Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/280

 656] in Syria. All that remained in the city swore fealty to ʿAlī. The only class dissatisfied was that of the slaves and rabble, who murmured at having no share in the treasure, nor any chance of plunder. These, gathering into marauding bands, occasioned much disquietude to the Caliph, and hastened his departure from the city, with the view of checking the mischief they were bent on.

ʿĀisha was treated by ʿAlī with the reverence due to one who bore the title of "the Prophet's Spouse in this life and also in the life to come." She was now five-and-forty years of age, but had lost little of the fire and vivacity of youth. After the battle, the Caliph visited her tent, and expressed his satisfaction at finding her unhurt; adding mildly, but half reproachfully:—"The Lord pardon thee for what hath passed, and have mercy upon thee." "And upon thee also!" was the pert and ready answer. The best house in Al-Baṣra was given up to her; and there she was waited on by her own adherents. Not long after, she left with a retinue of forty handmaids, attended by her brother. ʿAlī himself accompanied her a short distance on foot; and a large party went as far as the first stage to bid her farewell. Proceeding to Mecca, she performed the lesser Pilgrimage; and then retiring to Medīna, no more attempted to interfere with the affairs of State. Her nephew ʿAbdallah son of Az-Zubeir, retired with her. He became famous in the subsequent history of the Caliphate; but that was not till ʿĀisha had passed away. She spent the remainder of her days at Medīna. There crowds of pilgrims visiting the Prophet's grave (her own apartment) gazed wonderingly at the once beautiful and favourite wife of Mohammad; while she, garrulous in old age, became the fertile source of tradition and the narrator of incidents in the Prophet's life beginning with her earliest childhood. She died in the 58th year of the Hijra, aged sixty-six, having passed forty-seven years in widowhood.