Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/255

 226 Startled by intelligence that the insurgents were in full march on Medīna, ʿOthmān ascended the pulpit and admitted the real object of attack. "It is against myself," he said; "by and by they will look back with a longing eye on my reign, and wish that each day had been a year, because of the bloodshed, anarchy, and ungodliness that will flood the land." The rebels soon appeared, and pitched three separate camps, from Al-Kūfa, from Al-Baṣra, and from Egypt, in the neighbourhood of the City. The people put on their armour, a thing unheard of since the days of the Apostasy, and prepared for resistance. The insurgents, foiled thus far, sent deputies to the widows of Moḥammad and chief men of the City. "We come," they said, "to visit the Prophet's home and resting-place, and to ask that certain of the Governors be deposed. Give us leave to enter." But leave was not granted. Then they despatched each a deputation to their respective candidates. ʿAlī stormed at the messengers, and called them rebels accursed of the Prophet; and the others met with no better reception at the hands of Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir. Unable to gain the citizens, without whose consent their object was out of reach, the rebel leaders declared themselves satisfied with the Caliph's promise of reform, and so retired. They made as if each company were taking the road home, but with the concerted plan of returning shortly, when they might find the City less prepared. The citizens, relieved of the immediate danger, cast aside their armour, and for some days things went on as before, ʿOthmān leading the prayers. Suddenly, the three bands reappeared. A party headed by ʿAlī went forth to ask the reason. The strangers pointed to a document attested by the Caliph's seal; this, they said, had been found by the Egyptian company upon ʿOthmān's servant, whom they caught hastening on the road to Fusṭāṭ; and it contained orders for the insurgents to be imprisoned, tortured, or put to death. ʿAlī, suspecting collusion, asked how the discovery had become so promptly known to the other companies marching in different directions, as to bring them all back at once together? "Speak of it as ye will," they said, "here is the writing, and here the Caliph's seal." ʿAlī repaired to ʿOthmān, who denied knowledge of the document; but with the view of clearing up the matter, consented to