Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/313

 284 opposite faction resumed his functions. Thus bitterly was the Peninsula rent in two. The cruel death of his cousin's infant children preyed on ʿAlī more, perhaps, than all his other troubles; and he cursed Busr in the daily service with a new and bitter imprecation. The disconsolate mother poured forth her sorrow in plaintive verse, some touching couplets of which are still preserved.

Yet another grief was in store for ʿAlī. He had promoted his cousins, the sons of Al-ʿAbbās, to great dignity, giving the command of the Yemen to one, of Mecca to another, of Medīna to a third; while ʿAbdallah, the eldest, held the government of Al-Baṣra, the second city in the Empire. Complaints having reached the court of irregularities at Al-Baṣra, ʿAlī called upon his cousin to render an account. Scorning the demand, ʿAbdallah threw up the office, and, carrying his treasures with him, retired to Mecca. ʿAlī was much mortified at this unfriendly act; and still more by the desertion of his brother ʿAḳīl to Muʿāwiya.

These troubles, crowding rapidly one upon another, at last broke ʿAlī's spirit. He had no longer heart to carry on hostilities with Syria. If he might but secure the eastern provinces in peaceful subjection to himself, it was all he could hope for now. Accordingly, after a lengthened correspondence, an armistice was concluded between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiya, by which they agreed to lay aside their arms, respect the territory of each other, and maintain, in time to come, a friendly attitude. Muʿāwiya, however, assumed the title of Caliph at Jerusalem in July 660 (ii. 40 ); and it is said that ʿAlī gathered an army of 40,000 men, when the events narrated in the next chapter occurred.