Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/303

274 arms marching against the graceless Syrians, they would not hesitate again to join his standard. So ʿAlī mounted the pulpit and harangued the men of Al-Kūfa. He denounced the umpires as having cast the Book of the Lord, equally with the Prophet's precedent, behind their backs. Both were apostates, rejected of the Lord, of the Prophet also, and of all good men;—"Wherefore," said he, "we must fight our battle over again at the point where, on the eve of victory, we were forced to leave it off. Prepare to march for Syria, and be ready in your camp without the city by the second day of the coming week." Then he indited a despatch to the fanatics at Nahrawān. It was couched in similar terms, and ended thus: "Now, therefore, return forthwith and join the army. I am marching against the common enemy, yours and ours. We have come back to the time when at Ṣiffīn ye fought by my side; now follow me again." In reply they sent an insulting message:—"If ʿAlī would acknowledge his apostasy and repent of it, then they would see whether anything could be arranged between them; otherwise they cast him off as an ungodly heretic." The stiff-necked Theocrats were thereupon, for the present, left to their own devices, and the business of raising levies for Syria proceeded with. But little enthusiasm was anywhere displayed. Of 60,000 fighting men on the stipendiary roll at Al-Basra, 3000 were with difficulty got together. At Al-Kūfa, after vain appeal, a conscription was ordered through the heads of clans; and thus at length an army of 65,000 was brought into the field.

With this imposing force, ʿAlī had already commenced his march on Syria, when tidings reached him that the fanatic host was committing outrage throughout the country in the very outskirts of the camp. A messenger sent to make inquiry met the common fate. Tidings becoming more and more alarming, the army demanded to be led against them; "for how," said they, "can we leave such outlaws at large behind us, with homes exposed to their unlicensed cruelty?" ʿAlī, himself convinced of this,