. A prolonged battle took place in July 657 in the plain of Siffin (Suffein), near the Euphrates; the fighting was at first, it is said, in favour of Ali, when suddenly a number of the enemy, fixing copies of the Koran to the points of their spears, exclaimed that “the matter ought to be settled by reference to this book, which forbids Moslems to shed each other’s blood.” The superstitious soldiers of Ali refused to fight any longer, and demanded that the issue be referred to arbitration (see further, section B. 1). Abu Musa was appointed umpire on the part of Ali, and ʽAmr-ibn-el-Ass, a veteran diplomatist, on the part of Moawiya. It is said that ʽAmr persuaded Abu Musa that it would be for the advantage of Islam that neither candidate should reign, and asked him to give his decision first. Abu Musa having proclaimed that he deposed both Ali and Moawiya, ʽAmr declared that he also deposed Ali, and announced further that he invested Moawiya with the caliphate. This treacherous decision (but see, ib.) greatly injured the cause of Ali, which was still further weakened by the loss of Egypt. After much indecisive fighting, Ali found his position so unsatisfactory that according to some historians he made an agreement with Moawiya by which each retained his own dominions unmolested. It chanced, however—according to a legend, the details of which are quite uncertain—that three of the fanatic sect of the Kharijites had made an agreement to assassinate Ali, Moawiya and ʽAmr, as the authors of disastrous feuds among the faithful. The only victim of this plot was Ali, who died at Kufa in 661, of the wound inflicted by a poisoned weapon. A splendid mosque called Meshed Ali was afterwards erected near the city, but the place of his burial is unknown. He had eight wives after Fatima’s death, and in all, it is said, thirty-three children, one of whom, Hassan, a son of Fatima, succeeded him in the caliphate. His descendants by Fatima are known as the (q.v.; see also, Mahommedan period). The question of Ali’s right to succeed to the caliphate is an article of faith which divided the Mahommedan world into two great sects, the Sunnites and the Shiites, the former denying, and the latter affirming, his right. The Turks, consequently, hold his memory in abhorrence; whereas the Persians, who are generally Shi‛as, venerate him as second only to the prophet, call him the “Lion of God” (Sher-i-Khudā), and celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom. Ali is described as a bold, noble and generous man, “the last and worthiest of the primitive Moslems, who imbibed his religious enthusiasm from companionship with the prophet himself, and who followed to the last the simplicity of his example.” It is maintained, on the other hand, that his motives were throughout those of ambition rather than piety, and that, apart from the tragedy of his death, he would have been an insignificant figure in history. (See further .)

ALI, known as (1766–1818), the assumed name of, a Spanish traveller, born in 1766. After receiving a liberal education he devoted particular attention to the Arabic language, and made a special study of the manners and customs of the East. Pretending to be a descendant of the Abbasids, Badia in 1803 set out on his travels. Under the name of Ali Bey el Abbassi, and in Mussulman costume, he visited Morocco, Tripoli, Egypt, Arabia and Syria, and was received as a person of high rank wherever he appeared. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca, at that time in the possession of the Wahabites. On his return to Spain in 1807 he declared himself a Bonapartist, and was made intendant first of Segovia and afterwards of Cordova. When the French were driven from Spain, Badia was compelled to take refuge in France, and there in 1814, published an account of his travels under the title of Voyage d’ Ali Bey en Asie et en Afrique, &c. A few years later he set out again for Syria, under the assumed name of Ali Othman, and, it is said, accredited as a political agent by the French government. He reached Aleppo, and there died on the 30th of August 1818, not without suspicion of having been poisoned.

ALI, known as (1741–1822), Turkish pasha of Iannina, surnamed Arslan, “the Lion,” was born at Tepeleni, a village in Albania at the foot of the Klissura mountains. He was one of the Toske tribe, and his ancestors had for some time held the hereditary office of bey of Tepeleni. His father, a man of mild and peaceful disposition, was killed when Ali was fourteen years old by neighbouring chiefs who seized his territories. His mother Khamko, a woman of extraordinary character, thereupon herself formed and led a brigand band, and studied to inspire the boy with her own fierce and indomitable temper, with a view to revenge and the recovery of the lost property. In this wild school Ali proved an apt pupil. A hundred tales, for the most part probably mythical, are told of his powers and cunning during the years he spent among the mountains as a brigand leader. At last, by a picturesque stratagem, he gained possession of Tepeleni and took vengeance on his enemies. To secure himself from rivals in his own family, he is said to have murdered his brother and imprisoned his mother on a charge of attempting to poison him. With a view to establishing his authority he now made overtures to the Porte and was commissioned to chastise the rebellious pasha of Scutari, whom he defeated and killed. He also, on pretext of his disloyalty, put to death Selim, pasha of Delvinon. Ali was now confirmed in the possession of all his father’s territory and was also appointed lieutenant to the derwend-pasha of Rumelia, whose duty it was to suppress brigandage and highway robbery. This gave him an opportunity for amassing wealth by sharing the booty of the robbers in return for leaving them alone. The disgrace that fell in consequence on his superior, Ali escaped by the use of lavish bribes at Constantinople. In 1787 he took part in the war with Russia, and was rewarded by being made pasha of Trikala in Thessaly and derwend-pasha of Rumelia. It now suited his policy to suppress the brigands, which he did by enlisting most of them under his own banner. His power was now already considerable; and in 1788 he added to it by securing his nomination to the pashalik of Iannina by a characteristic trick.

The illiterate brigand, whose boyish ambition had not looked beyond the recovery of his father’s beylick, was now established as one of the most powerful viziers under the Ottoman government. Success only stimulated his insatiable ambition. He earned the confidence of the Porte by the cruel discipline he maintained in his own sanjak, and the regular flow of tribute and bribes which he directed to Constantinople; while he bent all his energies to extending his territories at the expense of his neighbours. The methods he adopted would have done credit to