Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/269



, before crossing arms with Muʿāwiya, heavy work was in store for ʿAlī.

Returning from Mecca, ʿĀisha was met on her way to Medīna by the tidings of ʿOthmān's death and ʿAlī's accession to the Caliphate. "Carry me back," cried the incensed and impetuous lady; "carry me back to Mecca. They have murdered the Caliph. I will avenge his blood."

In the early period of ʿOthmān's troubles, ʿĀisha, like others, had contributed her share towards fomenting public discontent. But she was no party to the cruel attack of the conspirators, and had, in fact, sought to detach her brother from them by inviting him to accompany her to Mecca. Vain and factious, she had never forgiven the unhandsome conduct of ʿAlī on the occasion when her virtue had been doubted by the Prophet; and now she would gladly have seen Az-Zubeir succeed instead. In place, therefore, of continuing her journey home, she turned and went straightway back again to Mecca. There the disaffected gathered round her, while from her veiled retreat she plotted the revenge of ʿOthmān's blood, and with shrill voice harangued her audience on the enormous crime that had desecrated the Prophet’s home and resting-place.

Thus when Az-Zubeir and Ṭalḥa reached Mecca, they found sedition already well advanced. The numerous adherents of the Umeiyad house, who had fled thither on the Caliph’s death, or still were resident at Mecca, and

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