Note 438 — Chapter XXIX · ELECTION OF OTHMAN. DZUL HIJJ, A.H. XXIII.—MOHARRAM, A.H. XXIX. NOVEMBER, A.D. 644.
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His attitude in discharging the invidious task was that of a loyal and unselfish patriot. He disclaimed the Caliphate for himself. Night and day engaged unceasingly in canvassing the sentiments of the leading chiefs, he did his best to compose the antagonistic claims of the selfish Electors. What was the immediate cause of his action when in the Mosque he nominated Othmân, it is not possible to say. Abbasside traditions assume that the cause was the conscientious scruples of Aly in hesitating to swear that he would follow strictly the precedents of Abu Bekr and of Omar in his conduct of the Caliphate. The Corân and the precedent of Mahomet he would implicitly obey, but the precedent of the first Caliphs only so far as he agreed in the same. In the tenor of the traditions relating how Abd al Rahmân first questioned Aly and then Othmân, and in their replies, I hardly find sufficient ground for this assumption; and it looks very much of a piece with the Abbasside fabrications of the day. One tradition ascribes the hesitancy of Aly to the cunning counsel of Amru, who, beforehand, advised him not to give a direct reply, lest Abd al Rahmân should think him too grasping; while he advised Othmân to answer unconditionally—as if Aly were so simple as to have been caught by such transparent guile.