Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/226

 644] voice,—"take heed that, speaking thus, thou makest not a way against thyself, whereof thou shalt repent hereafter." And so ʿAlī passed out with the words of Jacob on his lips; "Surely patience becometh me. The Lord is my helper against that which ye devise." Shortly after, Ṭalḥa returned to Medīna. ʿOthmān acquainted him with what had happened, and as his vote would have ruled the majority, declared that if he dissented, he was prepared even then to resign the Caliphate. But on learning that all the people had agreed, Ṭalḥa also swore allegiance.

The choice thus made by ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān sowed the seeds of sad disaster. It led to dissensions which for years bathed the Muslim world in blood, threatened the existence of the Faith, and to this day divide believers in hopeless and embittered schism. But ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān could hardly have anticipated the wanton, weak, and wavering policy of ʿOthmān, which slowly but surely brought about these results. There is no reason to think that, in discharging his functions as Umpire, he acted otherwise than loyally and, as he thought, for the best.

An embarrassing incident followed the accession of ʿOthmān. Some one told ʿObeidallah, son of the deceased Caliph, that Abu Luʾluʾa had been seen shortly before in private converse with Al-Hormuzān, the Persian prince, and with a Christian slave belonging to Saʿd; and that, when surprised, the three separated, dropping a poniard such as that with which the assassin had wounded ʿOmar. Rashly assuming a conspiracy, the infuriated ʿObeidallah rushed with drawn sword to avenge his father's death, and slew both the