and his followers dispersed, the king of the dominions of the Chosroes was compelled to take to flight, and coming to a mill he proffered his belt, his bracelets, and his ring for protection and food; but the churlish miller, ignorant of the rank and position of the suppliant before him, rejoined in tones of displeasure that "he earned four pieces of silver with his mill every day, and if he would give him so much money he would let it stand still upon his account, if not he would not." While they were debating the matter, a party of horse came up, and in a few moments the lifeless corpse of the murdered sovereign revealed to the awe stricken miller the rank of the suppliant, and the cause of his importunity. Thus in the year of our Lord 651 the kingdom of the Medes and Persians passed under the yoke of the Khalif of Arabia.

Matters were now prospering abroad, beyond the dreams of expectation, but a storm was in turn arising at home. Othman, though a man of piety and of good disposition, was not fitted for Government, and numerous acts of impolicy alienated the hearts of not a few. of his subjects. Murmurings were frequent, and accusations incessant. Lavish of treasure to his friends his enemies took occasion to tax him with improvidence; whereupon in a public assembly he told the people from the pulpit that "the money which was in the treasury was sacred and belonged to God, and that he would dispose of it to whomsoever he thought fit, in spite of them." Not content with this vehement language, he threatened and cursed whomsoever showed any dislike of what he had said. A hapless bystander on one occasion inconsiderately announced his sentiments; but he had reason to repent of his temerity, for he was at once beaten till he swooned. Such arrogant conduct on the part of Othman deeply incensed the Arabs, who, gathering themselves together, and raising their standard of rebellion, took up arms and encamped within a league of Madina. Alarmed at the disaffection of his subjects, the poor Khalif ascended the

pulpit in the Mosque, and solemnly before the whole congregation called God to witness that he was truly sorry for what was past, and that he heartily repented him of his misdeeds. But to no purpose. The outbreak gathered strength daily, till at length 200 men from Kufa, 150 from Bussora, and 1,000 from Egypt, leagued together to depose Othman. In this juncture. the leader of the Faithful contrived to enlist the sympathies of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, whose influence, coupled with the promise of redress, for a while allayed the storm of discontent, and the rebels returned every man to his own land. The treachery, however, of his own secretary brought ruin and destruction upon the successor of the Prophet. This unscrupulous intriguer, by name Marwan, contrived that as the Egyptians journeyed homewards, they should intercept a messenger bearing letters sealed with the signet of the Emperor of the Faithful at Madina, to the effect that an individual of note whom the Egyptians desired as their Prefect should be impaled and put to death. Such barefaced treachery and perfidiousness on the part of the Ruler of the Saracens now became the one theme of conversation throughout the length and breadth of the peninsula; none questioned the authenticity of the fatal document, which the crafty and insidious secretary had in good truth penned with his own hands. Feelings of revenge soon displaced the better dictates of the inflammable sons of the desert, and ere long a crowd besieged the door of the venerable Othman, clamoring for the blood of the tyrant, whose cruelty, in good truth, existed but in their own heated imaginations. In vain he offered every satisfaction, avowing that he never intended them any injury; in vain did Ali send his two sons, Hasan and Husain to protect the aged Khalif from violence. Forcing open the door the infuriated malcontents found Othman with the Quran in his lap; falling upon him, one wounded him in the throat, while a second stabbed him with a sword. The hapless Patriarch then fell to the

ground, whereupon one of the murderers sat upon his bosom, and with savage vindictiveness gashed the defenceless successor of the Prophet till death released the quivering frame from its pains and sufferings. Thus died (July 10th, A.D. 655) the aged Othman ; bowed down with the weight of more than eighty years, his feeble limbs and tottering steps might have pleaded for mercy; but the assassins were implacable, and for three days the murdered corpse lay unheeded and unburied, festering in the heat of an Eastern sun; in the end necessity compelled what decency failed to secure, and the blood-stained body was cast into a hole, unwashed, unhonoured, and unsung. Strange destiny! that the proud ruler, whose will was law, he at whose command the mighty Empire of Rome shook to its base, while the Monarchy of Iran lay humbled in the dust, should have been denied the sacred rites which accompany the burial of the meanest, the vilest of God's creatures on earth below. Well may the pious historian of the Saracen Empire have moralyzed as to the "vanity of human greatness and the uncertainty of all earthly felicity."

CHAPTER IV.

THE TWELVE IMAMS, OR SPIRITUAL HEADS OF ISLAM.

I.-ALI.

THE death of Othman caused no little stir amongst the Saracens, who were divided in their wishes as to the election of a successor. In the confusion which ensued several persons came to Ali, the spouse of the Prophet's daughter Fatima, and desired of him that he would accept the Government. To these solicitations he rejoined that he did not wish for the honour himself, but would readily bow to the choice of any person upon whom they might agree. They still insisted that no one was so well qualified as himself, whether as regarded his personal accomplishments, or his near relationship to the Prophet of Arabia. But the "Hand of God" (as Arabian historians delight to call him) was inexorable, and ultimately it was agreed that the matter should be referred to the chief inhabitants of Madina ; these latter came to Ali with an appeal to his piety. "We adjure thee by God!" such was the forcible language of the religious enthusiasts of Islam. “Dost thou not consider in what condition we are? Dost thou not consider the religion? Dost thou not consider the distraction of the people? Dost thou not fear God?" Moved with these expostulations, and it may well be supposed secretly overjoyed at the prospect before him, Ali consented to comply with the wishes of his fellow countrymen; but aware that his enemies. were neither few in number nor inconsiderable in influence, he prudently insisted that the allegiance

of his subjects should be publicly tendered in the Mosque, rather than in private at his own house. Accordingly, clad in a thin cotton gown, tied about him with a girdle, having a coarse turban upon his head, his slippers in one hand, and a bow in the other instead of a staff, the son-in-law of Muhammad repaired to the sacred edifice, with the view of receiving the homage of the citizens, who had elected him to the dignity of Khalif. This occurred in A.D. 655.

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As soon as Ali was publicly acknowledged successor to the throne, he inconsiderately resolved to take away the governments and lieutenancies from all those persons who had been nominated by Othman, his predecessor. In vain did faithful friends remonstrate against the needless folly and perilous danger of raising up a host of enemies, ere he was well secure at his capital-in vain did they.point out that it behoved him not only to be a man of courage-this could never be questioned-but a man of conduct." Ali was deaf to all representations, and the fiat went forth; murmurs of discontent followed the rash resolve, and a body of malcontents was speedily formed; these at the instigation of two men of influence by name Talha and Zobair, inflamed by the malignant counsels of Ayisha, the favourite wife of the Prophet, but the bitterest and most implacable enemy of his daughter's husbandbetook themselves into Syria, whither they carried Othman's blood-stained shirt-this latter they sometimes spread upon the pulpit, and at others raised it on high in the face of the army. While, more effectually to inflame the feelings of the people, his wife's fingers, which were cut off at the time when the venerable Khalif was murdered, were pinned upon the shirt. The people of Syria, aroused at the piteous sight, vowed vengeance against a tyrant whom they supposed to have planned the murder of their sovereign, and whom they knew to have decreed the recall of their Governor. This last-mentioned personage, the wellknown Muawiya, so famous in the annals of after years,

H