Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/283

 254 the sons of Al-ʿAbbās, everywhere—in Medīna, Mecca, the Yemen, and now again at Al-Baṣra, while he himself will rule at Al-Kūfa. Of what avail that we made away with ʿOthmān, and have shed our own blood, fighting against Az-Zubeir and Ṭalḥa?" So spoke the arch-conspirator Al-Ashtar among his friends at Al-Baṣra; and ʿAlī, fearful of such teaching, took him in his train to Al-Kūfa, where, among the excitable populace, there was even greater danger. Another uneasy symptom was that the servile dregs and baser sort of Al-Baṣra, breaking loose from all control, went forth in a body and took possession of Sijistān on the Persian frontier. They killed the leader sent by ʿAlī to suppress the rising, and were not put down till ʿAbdallah ibn al-ʿAbbās himself attacked them with a force from Al-Baṣra.

It was in the West, however, that the sky loured most. It was but a shorn and truncated Caliphate which ʿAlī enjoyed, so long as his authority was scorned in Syria. A mortal combat with Muʿāwiya loomed in that direction. But, before resuming the Syrian thread, we must first turn to Egypt.

That heavy charge had been committed to Ḳeis, the principal man of the Anṣār and son of Saʿd ibn ʿObāda, the citizen who was nearly elected Caliph at the Prophet's death. Of approved ability and judgment, and a loyal follower of ʿAlī, he declined to take soldiers with him to Egypt, saying that the Caliph had more need of them than he, and preferring instead the support of seven "Companions," who accompanied him. On his approach, the rebel governor fled to Syria, where he lost his life. Ḳeis was well received by the Egyptians, who swore allegiance to him on behalf of ʿAlī. But a strong faction sheltered in a neighbouring district, under the leadership of Yezīd ibn al-Ḥārith of the tribe of Kināna, loudly demanded satisfaction for the death of ʿOthmān. Ḳeis wisely left these alone for the present, waiving even the demand for tithe. In other respects he held Egypt with firm grasp.

In prospect of an early attack by ʿAlī, Muʿāwiya became uneasy at the Egyptian border being commanded by so