Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/341

 312 not only the fate of the Caliphate, but of Moḥammadan kingdoms long after the Caliphate had waned and disappeared. Who that in the East has seen the wild and passionate grief with which, at each recurring anniversary, the Muslims of every land spend the live-long night, beating their breasts and vociferating unweariedly the frantic cry—''Ḥasan Ḥosein! Ḥasan Ḥosein!''—in wailing cadence, can fail to recognise the fatal weapon, sharp and double-edged, which the Umeiyad dynasty had thus allowed to fall into the hands of bitter enemies? ʿAlī, the little son of Al-Ḥosein, introduces a new thread into the tangle of claimants for the headship of Islām. His mother was a daughter (it is said) of Yezdejird, the last of the Sāsānids. He had, therefore, the support of the Persians, and is acknowledged by all the Shīʿa as the fourth Imām, under the title Zain al-ʿĀbidin ("Glory of the Devout").