Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/242

651–5] Jew! What have I to do with thee?" cried Abu Dharr, smiting Kaʿb violently on the stomach. Argument being thus of no further use, ʿOthmān banished the preacher to Ar-Rabadha in the desert, where two years after he died in penury. Finding the end approach, the hermit desired his daughter to slay a kid, and have it ready for a party of travellers who, he said, would shortly pass that way to Mecca; then, making her turn his face toward the Kaʿba, he quietly breathed his last. Soon after, the expected party came up, and amongst them Ibn Masʿūd from Al-Kūfa, who, weeping over the departed saint, bewailed his fate, and buried him on the spot, which became one of holy memory. The death of Ibn Masʿūd himself, a few days after, added to the pathos of the incident. The plaintive tale was soon in everyone's mouth; and the banishment of the famous preacher of righteousness was made much of by the enemies of the Caliph. The necessity for it was forgotten, but the obloquy remained.

When himself minded to assume the office of censor and rebuke the ungodliness of the day, the unfortunate Caliph fared no better. The laxity of Syria had reached even! to the sacred precincts of the Ḥijāz; and ʿOthmān, on attempting to check the games and other practices held to be inconsistent with the profession of Islām, incurred resentment, especially from the gay youth whose amusements he thwarted. Gambling and wagering, indeed, were put down with the approval of the stricter classes of society; but there