Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/273

 244 An envoy accredited by either side was accordingly deputed to Medīna. He arrived there while ʿAlī was absent in his camp, and forthwith proclaimed his mission before the assembled City. The people at first were silent. At last, one declared that both Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir had done homage under compulsion, whereupon a great tumult arose; and the envoy, having seen and heard enough to prove diversity of view, at once took leave.

When tidings of these things reached ʿAlī, who was with his army in Nejd, he addressed a letter to Ibn Ḥoneif, his governor. "There was no compulsion," he wrote, "on either Ṭalḥa or Az-Zubeir; neither of these my adversaries was constrained otherwise than by the will of the majority. By the Lord! if their object be to make me abdicate, they are without excuse; if it be any other thing, I am ready to consider it." So when the envoy returned from Medīna, and when upon his report the insurgents called on Ibn Ḥoneif to evacuate the City according to agreement, he produced the Caliph's letter and refused. But the rebels had already obtained a footing within the City. Arming themselves, they repaired to the Mosque for evening service, and, the night being dark and stormy, were not perceived until they had overpowered the bodyguard, entered the adjoining palace, and made Ibn Ḥoneif a prisoner. On the following day, a severe conflict raged throughout the City, which ended in the discomfiture, of ʿAlī's party, and so the government passed into the hands of Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir. True to their ostensible object, these now made proclamation that every citizen who had engaged in the attack on ʿOthmān should be brought forth and executed. The order was carried rigorously out, and great numbers were put to death. The life of Ibn Ḥoneif was spared. Set at liberty, his head and beard were shaven, and his eyelashes and moustaches clipped; and in this sorry plight the ousted governor made the best of his way back to ʿAlī.

The insurgents communicated tidings of their success to Syria. ʿĀisha also wrote letters to Al-Kūfa, Medīna, and the Yemen, dissuading the people from their allegiance to ʿAlī, and stirring them up to avenge the death of ʿOthmān.

Meanwhile the citizens of Al-Baṣra swore allegiance